HELP: WD External 3TB Hard Drive PROBLEMS Options

[GATOR]

Hi Guys, Im new here and i'd really appreciate some help.

My WDTV media player cannot read my new 3TB WD ext hard drive (USB connected). I have a 2TB WD HD that I have all movies/movie sheets etc and that works with no problems via USB.

Im running a custom firmware on my media player.......im just wondering if there is a sequence that I have to do (hard reboot) in order for my media player to read my new 3TB drive?

My 3TB drive (and all the movies on it) can be seen when I connect it to my Lap Top (so i dont think its the HD).

Id really appreciate some help, thanks

[Rev Drew]

3TB drives are only supported (right now) by WD OEM firmware, the GPL kernel that is used with the custom firmware is older and doesn't have 3TB support.
in fact the GPL kernel for 1.05.04 can screw with netflix on the plus devices, fortunately it can be revived.

funny how WD provides the GPL for custom development but not an updated one, yet one that screws with netflix. effers!

I will likely not buy another WD media player, I will use my Gen1, live and live plus until they die and then move onto something where custom development is embraced and encouraged, not screwed over.

BOYCOTT WD!!!

[netgen]

I have same problem as you with wd hd live+3tb hdd, so could you solve it??
i installed the latest firmware, nothing changed.
But there are an interesting thing, because on it file manager appeared the connected hdd (but no datas show on)

thank you in advance

[WDUser]

@netgen: Do you own the older Live or the latest Live SMP? Which FW version did you install? The problem is supposedly fixed (see here for more), but some people are apparently still having problems.

[netgen]

The latest firmware is (1.06.15) on it. I think i have the older Live(I bought it early march 2010). The external hdd is also wd, and i have used the wd hdd unlocker so now i can use the whole 3TB capacity,as follows: i have 2...TB NTFS partition+768..GB second partition(GPT). When i connect to WD player, it recognize the 2TB partition, but the second partition is not show up in browser menu.

So my main problem is that, how can i use the whole 3tb capacity in one partition.

[Rev Drew]

when you flashed the newest firmware, did you let it do it online or did you do it yourself with the files on a USB drive?

[WDUser]

What is this "wd hdd unlocker"? Is it a WD utility or some 3rd party thing? If you choose to use some weird utility, you're on your own. I recommend you move your data off, use Windows' in-built Disk Management feature to delete all existing partitions, then create fresh ones, format as NTFS and try once more. If it still doesn't work, at least you'll be reasonably sure that the drive or its formatting are not to blame. Read this thread for detailed instructions.

[netgen]

when you flashed the newest firmware, did you let it do it online or did you do it yourself with the files on a USB drive?

I updated the firmware online

[netgen]

What is this "wd hdd unlocker"? Is it a WD utility or some 3rd party thing? If you choose to use some weird utility, you're on your own. I recommend you move your data off, use Windows' in-built Disk Management feature to delete all existing partitions, then create fresh ones, format as NTFS and try once more. If it still doesn't work, at least you'll be reasonably sure that the drive or its formatting are not to blame. Read this thread for detailed instructions.

I read it here:
http://www.wdc.com/global/products/features/?id=6
an downloaded this:
http://event.asus.com/mb/2010/Disk_Unlocker/
bacause i have ASUS motherboard

[WDUser]

Ok, so it's an ASUS utility. Some questions:

1) Which Windows version are you using, and is it 32/64 bit?

2) When you first plugged in the WD drive (which should have been pre-formatted), are you telling me that Windows could not see the entire 3 TB?

Older motherboards should have no problems with <2.2 TB MBR disks, it's larger Advanced Format drives and GPT that causes problems for them. Also, as your WD link clearly states, from Vista onwards Windows has no problems with >2.19 TB capacity non-boot (secondary) drives. As per WD, "For the best compatibility between computers we recommend using the MBR (Master Boot Record) option and not the GPT(GUID Partition Table)." It seems you've used this ASUS utility to create a mix of MBR and GPT partitions, and clearly the fact that it's the latter that's inaccessible should tell you something.

So if you're using Vista/Windows 7, I recommend that you simply delete all existing partitions, (re-)initialize the disk as MBR, create 2 primary partitions (2x1.5 TB or 2 TB+1 TB as per your choice) and format as NTFS with all defaults selected. That should hopefully make both your PC and WD Live happy. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[netgen]

1,I am using win 7 64bit
2, i dont remember actually,but as far as i know the windows could see nothing(to tell the truth i checked it in total commander), after i tried with EASEUS Partition Manager and it could see the entire 3TB

by the way i have Asus p5qc motherboard, not too old, so it can be handle 3Tb hdd.

[netgen]

Just one question remain:
if i make 2 partition, will be able to handle this 2 partition my wd tv live media player?
thanx

[netgen]

ok, i tried to everything what you recommended.
so in dos mode my motherbord see my 3tb hdd as 800Gb Hdd
I think this is the main problem, but it is really interesting because windows recognize the entire 3TB. i can not make 1,5-1,5TB partition, because the windows disk manager can devide just the 2TB part, and i can not manipulated the unallocated 764gb part.

But i read a post about HBA(host bus adapter), and as i know it will be the only solution in my case? it can support my motherboard to recognize the 3TB hdd
what do you think about it?

at finaly i could partitioning the entire 3TB hdd into one huge partition, but not to ntfs just GPT(so my wd tv like can not recognize it)

[WDUser]

1,I am using win 7 64bit
2, i dont remember actually,but as far as i know the windows could see nothing(to tell the truth i checked it in total commander), after i tried with EASEUS Partition Manager and it could see the entire 3TB

by the way i have Asus p5qc motherboard, not too old, so it can be handle 3Tb hdd.

With Windows 7 64-bit you should have had no problems at all seeing/using the entire drive.

Just one question remain:
if i make 2 partition, will be able to handle this 2 partition my wd tv live media player?
thanx

It should work, as per reports from others users.

ok, i tried to everything what you recommended.
so in dos mode my motherbord see my 3tb hdd as 800Gb Hdd

DOS mode? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) Are you dual booting to DOS? And when you say 800 GB, that sounds suspiciously close to the size of your second partition. Are you sure it's not just seeing that and ignoring the first one?

I think this is the main problem, but it is really interesting because windows recognize the entire 3TB. i can not make 1,5-1,5TB partition, because the windows disk manager can devide just the 2TB part, and i can not manipulated the unallocated 764gb part.

Did you delete all partitions first?

at finaly i could partitioning the entire 3TB hdd into one huge partition, but not to ntfs just GPT(so my wd tv like can not recognize it)

GPT is a type of partition table like the older MBR, whereas NTFS is a file system, like FAT32, HFS+ and so on. I already posted a link above to a tutorial that shows you just how to switch from GPT to MBR, and another tutorial that shows you how to partition and format. Did you follow both tutorials? If you did, the drive should have an MBR partition table now, not GPT, with your choice of NTFS partitions.

The ASUS P5QC motherboard is based on the Intel P45 chipset. One of my older PCs that I use for downloading has the much older Intel G31 chipset, and it runs Windows 7 64-bit just fine after I slapped some extra RAM into it. It can see all my external Seagate/WD drives completely (even the newer Advanced Format ones with 4K sectors), so your newer MB shouldn't have a problem with similar drives at all IMO. Just start afresh, get rid of all existing partitions, convert the drive to MBR and so on (I'm getting bored repeating the same thing).