Use Drive from an External Enclosure (Spefifically: WD Elements 4TB)

[LuckLess_7]

Hi, I just successfully removed the enclosure of my WD Elements drive as I use it constantly anyway. I did originally format it as NTFS as a single volume, no other partitions. However when I plug it in using SATA, I get a notification to format it and it shows up in Disk Manager as this: https://i.imgur.com/zIADBIX.png

Unplugging it from SATA and using the little controller that from the enclosure and plugging it back via USB, the original partition/format returns. https://i.imgur.com/IsHT17G.png

I have two options: Transfer everything to another drive as big, reformat it internally and copy everything back (which would take a loong time...)

Or figure out how to have Windows recognize the drive in its original state. Preferred option

 

[USAFRet]

Your first option is by far the safest and more guaranteed to not mess up your data.

 

[LuckLess_7]

Yeah, I guess so. I just found this on Tom's Hardware which is basically my issue http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2757990/elements-external-drive-parititons-corrupted-internal-drive.html so I guess unpopular option #1 it is.. Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, I guess so. I just found this on Tom's Hardware which is basically my issue http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2757990/elements-external-drive-parititons-corrupted-internal-drive.html so I guess unpopular option #1 it is.. Thanks

Yup
"The reason why you are unable to get it properly recognized via SATA is because you have exposed the drive to its native 512e sector size (when connected via SATA), but inside the enclosure the mass storage has a 4KB sector size. What happens is that Windows recognizes a 4KB file system on a 512e physical drive. "

A little trickery in the firmware of the enclosure.