MP 1,1-5,1 Hard drive question

[Aameiel]

I have a 5,1 Mac Pro and recently picked up a 4TB drive so I can have more space for Windows. Can’t seem to get the drive to work. Is there a limit that these old macs can use or do I have to format it in a certain way. Sorry if this is a super noob question I just need help.

 

[BobD2]

I have a 5.1 Mac Pro (Mid 2010) with two 4TB drives and one 8 TB drive in addition to a 500 GB SSD. I am still on High Sierra. They all work fine. Whatever your problem is, it's not due to a limitation of that particular model of Mac Pro. There was an issue with some 4TB HGST hard disks. Some of them wouldn't boot upon restart. You had to do a hard shutdown and then startup to mount them, after which they would function normally. However, this doesn't sound like your issue. There have been some discussion threads on this issue in the past.

If Apple's Disk Utility recognizes the disk, perhaps use that to format it and see what happens. Alternatively, perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me will post a better solution.

 

[Average Pro]

I ran into the same problem back in the day with my 5,1. The MP wouldn't allow me to format large-sized HDDs (I don't recall the size, but 4TB seems like the starting point). But when I used an external drive (Newer Technology, Voyager), it worked with Disk Utility. Once formatted, the MP recognized it.
Good luck.

 

[Aameiel]

How should I format it in disk Utility so I can install windows ?

 

[BobD2]

I've never done this. But this might help: https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/format-a-disk-for-windows-computers-dskutl1010/mac

 

[BobD2]

For more answers, Google is your friend:
formatting a disk to run windows 7 using Apple's disk utility