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**Jimmy Jump** · 01-30-2015, 12:59 PM

Re: How Do I Get ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 MotherBoard to Recognize my 3TB Drive?

Originally posted by RegGFX View Post

Hello,
I am having trouble getting my ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 to recognize my 3TB Drive.

I was susspecting that a Bios update would fix this, however I wanted to be sure before I try it. I HAVE successfully updated Bios on other Motherboards before but NOT my ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3.

My current Mother Board info is:
Board: ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.00 07/08/2011
Processor: 3.10 gigahertz Intel Core i3-2100
OS:Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)

I found this download support for the latest BIOS update:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z68%20Extreme4%20Gen3/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

I have downloaded Version 2.30 Date 10/16/2012

With these instructions: ASRock - BIOS Upgrade Instruction

My Question is,
1)"BEFORE I TRY THIS" Will this enable me to use my new 3TB Sata HD at full Capacity?
2) Is there a way to backup the current Bios just in case something goes wrong?

To the Forum Please advise...
Thanks in advance...

You don't need to flash your BIOS, you need the AsRock 3TB Utility...

**RegGFX** · 01-30-2015, 04:08 PM

Re: How Do I Get ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 MotherBoard to Recognize my 3TB Drive?

Thank You for your reply, however after installing ASROCK 3TB Utility, next rebooting after install and then going to check my Disk Management, I found that the Converted GPT drive still says only 746.39 GB Unallocated.

I also went to my programs menu and found the ASROCK 3TB Utility installed however, I was not able to find the program .exe. The only option after it installed gives me an uninstall option... Is the ASROCK 3TB Supposed to be automatic after installing? Thus nullifying the need for a program to be executed to continue the process?

Please advise as the utility installed but the drive is till not showing anything close to 3TB. Again please forgive me for overlooking something. I have installed many hard drives and used various utility... Getting this 3TB to recognize is proving to be a little bit frustrating.

Thanks for everyone's patience and please advise what step i am missing?

**RegGFX** · 01-30-2015, 06:09 PM

Re: How Do I Get ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 MotherBoard to Recognize my 3TB Drive?

Well after a 4th try, AMAZINGLY, I FINALLY GOT THE 3TB To be recognized. "Without a BIOS Update" I was SO SCARED I was going to have to do this.

Not totally sure what made it work... it could be a combination of things but here's what I'll share.

1) Per suggestion in previous post, I installed ASR3TB+Unlocker(v1.1) Link: ASRock > 3TB+ Unlocker
2) Installed and then rebooted
3) Go to Disk Management (right click computer->Manage)
4) Right click the box to the left of the volume and set partition style to GPT
5) Right click on the volume->create new simple volume.
6) Create a new volume with the maximum size.
7) Format the disk volume as NTFS
** NOW HERE IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING **

8) Downloaded a GPT Disk utility program called Gparted. Download and burn Gparted to a CD (http://gparted.org) (From a post in Tomshardware: 3TB HDD internal shows up as only 747GB [Solved] - Hard Drives - Storage
9) Put in the Gparted CD and reboot windows
10) Follow the command line instructions to boot Gparted(Just follow the defaults and don't deviate from that)
11) Load up the disk tool then select your volume from the dropdown menu in the top-right
12) In my case I saw the 746.39 GB Unallocated and selected it from the Drop down. Still not the full 3TB
13) From the booted Gparted, I deleted the partition and reformatted it "AGAIN" to NTFS dropdown to the full 746.39 GB **Note in some cases this may activate the Full 3TB and all you have to do is Grow / Shrink the partition... but this was not to be for me, it was still stuck at the DREADED 746.GB... So I continued.
14) Click Apply then while in Gparted. It applies the setting you set from step 13.
15) If not already done so, I made sure the disk was well connected to the Mother Board via SATA Cables and Power (Did NOT use any kind of USB external Hard Drive Docking Station.... Make sure Connect it right to your Motherboard just like a regular Secondary Hard Drive.)
16) Reboot from Gparted, remove the CD disk and boot into Windows.
17) When Windows 7 came up and I checked Disk Manage, WOW THERE IT WAS EXTRA Disk Space that was unallocated right after the 746.39
18) From here I simply extended the partition to full in Disk Manage and DONE! NO BIOS UPDATE NEEDED TO THE Motherboard.

Now I do not really know why it all worked but something told Windows to Get it's Act together and recognize my 3TB after all the steps above I mentioned was completed.

It may be different for anyone else in your case... but hey, It worked for me... Now I can get back to being a Graphics Designer who knows just enough computer tech work to be dangerous....

Anyway thanks to the forum for the suggestions... but again I do not really know what caused this to worked... it took me about 4 tries doing all these same steps and I guess Windows just got fed up and cried "OK THEN HERE IS YOUR 3TB!" ...You Humans! Lol...

Kind Regards everyone. Time for a Beer.

**Jimmy Jump** · 01-31-2015, 04:25 AM

Re: How Do I Get ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 MotherBoard to Recognize my 3TB Drive?

Glad to see you got it sorted

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How Do I Get ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 MotherBoard to Recognize my 3TB Drive?

How Do I Get ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 MotherBoard to Recognize my 3TB Drive?

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