3TB WD Green HDD will not format correctly

[DrB0b]

Hello again Gentlemen and Ladies,
Have 2 WD 3Tb Green HDDs that I am trying to format for a full 3TB as one partition to be used as a backup drive. I have tried about everything I can think of to do so:

1) Tried Ubuntu, wouldnt correctly see it
2) Tried Gparted, would see it but would error out every time I tried to partition it
3) Tried a W7 disk making it GPT but wouldnt allow me to reformat after making it a GPT and only showed it to be 127MB
4) Tried Acronis 9, wouldnt work.
5) Googled the hell out of this and every thing that works for everyone else doesnt for me.

I have 2 of these and the same results above for both when attempting to format to anything larger than 768GB w/ Disk Management.

Any ideas would be great as Im at a loss.
Thanks.

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[goombawaho]

What operating system are you running? For example, GPT is not supported by Windows XP.
Do you have the latest BIOS installed?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/235088/everything_you_need_to_know_about_3TB_hard_drives.html

 

[rclarke250]

What is the system board chipset? Make and model of computer/system board? I know I needed a newer bios revision to correctly see GPT disks, and those AFD advanced format drives from WD, are notorious for not being compatible with a lot of systems.

 

[DrB0b]

@ gooba - The OS is W7. Was trying to format it with relatively "old" hardware here at work but was trying in various Linux formats. Newest Bios on this machine tho.
@rclark - It would make since though if it was a hardware conflict. The system this HDD will finally go in is not mine, I will have to ask what chipset/motherboard he is running. He was having similar issues as above is why he came to me to format them.

I have a new built PC(within the last year) and will try the format there to see if I can make any more headway.
Any other thoughts are more than welcome as I was unaware of the compatibility issues of these WD drives.

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[DrB0b]

Latest machine Ive tried it on was one with an A880GB+ BIOSTAR motherboard with a AMD 880g chipset and no luck. Updated the BIOS and chipset from AMD and still no dice.

motherboard specs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138328

Tried Gparted and PartedMagic again and no luck. Most Linux distros can tell it is a 3TB in the properties but will not format either HDD to anything bigger than 768GB.

Calling WD now to see if there is any utility they recommend.

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[DrB0b]

Using Gparted, then DISKPART w/ Clean on the W7 OS Disk, followed by formatting with Disk Management, I was able to format to a GPT NTFS full 2.7~ TB.

Not sure why this particular combination worked, but Im not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Thanks to all who pitched in.

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[rclarke250]

nice job, and thanks for getting back with what worked for you.