3TB Hard Drive Only Shows 2TB - How to Break 2TB Limit and Format 3TB HDD Windows 11/10

Q: 3TB drive format Windows 11/10 not working, how to solve?

"I am using a Western Digital 3TB hard drive and I can not format the extra 700GBs. Once I hit format, it says " Windows can not format the drive ". I tried everything I could think of but it doesn't work either. Please help." - A user from Microsoft Community

3TB hard drive only showing 746GB/750GB on Windows 11/10, 3TB hard drive only shows 2TB, or 3TB HDD not showing full capacity issue happens to a lot of users. When you check the disk capacity in Disk Management, you might see the 3TB hard drive only showing as a 2TB partition. The remaining space is displayed as an unallocated space, but you cannot use it to expand or create new partitions.

Why Does My 3TB Hard Drive Only Shows 2TB 

This happens mostly because your 3TB hard disk was initialized to MBR.

So, why 3TB hard drive only uses 2TB, and why you cannot create a new partition with the unallocated space on the 3TB disk? It is most likely because of MBR disk' limitation. If you check the partition style, you will find it is MBR (Master Boot Record), not GPT (GUID Partition Table).

We have a detailed guide to explain MBR VS GPT. Here, let's simply look at the difference between MBR and GPT disks, and then you'll see why the 3TB hard drive only shows 2TB.  

Now, you know that, for a 3TB MBR hard drive, Windows will only be able to address the first 2 TB and all that extra storage beyond 2TB will be unusable. In this case, you can format the 3TB hard drive and use the full space by converting MBR to GPT. Move on, let's see how to convert MBR to GPT without data loss.

How to Fix 3TB Hard Drive Only Shows 2TB and Format 3TB Hard Drive on Windows 11/10/8/7

To solve the 3TB hard drive showing as 2TB problem and format a 3TB hard drive on Windows 11/10/8/7, you can convert the MBT disk to GPT disk in three ways below. The first method is the best choice as there is no need to delete a partition or data at first. The second and third ways require partition deletion before the conversion.

1. Convert MBR to GPT Without Losing Data by Using a Partition Manager

The first way we strongly recommend you try is using Qiling Partition Master - a superior disk management tool that can directly convert MBR to GPT without deleting any partition or file.

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

With Qiling partition manager, you can:

• Resize/move partitions (e.g., move space from D drive to C drive), create, format, delete, and merge partitions
• Copy and clone an entire disk to another even the target partition is smaller than the source
• Convert a logical partition to primary or primary partition to logical, FAT32 to NTFS partition, and more
• Migrate OS to SSD to speed up Windows to upgrade hard disk and speed up Windows 11/10

Now, download Qiling partition management tool to convert MBR to GPT with a few clicks. You can still easily convert GPT to MBR in vice versa.

Step 1. Download and launch Qiling Partition Master on your Windows computer.

Step 2. Click the MBR disk that you want to convert, click "More..." button and choose "MMBR -> GPT".

2. Convert MBR to GPT to Format 3TB HDD in Disk Management

Windows Disk Management offers the disk conversion feature. But it only converts an empty disk or you will see the Convert to GPT Disk greyed out. If there are files or partitions on the 3TB hard drive, back up all the data beforehand.

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows button, select "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click the 3TB hard drive shows the wrong capacity. Choose "Delete Volume...". 

Step 3. When the hard drive shows as unallocated space, right-click the disk and choose "Convert to GPT Disk".

3. Convert 3TB Disk from MBR to GPT Using Diskpart in CMD

You can use the Command Prompt to convert MBR to a GPT disk. Also, you need to delete all the files and partitions. So, back up data in advance. 

Step 1. Press Win+R keys, type CMD, and press Enter to open the command prompt.

Step 2. Type diskpart and hit Enter. Type the following commands in order; remember to press Enter after you input each one.

list disk
select disk n (n means the drive letter, replace it with your 3TB drive letter)
clean (clear all partitions on the selected disk)
convert gpt

Step 3. Type Exit when the conversion finished. Now, the 3TB hard drive becomes all unallocated. You can continue to format the 3TB disk and create partitions. Type the following commands and press enter after each one. 

create partition primary 
assign letter=N (N can be replaced by any letter that is not occupied currently) 
format fs=ntfs quick 

Step 4. Type exit and press Enter.

Final Verdict

After reading this post, we're sure you've understood why you can't format a 3TB hard drive on Windows 11/10. You can break MBR 2TB file system limit and convert your disk to GPT. Thus, you can format a 3TB hard drive and take full use of the space.

Qiling Partition Master is a user-friendly partitioning tool that allows both beginners and pros to partition 3TB, 4TB, as well other large-capacity disks. It can easily optimize disk partitions to extend your hard drive and computer's capability.  

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

More 3TB HDD FAQs That You Might Be Interested in  

Here are a few questions related to why the hard drive not showing full capacity and how to format a 3TB HDD on Windows 11/10. If you also have any of these problems, you can find the methods here.

Does Windows 11/10 support 3TB hard drives? 

Windows 11/10 supports large disk capacities, such as 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, and 6TB. For a hard drive that is larger than 2TB, you need to initialize it to GPT or convert it to GPT (when data have been saved).

Why is my hard drive not showing full capacity?

Except for the wrong partition table, the hard drive might show the wrong capacity for other causes:

• The hard drive driver is out of date.
• The hard drive is format improperly or the formatting process is incomplete.
• MBR or GPT header gets corrupted due to accidental insertion and removal.
• Errors caused by bad sectors.  

How do I format a 3TB hard drive to FAT32? 

FAT32 can only support up to 2TB partition size, and a single file can only support up to 4GB. This means you can't use another 1 terabyte space if you format a 3TB hard drive to FAT32. But if your disk is a special 4K sector disk, FAT32 can support up to 8TB of capacity.

If you insist on formatting your 3TB disk to FAT32, follow these steps:

• Install and launch Qiling Partition Master. Right-click on the 3TB hard drive and choose "Resize/Move".
• Drag the partition ends to make the partition less than 2TB. 
• Right-click on unallocated space, and choose "Create" a FAT32 partition.

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