WD30EZRX HDD of 3TB disk capacity, recognized as 746GB for windows

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

I recently purchased a 3TB hard drive, specifically WD30EZRX. I tried it on 3 different PCs and always with the same results. Windows always detects 746GB

The computer to which I thought put is: MCP61M-M3 v:7.1 [AMD: Athlon II X4 | RAM: 4GB DDR3 | OS: Windows 7 32bits]

I updated the bios of this pc and the 3TB are detected in the bios. My Ubuntu Live also detects 3TB.

I know that Ubuntu allows me to recognize and format the drive, but not if the time to work seriously (fill data, files and directories) I will have some sort of problem when trying to overcome those 746GB.

I think what is missing is a driver for Windows. In some forums say I need to buy a card “Host Bus Adapter” I do not think this is necessary because the BIOS detects 3TB

But that’s what it seems to me. I have written this query to get an official response. I would like the experts to tell me exactly what happens and how I can fix it. I need this PC with Windows 7 (not Ubuntu).

I really thought it was going to be much easier to install a hard drive, especially on Windows, which is a current operating system and supported.

The screen I see in Windows is similar to the following:

Help me, thanks!

2

When you use the DISKPART command line tool in Windows do you also see same size?

So on the command line DISKPART and then list disk

3

yes

hdd3tb-diskpart.png
hdd3tb-diskpart.png896×624 17.3 KB

4

You could try a clean with diskpart but it seems like a problem with the drive.

I would consider bringing it back.

5

No, that’s not a “drive” problem. 

It’s possibly a motherboard chipset driver problem.

Early Sandybridge chipsets had that exact issue.   anything larger than 2.2TB drives reported to Windows as 746GB.

Look at this google search:

http://www.google.com/search?q=3tb+746GB&aq=f&oq=3tb+746GB

Tons of posts on that exact combination.

You may need to check your motherboard providers’ website to see if they have updated drivers available.

Not BIOS (as you have reported the BIOS correctly reports it.)   These would be the Windows drivers for your chipset / integrated hardware.