Can't format 1.5Tb Seagate Barracuda SATA internal hard drive

I have the exact same issue with a Western Digital WD Green 1.5 TB Hard Drive (HDD).

I can format it up to 73% but no further. I have tried to create partitions but it does not change a thing. Only 1 TB (1024 GB) can be accessed.

Can we get some help from Dell on this? My e521 has been a solid performer so far. Even Vista 32 bits is fine.

Is it an issue with the hardware, Bios, Vista 32 bits?

The BIOS shows that the disk is identified as a 1.5 TB disk.

The device Manager (Disk Drive manager where you can initialize, create partitions on and format disks) recognizes it as a 1.5 TB.

So far I use the disk as a full 1TB (1024 GB) HDD. There are about 373 GB I cannot allocate to any partition or file system as it won't format further than 73% (BTW it take hours to reach 73%, but I guess it is due to the size and Green nature of this WD HDD).

Vincent

Fellows, you need to use your search engines.  So far I've found this:  Toms Hardware; Can't Fully Format Seagate ST31500341AS; which led me to this:  Seagate Knowledge Base Large SATA Drives Will Not Completely Format.

The chipset on the E521 is the Nvidia GeForce 6150LE; you will find that chipset number in the table on the Seagate note.  Notice that the note says that older drivers "may" have been used and this seems to be connected to the problem you are having.  If this is indeed the problem you may need to seek alternative solutions as the E521 is past the point at which Dell is likely to issue an updated driver.  I'm sure Dell will not guarantee success if you decide to pull a newer driver directly from the nVidia site, and if any mods have been made specially for Dell the update might even disable your machines.

I would read through the Toms Hardware thread to see if any of the alternate suggestions might be of help before I would try any driver not issued by Dell.

Incidentally, from what I understand, drives larger than 2 TB are going to give everyone trouble eventually as the MBR method of partitioning doesn't support those larger drives very well.  We are going to need to learn about the GUID approach.

Ok - That did help a lot - my Disk is now fully available.

Here is what I had to do:

1. Went to the nVidia support site and used their tool to detect my mother board. - Did not work

2. Selected the update manually (took the nVidia nForce 430 with GPU)

3. Did a recovery point in Vista

4 installed the new nVidia drivers (it comes in 1 exe) and reboot after a successful install

5. Tried to change the partition size, but it was still blocked at the same max 1024GB

6. Went to the device manager and updated the SATA controllers (there are 2) direct from here (selected Find on the internet) - one of them was not up to date.

7. After reboot, the disk was still limited to the 1st GB.

8. Reinstalled the nVidia drivers (running the downloaded exe), rebooted after successful install and ... voila that now I can format and extend my partition to the whole 1.5TB

That feels good.

Excellent!  A job well done.

Best of luck to you!