Deleting Partitions/Formating HDD

I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/

That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a system
and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused when I
am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives of
different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these drives
always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like being
done with USB connection.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Al

Allen Drake wrote:
> I have this HDD
> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/
>
>
>
> That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
> unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
> original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
> get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a
> system and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused
> when I am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives
> of different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB
> SSDs on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
> drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like
> being done with USB connection.

I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
(Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Disk Management). If you want to
preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the whole
disk (Right click>Extend volume). If you don't care about saving the
data, you can alternately delete the partition and create a new one,
using the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system, you will
have to use a third party partitioning program. There are several free
ones available.
--
Crash

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
~ Samuel Johnson ~

On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
<> wrote:

>Allen Drake wrote:
>> I have this HDD
>> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/
>>
>>
>>
>> That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
>> unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
>> original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
>> get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a
>> system and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused
>> when I am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives
>> of different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB
>> SSDs on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
>> drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like
>> being done with USB connection.
>
>I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
>system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
>(Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Disk Management). If you want to
>preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the whole
>disk (Right click>Extend volume). If you don't care about saving the
>data, you can alternately delete the partition and create a new one,
>using the whole disk.
>
>If the partition in question is the active operating system, you will
>have to use a third party partitioning program. There are several free
>ones available.

This is a spare drive that shows in disk management as two
partitions. One is active and shows as 2048.00 GB and healthy(primary
partition) there is an unallocated 746.52 GB. I want to restore this
to a 3TB drive that is one partition and healthy. I have found no way
to do this in disk management that I understand. If I right click and
format it only formats as the 2TB. If I right click on the 746 GB
unallocated part I can do nothing.

On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
<> wrote:

>Allen Drake wrote:
>> I have this HDD
>> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/
>>
>>
>>
>> That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
>> unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
>> original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
>> get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a
>> system and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused
>> when I am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives
>> of different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB
>> SSDs on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
>> drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like
>> being done with USB connection.
>
>I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
>system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
>(Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Disk Management). If you want to
>preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the whole
>disk (Right click>Extend volume). If you don't care about saving the
>data, you can alternately delete the partition and create a new one,
>using the whole disk.
>
>If the partition in question is the active operating system, you will
>have to use a third party partitioning program. There are several free
>ones available.

BTW Extend volume is grayed out.

Allen Drake wrote:
> On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
> <> wrote:
>
>> Allen Drake wrote:
>>> I have this HDD
>>> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
>>> unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to
>>> it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest
>>> way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned
>>> drive of a system and just now noticed what somehow has happened.
>>> I get confused when I am using cloning applications when I am
>>> dealing with drives of different sizes. I have since moved on to
>>> using all Crucial 256GB SSDs on all my systems to keep things
>>> simple. Downside is these drives always seem to need firmware
>>> updates that don't seem to like being done with USB connection.
>> I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
>> system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
>> (Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Disk Management). If you want
>> to preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the
>> whole disk (Right click>Extend volume). If you don't care about
>> saving the data, you can alternately delete the partition and
>> create a new one, using the whole disk.
>>
>> If the partition in question is the active operating system, you
>> will have to use a third party partitioning program. There are
>> several free ones available.
>
> BTW Extend volume is grayed out.

Okay. I have no experience with drives that big. You apparently have run up
against a partition size limit. Watch for wrap:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...s-storage.aspx

--
Crash

"The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion."
~ Arnold H. Glasow ~

On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:02:28 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
<> wrote:

>Allen Drake wrote:
>> On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
>> <> wrote:
>>
>>> Allen Drake wrote:
>>>> I have this HDD
>>>> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
>>>> unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to
>>>> it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest
>>>> way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned
>>>> drive of a system and just now noticed what somehow has happened.
>>>> I get confused when I am using cloning applications when I am
>>>> dealing with drives of different sizes. I have since moved on to
>>>> using all Crucial 256GB SSDs on all my systems to keep things
>>>> simple. Downside is these drives always seem to need firmware
>>>> updates that don't seem to like being done with USB connection.
>>> I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
>>> system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
>>> (Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Disk Management). If you want
>>> to preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the
>>> whole disk (Right click>Extend volume). If you don't care about
>>> saving the data, you can alternately delete the partition and
>>> create a new one, using the whole disk.
>>>
>>> If the partition in question is the active operating system, you
>>> will have to use a third party partitioning program. There are
>>> several free ones available.
>>
>> BTW Extend volume is grayed out.
>
>Okay. I have no experience with drives that big. You apparently have run up
>against a partition size limit. Watch for wrap:
>
>http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...s-storage.aspx

Do you have an understanding of diskpart commands?

On 26/05/2012 8:31 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
> This is a spare drive that shows in disk management as two
> partitions. One is active and shows as 2048.00 GB and healthy(primary
> partition) there is an unallocated 746.52 GB. I want to restore this
> to a 3TB drive that is one partition and healthy. I have found no way
> to do this in disk management that I understand. If I right click and
> format it only formats as the 2TB. If I right click on the 746 GB
> unallocated part I can do nothing.

"Unallocated" means there is no partition there, just empty sectors.

In theory, you should be able to either create a new partition in the
unallocated space, or to extend the primary partition.

In a follow-up, you say that "Extend..." is greyed out. This indicates
problem(s) that I speculate cannot be resolved without a complete
reformatting of the whole disk. Just a guess.

IMO, that leaves only the option of creating another partition. Try it.
If that doesn't work, you'll need more help than I can give you.

Good luck,
Wolf K.

PS: here's a simplified account of "partition" etc:
A "partition" is a list of tracks and sectors available for use.
Its structure depends on the "file system". A file system is a method of
listing and allocating tracks and sectors to partitions, folders, and
files. When you "format a disk", the OS writes file-system information
onto the disk. When you "create a partition", the OS writes relevant
data onto the HDD. File system and partition data are stored in the
Master Boot Record for the HDD, along with boot data for the OS.
Each partition includes an automatically generated default file
that lists the files and folders in that partition. The necessary
bookkeeping could be done entirely by the HDD itself, without any OS
involvement, but for many different reasons, OS involvement is
preferred. One consequence is the kind of problem you're facing.
For historical reasons, Windows displays partitions as disks,
which can be confusing.
WEK

On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:10:31 -0400, Wolf K <>
wrote:

>On 26/05/2012 8:31 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
>> This is a spare drive that shows in disk management as two
>> partitions. One is active and shows as 2048.00 GB and healthy(primary
>> partition) there is an unallocated 746.52 GB. I want to restore this
>> to a 3TB drive that is one partition and healthy. I have found no way
>> to do this in disk management that I understand. If I right click and
>> format it only formats as the 2TB. If I right click on the 746 GB
>> unallocated part I can do nothing.
>
>"Unallocated" means there is no partition there, just empty sectors.
>
>In theory, you should be able to either create a new partition in the
>unallocated space, or to extend the primary partition.
>
>In a follow-up, you say that "Extend..." is greyed out. This indicates
>problem(s) that I speculate cannot be resolved without a complete
>reformatting of the whole disk. Just a guess.
>
>IMO, that leaves only the option of creating another partition. Try it.
>If that doesn't work, you'll need more help than I can give you.
>
>Good luck,
>Wolf K.
>
>PS: here's a simplified account of "partition" etc:
> A "partition" is a list of tracks and sectors available for use.
>Its structure depends on the "file system". A file system is a method of
>listing and allocating tracks and sectors to partitions, folders, and
>files. When you "format a disk", the OS writes file-system information
>onto the disk. When you "create a partition", the OS writes relevant
>data onto the HDD. File system and partition data are stored in the
>Master Boot Record for the HDD, along with boot data for the OS.
> Each partition includes an automatically generated default file
>that lists the files and folders in that partition. The necessary
>bookkeeping could be done entirely by the HDD itself, without any OS
>involvement, but for many different reasons, OS involvement is
>preferred. One consequence is the kind of problem you're facing.
> For historical reasons, Windows displays partitions as disks,
>which can be confusing.
> WEK

I tried deleting the partition and creating a new one but that only
gets me back to the original problem. I have found links to
information on using drives over 2TB with Win7 so I have some reading
to do. I have an external 3TB USB 3 drive that works fine so I may
just use it that way for now but my curiosity will get the best of me
and I will eventually find out what needs to be known.
Thanks.

Al

Allen Drake wrote:
> On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:02:28 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
> <> wrote:
>
>> Allen Drake wrote:
>>> On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
>>> <> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Allen Drake wrote:
>>>>> I have this HDD
>>>>> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
>>>>> unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive
>>>>> to it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and
>>>>> quickest way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a
>>>>> cloned drive of a system and just now noticed what somehow
>>>>> has happened. I get confused when I am using cloning
>>>>> applications when I am dealing with drives of different
>>>>> sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
>>>>> on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
>>>>> drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem
>>>>> to like being done with USB connection.
>>>> I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active
>>>> operating system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk
>>>> Management (Start>Programs>Administrative Tools>Disk
>>>> Management). If you want to preserve the data on the disk,
>>>> resize the partition to use the whole disk (Right click>Extend
>>>> volume). If you don't care about saving the data, you can
>>>> alternately delete the partition and create a new one, using
>>>> the whole disk.
>>>>
>>>> If the partition in question is the active operating system,
>>>> you will have to use a third party partitioning program. There
>>>> are several free ones available.
>>> BTW Extend volume is grayed out.
>> Okay. I have no experience with drives that big. You apparently
>> have run up against a partition size limit. Watch for wrap:
>>
>> http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...s-storage.aspx
>>
>>
>
> Do you have an understanding of diskpart commands?

I know what they are, but I have never used them. I think they will have
the same limitations as the GUI manager, including the 2 TB limit. Give
it a try. Since you don't care about saving data, you can't hurt anything.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...(v=ws.10).aspx

--
Crash

Atheism is a matter of faith, too.

On 5/26/2012 5:47 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
>
> I have this HDD
> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/
>
> That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
> unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
> original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
> get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a system
> and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused when I
> am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives of
> different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
> on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these drives
> always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like being
> done with USB connection.
>
> Thanks for any help and comments.
>
> Al
Try giving the free (for home use) program EasUS Partition Master.

Here is a link for information on the program

> http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus...o-tutorial.htm

You can download the free home edition at:
> http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

At the worst it should be able to delete all partitions found on the
drive and create one large partition for you.