4TB Elements not recognised by XP

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Just bought a 4TB Elements drive and it only appears in Device Manager, nowhere else. In DM properties it shows device is working correctly.
Drive does not appear in Disk Management, My Computer or Windows Explorer.

I’ve had a 5TB Elements recognised and working fine for years so it’s not the capacity that’s the problem.

2

Hello fastdriver12,

Have you tried formatting the drive in NTFS using Disk Management?

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=1021#win

3

I would but the drive does not appear in Disk Management. It only shows up in Device Manager.

4

Maybe you should try contacting WD’s Technical Support about this.

To Contact WD for Technical Support
http://support.wdc.com/support/case.aspx?lang=en

5

Correct … it’s the Sector size that is the problem.

WD had been using 512B emulation technology 4K sectors for years in a transitional phase.

(which is how WD got around the MBR 2TB limit … you’ll find your 5TB is MBR, the 4TB will be GPT)

That transition period will be done through the use of 512B emulation technology, which will expose Advanced Format drives to the drive controller and operating system as having 512B sectors, when in reality they will have 4K sectors

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2888

All NEW WD hard drives use 4K sectors with GPT partitions with No 512B emulation anymore.

Windows XP 32-Bit is not compatible with 4K/GPT (only Windows XP 64-Bit, Windows 7 & 10 are compatible)

If you want to check the difference between you 5TB and 4TB to find out the ‘Sector Size’ do this …

On your PC click “Start” … type cmd … then type(or paste) this … fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:

c: is your hard drive letter eg. if your hdd is “E” then … fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo e:

This is a 512B sector hdd … (compatible with all versions of windows … including XP)

This is a 4096B or 4K sector hdd … (not XP 32-bit compatible)

If your 5TB Hard Drive displays Bytes Per Sector : 512 … then it’s using 512B emulation (which is now phased out) but will work with Windows XP 32-bit

If your 4TB Hard Drive displays Bytes Per Sector : 4096 … then it will only work with WinXP 64-bit, Win7 and 10

6

Thanks for the suggestion.

I’ve given it a try but fsutil doesn’t appear to be loaded on my laptop (which is running Vista so should see both drives).

The WD spec sheet shows 2,3,4 and 5TB drives work with XP.
https://www.wdc.com/content/dam/wdc/website/downloadable_assets/eng/product_overview/4178-705859.pdf
So I guess WD are giving out false info. :frowning:

7

try a different laptop or computer eg. friend, family member, work etc