Is there any way to setup a 3TB SATA drive in Windows XP?

Question

I have a Dell OptiPlex GX520 PC and I want to setup Western Digital 3 TB (dynamic disk) in my PC.

But it reads only 700 GB from Windows XP although it read 3TB from the setup screen of my Dell. The problem is I can’t format it or do anything.

I want to partition the hard disk to two partitions: 70 gb for the Windows XP, and the other for my data but how?

Answer 1

I don’t believe that Windows XP can handle 3TB drives, but according to this article in PC World:

If you want to use the 3TB Barracuda on a Windows XP system, then you will need to run Seagate's DiskWizard program to make the drive usable under that operating system.

Now I know you have a Western Digital drive—and that solution refers to a Seagate specific tool—but the general message is: Windows XP won’t normally handle large capacity drives like that right out of the box. And looking the Western Digital white paper on “Large Capacity Drives”, they state:

Limitations of 512-byte Sector Size

Older operating systems such as the Windows® XP computing environment with a legacy BIOS and Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table scheme encounter a barrier at 2.19 TB because they can address only up to 232 logical blocks x (sector size) capacity and the most commonly used sector size is 512 bytes. Do the math and you get a capacity limitation of 2.19 TB (2,199,023,255,552 bytes). Some operating systems, such as Windows XP, only support booting from an MBR (Master Boot Record) partition formatted drive; therefore, there are limitations when attempting to move to a higher capacity drive. The system’s BIOS and operating system drivers need to agree on capacity and geometry of a hard drive to boot and operate correctly. Agreement must take place across several software layers to successfully boot a system.

WD Provides Solutions for Moving Beyond 512-byte Sector Size (Greater than 2.19 TB)

WD initially led the way in providing solutions for drives larger than 2.19 TB which included a Host Bus Adapter with our 2.5 TB and 3 TB hard drives. This HBA is no longer being provided, and is not needed as updated storage drivers and system software with support for large capacity drives are now available. WD also worked collectively with industry partners, system providers, and operating system vendors to ensure drive compatibility across multiple software layers. Support for drives larger than the current 2.19 TB capacity barrier means implementing these solutions to successfully integrate high capacity drives.

Also, this page—titled “Resolve 748 GB limitation for the hard disk over 2, 3 tera (2TB, 3TB)”—seems to have more detailed info on how to resolve the issue.