[SOLVED] GPT disk "not initilized" when moved from USB dock to SATA.

[zdal05]

I have a 4TB disk which I initialized and accessed from a USB docking station. I just tried to move that disk to a SATA connection. BIOS recognizes it but Windows says it is not initialized. I moved it back to the docking station and now it's fine again. I have done this before with an MBR disk without problems. Is there something I'm not understanding about GPT disks or is this a bug?

 

[SkyNetRising]

That is nothing unusual.
USB enclosure may create/use some non standard drive partitioning. When such drive is moved from usb enclosure to sata connection, drive needs to be repartitioned and reformatted.

 

[zdal05]

I find this unsatisfactory. It is the OS and not the docking station which creats the partition table. The docking station is attached to the same computer/OS. I need more explanation.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Well - I can only tell from personal experience with USB enclosures.
I have several HGST 4TB external USB drives.

I created a single large partition (consuming all space ~3700GB) and drive is in USB enclosure.
Next - I removed the drive from enclosure and connected it directly with sata cables.
Now, when I look in Disk Management - there is not 1 but 2 partitions (sizes ~1500GB and ~2200GB).

Clearly there is a difference, how partitions are created in USB enclosure and with sata connection. USB to sata converter in enclosure makes the difference.

 

[zdal05]

I admit the obvious truth of this but it should not be. Why should it be true of GPT format disk and not for MBR disks? This needs more research. Any suggestions?

 

[SkyNetRising]

There is a ton of different hdd usb enclosures.
You just have to accept, that those may do things differently (not in a standardized way and not even compatible with each other).

 

[barney_5uk]

I confirm this weird behavior - I use an external enclosure with eSATA and USB 3 connection, and while I used to use 3 - 4 TB hard disks on a RAID controller, using eSATA connection, I found the following:

• having 3 and 4 TB hard disk fornatted in Windows 7 on the RAID controller, using eSATA connection, I can use the hard disk this way
• then I remove the eSATA cable and plug the hard disk in using the USB 3 cable, Disk Management shows the hard disk as being "unformatted" and asks to format the hard disk
• I don't format the hard disk, rather remove USB cable and plug in again eSATA cable, the hard disk shows up as nothing had happened
• when I format the hard disk using USB cable, then plug in using eSATA cable, the same happens vice versa and the hard disk shows then up like being "unformatted"
• this happens only to large hard disks, GPT formatted

There must be some incompatibility between formatting ´via USB and via (e)SATA, about we don't know

 

[fzabkar]

The problem is well known and has been discussed and explained in numerous threads. Essentially the USB-SATA bridge firmware is reporting a 4Kn sector size to the OS. When the drive is removed from such an enclosure and connected directly to an internal SATA port, it reports its 512e sector size. The OS then sees the partition table in sector 0, but every other sector is out by a factor of 8. Essentially you now have a 4Kn file system on a 512e HDD.

You can see your file system with DMDE:
https://dmde.com/download.html

R-click your data volume and expand the Root.

See https://goughlui.com/2013/10/02/experiment-usb-to-sata-bridge-chips-and-2tb-drives/

Also see the plethora of configurations here:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-show-as-uninitialized-in-another-pc.3503743/