I plan on using both of my WD My Book 4 TB External Hard Drives on my Dell Precision Tower 5810 running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit.
QUESTION:
Will it be able to see / access the entire 4 TB (no partitions) or is there a lower limit?
Hi,
You shouldn’t have any issues with a 4 TB drive on a windows 8.1
THANKS for your reply.
I don’t think I will have any issues either.
But, being as anal as I am, are you aware of where on the WD website that might be covered?
I can’t be the 1st person to ask that Question.
Win 8 is designed to handle drives larger than 2TB, whereas Win 7 can’t in most cases… I have a 3TB connected to my Win 8 and it works fine. Even though my Win 7 can’t see it all when drive is connected to it, it can see the 3TB drive through network on the Win 8 and so far, it sees all its files…
Anyway, just plug the 4TB into your Win 8; you won’t break anything, and you should see all the disk space available.
That’s a load of complete and utter BS
Windows 7 Pro Service Pack 1 (on all my PC’s) see 4TB External Drives just FINE (GPT Partitioned)
It’s not exactly BS, but I do not doubt what you say. It’s just when I got my two(Seagate) 3TB bare drives and put them into enclosures and tried to set them up, I found all kinds of conflicting info and kind of difficult instructions which I tried but did not get it to work. It seemed I also needed certain Intel hardware in PC that was not in my PC. Info at Seagate AND WD was not a lot of help either.
So, help your fellow forum member figure this out so I can connect the two to my Win 7 laptop running Windows Home Premium.
I tried to set them up on Win 7 using GTP partition, but could not see all the disk space, so I put them on the Win 8 and all went fine. I then put the setup drives onto the Win 7 and it still could not see a lot of the disks storage space.
If you can help me with this, please send me the info in a PM. Thanks, Mike
The OP (that means “Original Poster” … as you now know)
Was asking about a 4TB MyBook External Hard Drive (which are specially formatted for compatibility)
not some cr@ppy 3TB bare Seagate hard drives in “enclosures” [which probably did’nt support >2TB hdd anyways]
And then you go on with this nonsense …
“It seemed I also needed certain Intel hardware in PC that was not in my PC”
“I tried to set them up on Win 7 using GTP partition, but could not see all the disk space, so I put them on the Win 8 and all went fine”
So, installing Win 8 *magically" added Intel hardware into your PC … yeah right
P.S. it’s GPT not GTP
Just remembered … had an old computer setup in the workshop
WINDOWS XP SERVICE PACK 1 ~ 1.2GHz Celeron 256MB RAM
recognizes a 4TB WD Elements HDD perfectly
Gee, sorry I asked for assist. Look, no need to dis my Seagate 3TB Barracuda drives since they are (like WD) name-brand drives, and the Orico enclosures are appropriate, too. ORICO 7618SUS3-BK Tool free Aluminum 3.5" SATA HDD Enclosure USB 3.0 & e-SATA Interface - Newegg.com
The drive in this enclosure got setup fine using a Win 8 PC, and I never said “So, installing Win 8 *magically” added Intel hardware into your PC … yeah right"
I did say my Win 7 did not have the Intel hardware which apparently is not in my Win 7 – I have a Microsoft driver instead. The Intel thing is called Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology (Intel RST) console, and I picked up this “nonsense” here:
Excuse me for the typo: “P.S. it’s GPT not GTP”
lol 
Joey,
Apparently, all you want to do is give me a hard time and no assistance as I requested. Not even a comment about the link I included about 3TB drives and the Intel RST issue. Whatever.
