Anybody try a 3tb drive in an XPS8300?

kingaaa

I just stuck one in (barracuda 3.5 7200 rpm) and its not showing up at all. Now the pc came with a 500gb and a 1tb drive already in, and I previously installed another 1tb without a problem. So I connect up the 3tb to "sata 3" on the motherboard, power it up and its spinning alright - but doesn't show up on "my computer" or "computer management" Pc has an 17 processor, 12 gb of ram and is running windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. Any ideas?

yoyo

kingaaa wrote: »

I just stuck one in (barracuda 3.5 7200 rpm) and its not showing up at all. Now the pc came with a 500gb and a 1tb drive already in, and I previously installed another 1tb without a problem. So I connect up the 3tb to "sata 3" on the motherboard, power it up and its spinning alright - but doesn't show up on "my computer" or "computer management" Pc has an 17 processor, 12 gb of ram and is running windows 7 ultimate 64 bit. Any ideas?

I assume you mean you checked in disk management? Usually you need to initiallise the disk drive and format it (right click on the uninitialised device and initialize then format/partition if desired), can you see a new device under disk management at all? If not make sure SATA Cable connected to mobo and drive ok, as with power, also try another SATA cable (rare but can go faulty). Drive could also be doa...

Nick

kingaaa

yoyo wrote: »

I assume you mean you checked in disk management? Usually you need to initiallise the disk drive and format it (right click on the uninitialised device and initialize then format/partition if desired), can you see a new device under disk management at all? If not make sure SATA Cable connected to mobo and drive ok, as with power, also try another SATA cable (rare but can go faulty). Drive could also be doa...

Nick

Yeah sorry, I meant "disk management" I tried switching cables with other drives that show up but still nothing. I've even removed a drive and replaced it with the 3tb - still nothing. The drive is taking power and spinning alright, I'm clueless as to what the problem is?

yoyo

kingaaa wrote: »

Yeah sorry, I meant "disk management" I tried switching cables with other drives that show up but still nothing. I've even removed a drive and replaced it with the 3tb - still nothing. The drive is taking power and spinning alright, I'm clueless as to what the problem is?

Some of those Advanced Format drives need a jumper setting, so check the literature that came with it. Its unlikely to be this though especially as your using Windows 7. Try it in another machine, if it doesn't work it could be dead, does the bios detect its presence at all?

Nick

kingaaa

yoyo wrote: »

Some of those Advanced Format drives need a jumper setting, so check the literature that came with it. Its unlikely to be this though especially as your using Windows 7. Try it in another machine, if it doesn't work it could be dead, does the bios detect its presence at all?

Nick

No mate, its not even detected in the bios, its saying "sata 3 not present"

yoyo

kingaaa wrote: »

No mate, its not even detected in the bios, its saying "sata 3 not present"

I think you have a doa drive there m8, try in another machine to make sure. The bios should be detecting it

Nick

vibe666

you will need to make sure you have a current bios for your motherboard to support drives larger than 2tb as older bios's will not have support for them and they won't be detected properly (or at all).

it will also need formatting as a GPT partition which will mean older OS's (i.e. winxp or 2k) won't be able to read it, but i don't imagine that will be an issue for you.

so just make sure your bios is current and give it another go.

kingaaa

vibe666 wrote: »

you will need to make sure you have a current bios for your motherboard to support drives larger than 2tb as older bios's will not have support for them and they won't be detected properly (or at all).

it will also need formatting as a GPT partition which will mean older OS's (i.e. winxp or 2k) won't be able to read it, but i don't imagine that will be an issue for you.

so just make sure your bios is current and give it another go.

How do I do That?

Nothingbetter2d

try plugging the drive into a sata 2 port to see if it detects properly.... if it does your sata 3 drivers might be the problem

vibe666

kingaaa wrote: »

How do I do That?

you'll need to go to the website of the company that makes your motherboard and download the latest BIOS for it.

some will allow you to upgrade it from within windows, others will require creating a boot disk (usually on CD or USB, but used to be 3.5" floppies in the good old days ) to do the update.

once you've done that, you just reboot and it should be recognised by the BIOS, although you may have to enable support in the BIOS first, depending on the updated default BIOS setting for >2tb disks as it might be disabled.

once you've done that, boot into windows and (assuming it's windows 7) it will allow you to format it and should recommend a GPT partition itself, which you just accept during the format process when it asks.

Torqay

vibe666 wrote: »

you'll need to go to the website of the company that makes your motherboard and download the latest BIOS for it.

Here is the BIOS version A06 for your XPS 8300.

Download the file and execute it from within Windows.

NOTE: Shut down all other applications prior to running the BIOS update utility. The update utility reboots your system in order to get the new BIOS loaded.

Before you do this, go into the BIOS (F2 during the POST/Dell logo screen) and check the current version. If it is older than A06 then update it.

kingaaa

Torqay wrote: »

Here is the BIOS version A06 for your XPS 8300.

Download the file and execute it from within Windows.



Before you do this, go into the BIOS (F2 during the POST/Dell logo screen) and check the current version. If it is older than A06 then update it.

Dont need the update mate, my bios is the same version AO6

Torqay

kingaaa wrote: »

Dont need the update mate, my bios is the same version AO6

Right, then the BIOS does not support drives > 2 TB (talk to someone in Dell tech support, they should know) or the drive is toast.

kingaaa

Torqay wrote: »

Right, then the BIOS does not support drives > 2 TB (talk to someone in Dell tech support, they should know) or the drive is toast.

If it is a case the bios doesn't support internal 3tb drives - does the same go for external 3tb drives?

Torqay

kingaaa wrote: »

If it is a case the bios doesn't support internal 3tb drives - does the same go for external 3tb drives?

Well, if it's rather a controller firmware issue, USB adapters/caddys have their own.

kingaaa

Torqay wrote: »

Well, if it's rather a controller firmware issue, USB adapters/caddys have their own.

to be honest I'm out of ports anyway,but if I was to buy a usb 3.0 card its still down to the controller?

Torqay

But I'd be very surprised if Dell shipped the current flagship series without support for drives > 2 TB, they're around for quite some time after all.

kingaaa

Torqay wrote: »

But I'd be very surprised if Dell shipped the current flagship series without support for drives > 2 TB, they're around for quite some time after all.

thats what I would have thought?????

yoyo

Torqay wrote: »

But I'd be very surprised if Dell shipped the current flagship series without support for drives > 2 TB, they're around for quite some time after all.

Thats what I'd be thinking, you never know though!

Nick

Torqay

They do lock the BIOS to prevent OC'ing which is kinda alright, but that would be a major fup.

Echoes675

Instead of buying a USB PCI/PCIe card, why not get a PCI/PCIe SATA controller card with support for large drives? Then your HDD can live inside the pc?

Cuddlesworth

Download and install the latest intel chipset drivers.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19410037/19961350.aspx#19961350

Mr. Presentable

Test the HDD in another machine to eliminate the chance it's bunched. All your other tests depend on it not being so.

Moon54

Torqay wrote: »

Well, if it's rather a controller firmware issue, USB adapters/caddys have their own.

Unfortunately most HDD enclosures only support up to 2TB.
There are some of the newer 3TB External Enclosures on eBay for about €50-€60,
it might be the only option if the latest BIOS still doesn't support 3TB drives.

kingaaa

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Download and install the latest intel chipset drivers.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19410037/19961350.aspx#19961350

I already done that mate (or at least tried to, I already have the latest drivers)

Mr. Presentable wrote: »

Test the HDD in another machine to eliminate the chance it's bunched. All your other tests depend on it not being so.

Dont have another machine mate.

vibe666

kingaaa wrote: »

I already done that mate (or at least tried to, I already have the latest drivers)

the drivers link in cuddlesworth's message was separate to the BIOS update, did you check that both are up to date or are you just assuming that by drivers he meant the same thing as BIOS (which he didn't)?

both would need to be up to date for it to work.

Torqay

While there's no harm in keeping the drivers up to date, I doubt it will make a difference here. The drive is not recognized in the BIOS, not even reported wrongly, it's just not there and drivers have nothing to do with it.

Looking around in the DELL forum, such drives should be detected and reported with a size of 750 GB in the BIOS. If Disk Management does not detect them correctly, you'll have to update the AHCI driver.

You will not be able to boot from these drives though, as Dells do not support UEFI.

And according to Dell tech support, officially the highest capacity HDD supported in the XPS 8300 is 1TB, which doesn't mean you can't get larger drives to work. The BIOS will detect them, correctly or not is different matter.