Question New 8TB hard disk not being initialized.

[Solid_Snake11]

Hey guys,
I made my PC a year ago and it runs great. I had purchased a 4TB Toshiba X300 internal HDD for it and it works flawlessly. Recently I decided to add a new HDD in addition and went for 3.5'' Toshiba X300 8TB. But the problem is that my PC is not picking it up. It is being shown as "Unknown Not Initialized" in disk manager and doesn't event show the capacity. Furthermore, if I try to initialize it, it shows "A device which doesnot exist was specified" error. In my BIOS sometimes it would show up as detected but as a 4TB one. I updated my BIOS, all the drivers and then it started to show up as 8TB but that doesn't solve the issue still. I checked all my cables, used new ones, tried installing windows on it(can't because it doesn't show up), heck even Ubuntu because I thought maybe it was a Windows issue. I can not use any software since it doesn't event show up anywhere. This is the 2nd time it is happening(I bought one(same) and returned one already because it was giving me the same error). I have tried everything to my knowledge and still don't know what the issue is. I think its my Motherboard that doesnt support more than 4TB but that doesn't make any sense. Bios is running in UEFI mode and yes I am trying to use GPT.Any help would be appreciated.
My PC specs: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BJ69Rk
Thanks alot!

 

[Barty1884]

Was this 8TB drive purchased new?

There are various potential causes for "unknown / not initialized". Assuming no capacity is showing, then you're looking at either a connection or driver issue.... or a damaged/defective drive.

I would think DISKPART should be able to help you format the drive, even if Windows isn't detecting correctly.

Run an elevated command prompt (cmd, right-click, administrator) and type
DISKPART (then enter)
LIST DISK (then enter)

What shows up at this point? Does the capacity show?

If the capacity shows, try:
SELECT DISK X (where X = the corresponding drive number, and enter)
CLEAN
EXIT
EXIT

While you can continue on in Diskpart to format/partition etc, after performing a 'clean' in Diskpart, the drive should behave normally in Windows .

 

[Solid_Snake11]

Was this 8TB drive purchased new?

There are various potential causes for "unknown / not initialized". Assuming no capacity is showing, then you're looking at either a connection or driver issue.... or a damaged/defective drive.

I would think DISKPART should be able to help you format the drive, even if Windows isn't detecting correctly.

Run an elevated command prompt (cmd, right-click, administrator) and type
DISKPART (then enter)
LIST DISK (then enter)

What shows up at this point? Does the capacity show?

If the capacity shows, try:
SELECT DISK X (where X = the corresponding drive number, and enter)
CLEAN
EXIT
EXIT

While you can continue on in Diskpart to format/partition etc, after performing a 'clean' in Diskpart, the drive should behave normally in Windows .

Hello,
Thanks for the reply. Yes I have done all this as well. When I do "list disks" it shows the 3 disks I have including the new one as DISK 0 but no capacity or anything. I can sometimes select the disk and clean it but creating partition never works, It says it does not exist.

 

[popatim]

Your symptoms are very similar to what happens when the heads can't read the configuration tracks on the HDD. i would send it back for an exchange.

 

[Solid_Snake11]

Your symptoms are very similar to what happens when the heads can't read the configuration tracks on the HDD. i would send it back for an exchange.

I decided to return the hdd. This is the 2nd hdd I have returned(is this luck that both were faulty?I doubt it). I dont know what to do tbh. Should I order a 4TB one, the same I already have or go for the 8Tb again.