I have a windows 2000 file server (yes i know it's old and outdated). I just recently purchased a 3TB seagate barracuda and a vantec external sata enclosure. I intended to use it for backups but it seems as though it cannot be properly read in windows 2000. I did some research and I know that only GPT can support over 2.2TB partitions but what's unclear is if win2k can read a GPT. I found a MS article claiming that win2k SP4 supports GPT, but my win2k sp4 box caanot read the drive. It constantly says "Unreadable" in disk management. I've tried the following: - partitioning as single 3tb gpt partition on a win7 machine -- shows as unreadable on win2k machine - zeroing out the drive on win7 and repartitioning as single GPT partition -- same - repartition as 2tb guid partition on win7 -- same - wipe and use MBR and partition as single 2tb partition on win7 - same - seagate has a tool called DiscWizard which claims to remedy the greater than 2tb drive problems on older windows OSs, and also claims to support windows 2000, but I downloaded and tried to install it and it errored out when I ran the installer saying that it did not support the platform. Fail. No matter what I try, the win2k disk management shows unreadable and won't let me do anything with the drive. I can only check the properties - I cannot format, delete, etc. it does not show any partitions in win2k. I also have acronis installed (for backups$, it has some disk partitioning tools and what's odd is that if I partition as GPT or MBR, acronis can recognize there's a partition there, but only up to 2tb (which is ok for now). I've tried repartitioning in acronis and it creates the partitions but fails when "synchronizing with the operating system", which I assume means when it's trying to associate the partition with a drive letter. I'm planning on upgrading the win2k machine, just not yet, and I want to use the HDD for backups now. Is there any way to get this working, even if it's only a 2tb partition until I upgrade the hardware -- I don't care. Are there some drivers I may need to install???? Any help is appreciated. Adam
Doubt you'll get it going as is. Might want to have a look at a "Western Digital My Book Essential drive, recently got some 4TB ones and there is a software trick on them that makes them run as a single 4TB MBR drive. Works perfectly on XP, would imagine it would be the same on 2000. EDIT, did you try and run the clean command using DISKPART in Windows 7 before hooking it up as RAW on the 2000 server. You should be able to see 2TB RAW under Windows 2000.
You should take care as this is probably an AF or even a native 4K drive, which creates additional problems under 2000.
Money, time and several other reasons ATM, but for the purpose of this thread, it's irrelevant WHY I can't upgrade. My question is, is there ANY possible way to get this working in win2000, even partially? Even if I can only get 1 or 2 TB of usable capacity until upgrade, I don't care. Yes I tried the clean command in diskpart on a Windows Vista machine, which from my understanding zero-fills the drive. Win2000 Disk Management still shows the raw drive as "unreadable", but as I said in the OP, Acronis disk partitioning tools installed on the win2k machine can read the drive and is able to create 2tb partitions, but after acronis creates the partitions, windows 2000 still cannot read it. How can I determine if it's an AF or native 4k drive?
It's not acronis disk director, it's Acronis Backup & Recover which has some basic tools for setting up new HDDs.
Thanks, I will give it a try. time == $$$... unless you don't value your time. I'm not saying I won't upgrade, I'm saying right now it's not possible, time constraints being just ONE of the many things holding me back ATM. Don't know why I have to keep repeating myself. My question wasn't 'how can I get this drive working on any computer?', it was 'how can i get it work (even partially) on windows 2000?'. The amount of time it will take to upgrade the hardware and OS of the computer will be a lot more than what I have already spent and will spend getting this hdd to work on win2k. And I know it's semi possible if 3rd party applications on win2k can read the drive. 'nuff said. Seagate ST3000DM001 (seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-hdd/?sku=ST3000DM001), so yes it IS a 4k drive ... wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Advanced_Format Will give this a try, but does that mean it only supports HDD's up to 2tb, or partitions up to 2tb? bc I'm ok with the latter. EDIT: found this while doing a bit of research: storagereview.com/seagate_barracuda_3tb_review_1tb_platters_st3000dm001 There's not much info about SmartAlign -- it seems more like marketing mumbo jumbo, but I could be wrong.
I appreciate your reply... haven't done much research on it, but first result from googling that is this: forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/24776-seagate-chirping-noise-firmware-fix-bye-bye-random-high-pitch-chirp-sounds/ I'll do some more investigation though. Thanks for the heads up. Worst case scenario, I will set up the HDD on a win7 machine and map it as a network drive on the win2k machine until I can upgrade the computer.