Disk Utility will not format 3TB drives

[ColinDPritchard]

We just got 2 new internal Toshiba 3TB drives for an external enclosure. Disk Utility refuses to format them as 3TB. Only gives me 801.23GB. The connection is over firewire. Not sure if that matters. The Mac is running 10.11.6.

Any ideas on what we can do to fix this?

 

[DeltaMac]

It's probably the bridge chip in your enclosure.
What brand of enclosure do you have?

Likely your enclosure does not support drives larger than 2.2TB
So, a 3 TB will report (incorrectly) the space above 2.2 TB as available - which is where the 801.23GB comes from.
If you google for "801.23 GB", you will find a few questions about that exact amount, just like your question about using a 3TB hard drive in an external enclosure.

Try a different enclosure.

 

[ColinDPritchard]

The enclosure specs states it supports up to 8TB drives. It is a NexStar MX.

Also, we had 2TB drives in the enclosure previously and they ran fine.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^User's Manual says this:



Lou

 

[ColinDPritchard]

We have a different model with Firewire and USB 3.0. The manual I have for it says up to 8TB.

However, if it only supports up to 2TB, why will it not let me format them as 2TB??

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Have you checked for a firmware update?

Lou

 

[ColinDPritchard]

I contacted support and it turns out that the enclosure we have does not support more than 2TB. So you were correct @flowrider .

BUT, why can't I format the drives to 2TB? Why will it only let me go to 800GB??

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Can't answer that, surprised you didn't ask support when you were talking to them. Did you ask about a firmware update?

Lou

 

[ColinDPritchard]

They said there was no firmware update available. We decided to return the 3TB drives and get 2TB instead.

Thanks for your help on this!