External HDD to Internal not working

[Shawns89]

Hi All. I'vea seagate 5tb external hdd into my PC and am having trouble getting the disk to initialize. I've searched and have not found a solution that has worked. The drive is recognized in bios, device manager, disk management and I've run SeaTools and it has passed on all the tests. When I connect it via USB the HDD is detected and I can access all the files, but when connected via SATA I lose that ability. I am not sure what else to do to get the disk to initialize and show up as storage on the PC. There is a ton of data on the drive and I would prefer to not format the drive. Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[JaredDM]

The problem here is a rather complex one. Newer drives such are yours are what's called "advanced format" meaning that it uses 4096 byte (4K) sectors instead of the traditional 512 byte ones. However to accomplish backwards compatibility with older computers they built in an emulation of 8x 512 byte virtual sectors into each physical 4K sector. The emulation is all handled inside the HDD itself.

Knowing however that USB isn't susceptible to issues with 4K sector size, and that the drive is a native 4K size, Seagate (in their infinite wisdom LOL) decided to re-emulate it back to the native 4K size through the USB bridge board. So the problem is that when you were working with the drive via USB it was using 4K sectors, but now that you're directly SATA connected it's emulating 512 bytes. So nothing in the partition table or file system is going to line up to where it's supposed to be. In fact the partition table won't even be recognized because it won't end properly in the last two bytes of sector 0.

I'm sorry to say, but you'd need to actually copy all the data off, format it while SATA connected, and then copy everything back to it if you want to use it as a SATA drive.

 

[Shawns89]

Ok I can move the data to another drive, although it might take a while. The next question is once all the data is removed, how do I format the drive when it's connected via SATA if I can't access the drive. Is there a way I can get around windows not seeing it and format it another way?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the TH Community, @Shawns89!

Everything that @Jared said is totally accurate! Since you are able to access the files on the HDD from the enclosure, then you can basically use it to back the files from there to another external/internal or cloud storage. Once you have a copy of these files on a different storage location, you should be able to format the HDD via SATA.

However, you should also be aware that taking it out of the original enclosure voids the warranty on the HDD. Another thing you should decide is whether you will be using it as an internal or an external drive. You won't be able to swap between both locations without being prompted to re-format every time due to the differently configured LBAs on larger external HDDs that were mentioned above.

If you are determined to make this HDD an internal one, you should still be able to access it by reformatting through Disk management in Windows. Delete the volume that is not accessible from there and then create a new one. Just don't forget to Initialize the drive in GPT (GUID Partition Table) first!

Keep us posted if you have more questions or concerns.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Shawns89]

Thanks Gents. I've moved all the data off of the HDD, and reconnected via SATA. With all the data gone, Disk Management still will not initialize that disk. I've tried AOEMI partition assistant and while it can see the drive it won't let me delete partitions or format it, or take any actions on the disk. It is also showing the disk size as 0.0kb . Any thoughts on how to get this drive to be formatted?

 

[Shawns89]

So I've gotten the disk to format using Gdisk and some instructions found on other threads but I've encountered a new Problem. Now that the disk is recognized, windows takes forever to boot. With the SSD alone it was around 20 seconds, with the OS ssd and the secondary 5tb HDD, it takes nearly 20 minutes to boot and a bit longer for windows to recognize it and make it accessible. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Merry Christmas, @Shawns89!

I'm sorry for the late reply. I'm strongly concerned that your HDD has most probably failed. In order to determine this I'd advise you to run the Short & Long tests from your HDD manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic tool. If the drive shows up as 0.0 kb and it affects your system's performance so poorly, I'd definitely consider the HDD to be the source of the issue. I'd suggest you consider replacing the HDD as soon as possible with a new drive. This one is definitely not to be trusted with your data. It will continue to influence the system's bootup process and performance, unless you unplug it and stop using it until you get it replaced.

Keep me posted with the test results (SMART attributes). Hope this helps you.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Shawns89]

I ran all the scans on the HDD, and they all came back good. no signs of a failing hdd, and works completely fine using the external enclosure. At this point I have resolved to leaving the drive as external and connecting through USB 3.0. I wanted a cleaner desk area but will settle for working devices. Thank you for all the help and insight.