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Deskstar 5k4000 4TB drive only shows up as 1.8TB in Disk Utility

I have an older (2nd gen?) Mac Mini (intel) that I use as a home server and backup destination. My Time Machine Volume (A 2TB WD in a newertechnology ministack v3) was almost full, so I purchased a 4TB Deskstar 5K4000 and mounted it in the ministack. Oddly, Disk Utility reports its capacity as 1.8 TB, not 4TB.


So I move this mechanism to a Mygica USB SATA Dock (only 2 months old) and lo and behold, same result.


Is there something about this mechanism, Disk Utility, or OS X 10.7 that precludes using a mechanism of this size?

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Lion Server

Posted on Feb 10, 2012 7:49 PM

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Posted on May 25, 2012 5:55 AM

You need a case or a dock with new chips that support 4TB drives.

If it doesn't say that it supports 4 TB drives, then it doesn't.

These cases are quite recent, will cost more, and won't be on sale :-(

10 replies

Jun 9, 2012 4:32 AM in response to Chris Connors

Small update and correction:


I have an older NewerTech Voyager Q dock with ports for USB2, Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and eSATA.

The first 3 of these only support up to 2TB drives. I didn't have an eSATA connection to test the 4th.

OWC <support@macsales.com> said none of the ports supported more than 2TB.

Nevertheless, I ordered an el cheapo Chinese 2 port flush mount eSATA expresscard.


The Voyager dock DOES support my Hitachi 4TB DeathStar using the eSATA port.

So does SATA in my very old Apple Time Capsule :-)


ps. The eSATA port on the Voyager is recessed to far and didn't work with 3 of the 4 cables I had.

All 4 cables were too stiff for use on a laptop. Pay extra and get a soft flexible cable.


Thanks for blessing my reply.

Deskstar 5k4000 4TB drive only shows up as 1.8TB in Disk Utility

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