Hi there
When I plug a 4TB WD external hard drive in to my MacBook Pro (mid 2015, Catalina 10.15.6), the MacBook recognises it as a 2TB drive. Is there a limit on the size of external hard drive that is acceptable, and if I continue with the 4TB will the MacBook prevent me writing more than 2TB ?
I hope this makes sense to someone as I am not overly computer literate!
MacBook
Sorry, my heading said 4GB, that should of course have been 4TB.
On disc utility the 4TB showed up as 2TB. So did not buy it. It was a WD 4TB drive and I use a number of WD 2TB drives with no problem. The extra capacity of a 4TB drive would really be of use to me, but a younger colleague told me he had heard that the MacBook would only accept up to 2TB.
USB 2.0 is limited to 2.2 TB (you say '2 TB' if it's really 2.2 TB that may be what's going on). However, your Mac has USB 3.0 ports so I'm not sure that's the answer. I have a 5 TB external USB-C drive, with partitions ranging from 250 GB to 2 TB, and when I connect it to my old 2011 MBP, DU shows the drive as 5 TB but none of the partitions will actually mount.
If it shows as 2.2TB, the interface in the enclosure is likely too old to support larger drives. It may also not support appropriate formats.
Your Mac is fine. You need a better enclosure or an updated card in the enclosure.
How does the drive show up in Disk Utility (in Applications > Utilities)?
4GB External hard drive
