This may be a odd sort of topic, but I hope someone brighter than me can shed some light.
I have a Synology NAS, which had 5x2TB hard drives. I needed to increase the storage capacity, so I replaced the drives with 4TB models.
Before doing so, I wanted to back up the data the NAS contained, so I took a brand new 4TB drive, inserted it into a USB dock (or cradle). I initialized it GPT, formatted it NTFS, and connected it to the NAS.
The NAS recognized the drive as usable, and I backed up 3.6TB of data onto the drive. Before replacing the NAS drives, I wanted to verify the contents of the backup, so I connected the drive to a nearby Windows PC - but didn't use the USB dock. Instead, I connected the drive to an eSATA port on the PC and verified the data was complete and intact.
I replaced the drives in the NAS, waited for the re-installation of the DSM software to complete, then reconnected the drive in the USB cradle, only to find the NAS declared it to now be in an unsupported format. Connected to Windows, via eSATA or the USB dock, the data is still present and intact.
As an expirement, I did the same thing again with a different drive. GPT/NTFS, visible and usable to the NAS. I Copied a file, then disconnected and reconnected to the eSATA port. Once the drive was connected via eSATA, it, too, became unusable due to an unsupported format.
It seem clear, in my mind, that Windows affects some kind of structural change when the drive is connected via USB vs eSATA (and, presumable SATA as well). I was wondering if that is true, and if so, what is it doing?
I have a Synology NAS, which had 5x2TB hard drives. I needed to increase the storage capacity, so I replaced the drives with 4TB models.
Before doing so, I wanted to back up the data the NAS contained, so I took a brand new 4TB drive, inserted it into a USB dock (or cradle). I initialized it GPT, formatted it NTFS, and connected it to the NAS.
The NAS recognized the drive as usable, and I backed up 3.6TB of data onto the drive. Before replacing the NAS drives, I wanted to verify the contents of the backup, so I connected the drive to a nearby Windows PC - but didn't use the USB dock. Instead, I connected the drive to an eSATA port on the PC and verified the data was complete and intact.
I replaced the drives in the NAS, waited for the re-installation of the DSM software to complete, then reconnected the drive in the USB cradle, only to find the NAS declared it to now be in an unsupported format. Connected to Windows, via eSATA or the USB dock, the data is still present and intact.
As an expirement, I did the same thing again with a different drive. GPT/NTFS, visible and usable to the NAS. I Copied a file, then disconnected and reconnected to the eSATA port. Once the drive was connected via eSATA, it, too, became unusable due to an unsupported format.
It seem clear, in my mind, that Windows affects some kind of structural change when the drive is connected via USB vs eSATA (and, presumable SATA as well). I was wondering if that is true, and if so, what is it doing?