Problems with 3TB Hitachi 7K3000

Question

Problems with 3TB Hitachi 7K3000

Hi gang,

Just got a replacement drive for my boot drive. I purchased a new 3TB Hitachi 7K3000. I'm trying to clone my existing 1TB boot drive so that I can replace it.

When I plug the new drive into my Mac Pro, OS X recognizes the capacity as 801.57 GB. I've tried an external hard drive enclosure, plugged in via Firewire, and a cloner kit, which provides a SATA to USB cable. Same results either way.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 2, 2011 4:17 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Feb 2, 2011 6:36 PM in response to Phil McFarlane

Did you reformat the drive. I have two and I reformatted them and they show as 3TB drives. But you the drive has to be installed in you computer in order to get the total 3TB's.

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 2, 2011 6:38 PM in response to Kamal Jones

Sorry for the typo's. But the drive has to be installed in your computer in order to get the full 3TB's.

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 2, 2011 6:55 PM in response to Kamal Jones

Thanks Kamal,

Unfortunately, this is meant to replace my boot drive, and all the other bays are full as part of a RAID. The new drive has to be cloned before I can replace it as my boot drive.

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 4

Feb 2, 2011 9:01 PM in response to Phil McFarlane

Are there any jumpers on the drive? A 3 TB drive may be set for 4096 byte sectors instead of the normal 512 bytes. See if there is a setting for SATA II compatibility.

Reply

Answer 5

Feb 3, 2011 4:49 AM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

A 3 TB drive may be set for 4096 byte sectors

4096 byte sectors should not be a problem once the drive is formatted to GUID partition scheme.

If you cannot get the drive inside your Mac without shutting down your three-drive RAID, then you can:
A) shut down your three drive RAID, install the drive internally with just the boot drive or
B) pull all the drives, insert the new drive and boot from the Installer DVD and run Disk Utility,
... and Initialize the new drive to GUID partition Map. Once that is done, you can go back to your "regular" set-up.

Reply

Answer 6

Feb 3, 2011 7:12 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Good suggestion. I'll have to find my boot DVD! I will install it in bay 1, leaving my RAID alone, and then format it with the boot disc Disk Utility. I will then have to move it to an external enclosure. I wonder if it will be recognized as 3TB at that point. If not, I wonder if it is possible to boot from an external hard drive?

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 7

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Feb 3, 2011 7:22 AM in response to Phil McFarlane

You can always boot external unless the interface or if there is a bridge doesn't support doing so.

Apple's move to GPT was to deal with drives larger than 2.2TB, though in real world things often are different than on paper.

Mac OS version 10.4 onwards (Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard) can use the GUID Partitioning Table scheme (GPT) which will align an Advanced Format drive correctly.

Hitachi 7K3000 3TB
http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-Drive-Hitachi-7K3000-3TB.html

Compatibility: Existing external quad-interface enclosures (prior to Jan 2011) generally do not yield a 3TB capacity; they fall back to a lower capacity. However, I had no trouble with straight eSATA and internal usage, the entire 3TB capacity shows up and works.

Reply

Answer 8

Feb 3, 2011 7:24 AM in response to The hatter

Sounds good. I'll install the new drive in bay 1, move the old drive to the external enclosure, and boot from there. Then I'll clone the original drive with SuperDuper.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 9

Feb 3, 2011 4:27 PM in response to Phil McFarlane

Some progress, but not there yet.

It seems that Apple's RAID card recognizes 3TB drives as 2.2 TB.

Is there a way to connect my Bay 1 drive to my motherboard, and Bays 2,3 and 4 to my RAID card?

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 10

3TB

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2011 8:05 PM in response to Phil McFarlane

I just received a Hitachi 3TB manufactured December 2010. I also purchased the new OWC Mercury CLassic case to format it as they said that this model of the enclosure will support the 3TB. All I want to do is format the drive 3TB and add it to my time capsule.

Well, I formatted it multiple times using disk utility and all I can see is 801.23GB. Is there a solution that does not involve a PC, which I do not have?

I have also tried the NewerTech Odyssey bay and that formats the drive as 2.2TB.

I am ready to give up and ship all this junk back to MacSales.

Reply

Answer 11

Mar 8, 2011 5:44 PM in response to Phil McFarlane

is your second optical bay empty? You can bypass your RAID card by putting it in there - at least temporarily.

Reply

Answer 12

Apr 13, 2011 5:54 PM in response to Phil McFarlane

I also bought the Hitachi 3TB 7K3000 and an empty Mercury Elite Pro Classic enclosure on the advice of the OWC tech support people for my external storage needs, and my hard drive too is only being reported as 800GB in size on my new core i7 MBP as well as my partner's year old Dell XPS Studio running Windows 7 64 bit. So I'm not sure what the problem is here. I have another email into the OWC tech support people, hopefully I can get it resolved.

Reply

Answer 13

May 24, 2011 10:47 PM in response to Phil McFarlane

needs 10.6.7 to read 3TB drives

Reply

Answer 14

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 25, 2011 7:54 AM in response to STUPENDOUS!!!

Show me.

Lloyd was using 3TB back last fall (the link above)

http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2011/20110524_1_MacProMemory16GB.html

long before 10.6.7. Sure you are using a Mac Pro. No, MBP and an issue with your Expresscard and enclosure, not with OS X and Hitachi.

MacBook Pro

Reply

Answer 15

May 25, 2011 8:31 AM in response to The hatter

I am using a MBP, but before I could figure out how to initialize the 3TB drives on it, I went to an Apple Store to try doing it inside a Mac Pro. They couldn't format the drive at the Apple Store inside a Mac Pro, until they did the 10.6.7 update, and then it was recognised as a 3TB drive. Before that it showed as an 800GB or 2.2TB I can't remember which.

Reply