Hard Drive Options Greyed Out In Disk Managment

I found these helpful directions using diskpart. But I don't know to put for value to put for "shrink desired". I don't want to lose any of the data. It took a whole day to move it because I couldn't clone it.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/all-options-are-greyed-out-in-disk-management.html

Try install the new 16TB hdd internally, and install the old 8 TB hdd in an external hdd enclosure which is usually connected to pc via usb 2.0.  Verify that you can access old data on the external old hdd. Go inside disk mgmt to delete the volume of new hdd, create single new volume, format it. Now you should have a brand new D: of 16 TB by default (C: is the boot drive).  Now you can copy/paste old data from external old hdd to new internal hdd. may take a while.

If your boot drive is a M.2 ssd, you can also connect new hdd internally first and make it a new D: drive, power down, install old hdd temporarily using extra sata data cable and power cable, power up, Windows may automatically assign E: to old hdd. Then you can copy old data from E: to D:, which is faster then external USB2.0/

@redxps630​ Thanks so much for replying. I was thinking the same thing (just plug the old data drive into the enclosure and start the process again) but now my old hard drive won't mount in the enclosure. Frustrating

I guess I am going to back up to a different external drive. Reinstall the new one and start fresh. Just means I have to transfer twice, which will take 2 days. oh boy. 

Do you mean your pc does not detect old hdd installed in external hdd enclosure?  
If you have m.2 boot drive try my second reply.

@redxps630​ Yea my old drive wouldn't mount in my enclosure. I reinstall it back in internally and it works. Some weird voodoo going on. I would do your second option but I don't have an extra cable and I am not sure I can install a third drive. Where would the extra sata data cable and power cable go? Sorry as you can tell not the most computer savvy. 

Go inside bios and check sata operation.  If it is RAID, it may explain the voodoo.  If it is AHCI, good.

If your pc comes with a slim dvd drive, it uses a sata data cable which you can borrow.  Your pc motherboard has a sata power cable that has two connectors.  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A4aPw95cE2o

this video shows multiple sata power connectors available inside 3880.

If your bios SATA operation is RAID, you need to do the following, otherwise your old hdd is tied to boot drive and you will have trouble migrating to new hdd.

It is necessary to boot in safe mode in order to switch from RAID to AHCI without performing a clean installation.
Follow these steps to switch to AHCI on Windows 10:

• Open a Command Prompt with administrative rights.
• Type the following command: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
• Restart the computer.
• Enter the BIOS Setup by pressing F2
• Change the SATA Operation mode from RAID to AHCI.
• Save changes and exit.
• Windows 10 should now boot and load in Safe Mode.
• Open a Command Prompt with administrative rights.
• Type the following command: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
• Reboot your system.
• Windows 10 should now start with AHCI enabled.

@redxps630​ Thanks for this info. I wish I had seen it earlier. Keep in mind installed the 8tb hard drive with little to no problems. Is it possible 16tb is too much?

I basically chose the path of least resistance (I thought). Because my old drive wouldn't mount in the external enclosure, I found room on my back up drive to move all the info. But now the 16TB does not want to work internally. I first tried the 16TB in the enclosure (seems to work fine). Internally still getting greys and can't do anything.

I tried deleting the volume completely (when i could access it in the external enclosure) and putting it in internally. Didn't work and I tried formatting to the old drive file path (D: Data) and both times it gives me this:

The 16TB hdd is not initialized: a large 13TB chunk of it is raw and unallocated.  There is no partition.  A small 2 TB has GPT partition.  If you could not delete the entire volume of this hdd in disk mgmt and create single new volume (which is to initialize it and create single large GPT partition) then format it, then read my last reply re: RAID vs AHCI.

I ended up purchasing Mini Tool Partition to wipe the drive. It was being really stubborn. Turned the computer back on and it gave me the 'you have a unformatted hard drive' prompt in disk management. 

You do not really need any third party tool to partition (initialize) and format a healthy hdd.

the terminology is when the hdd has zero partition (all old partitions deleted) it is “unallocated.”

you create new single volume in disk mgmt, which creates single GPT partition on the hdd.  You then format it in typically NTFS.  This is all default settings.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager-software/new-simple-volume.html