My external 3TB drive shows up as 801.57GB on my intel iMac

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My external 3TB drive shows up as 801.57GB on my intel iMac

Anybody had this problem and been able to solve it:

My new 3TB Western Digital external drive (connect to my iMac using a USB connected BlacX dock) only shows up as 801.57 GB on the Mac (running latest version of Snow Leopard).

What I know -

- it is not the BlacX dock - that supports 3TB and higher

- it is not the drive - I returned one just in case, Disk Utility says its OK, WD techs say it should work and that it is a Mac issue of some sort

- no matter what I do with regard to partitioning in Disk Utility it will only give me 801.57GB. In fact Disk Utility shows the drive as an 801.57 GB drive in the left hand pane.

Other threads here have centered around limitations with the external enclosure. As I said, that is not the problem here.

Hope someone can lead me to a solution.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 21, 2012 3:09 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 2, 2012 4:42 PM in response to Corv7700

I have the same problem except it is a Seagate Barracuda external on my Mac Pro running 10.7.4

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Answer 2

Corv7700 Author

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Jul 2, 2012 6:36 PM in response to mr_white__

Solved the problem. My BlacX model did nor support over 2TB. Fixed the problem with a different BlacX model that supported hogher capacity drives. Look to your enclosure.

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Answer 3

Jan 28, 2013 6:10 PM in response to Corv7700

Thanks for this posting and the good advice. I put in some time chasing the 801.57 gb limit before finding this thread that steers in the direction I see now I must persue, a new enclosure (modern day version rather than 5 year old technology -- yes, the old external drive has the Oxford chipset mentioned repeatedly in other threads) to go with my new drive. Would have been better off $$-wise to have purchased a complete unit, but this is so much more fun on a Monday evening.

Great being here with you all!

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Answer 4

kalel38

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Sep 26, 2013 1:16 AM in response to mr_white__

Did you ever get your 3TB Seagate barracuda to see all 3TB, or (2.7TB?) or so? I bought one and i can't format it to see the full 3.0TB? I have a 2011 iMac, 10.8.5 and the 3TB drive is in Mercury Elite Pro, connected via Firewire800 via a Thunder Bolt adaptor.

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Answer 5

Sep 26, 2013 5:13 AM in response to kalel38

No, the trouble is caused by the old chipset inside the external drive. More than one brand is likely to exhibit the issue. There is no work-around. Your best solution is to purchase an enclosure that will support the higher capacity drives.

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