Win7 Pro: Cannot format HGST 4 TB storage drive

[dg27]

My system is a Dell Studio XPS 9100, Win 7 Pro 64-bit, SP1, Intel Core i7 CPU 930 @ 2.80 GHz, 24 GB RAM. Boot drive is a Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB. This is a recent installation.

I used an HGST 4 TB drive partitioned GPT in this system before replacing the boot drive.

I tried to install a new HGST Deskstar 4 TB drive and formatting failed.

I had no problems when installing the first drive in this system last year. It was essentially initialize, format, and I was good to go. (That drive eventually died and was replaced by this drive.)

After physically installing the replacement drive:

1) Win7 reported that the HGST drivers were successfully installed.

2) Disk Management reported that the drive need to be initialized before formatting and I did, using GPT.

3) After that it was all downhill. Formatting failed in both Acronis and Win 7 disk management. With Acronis I received an error message to restart, but after that the drive wasn’t even recognized in Disk Management as initialized.

4) System hung on the Windows screen on boot; would not even boot up till I disconnected the drive. Once I disconnected the drive there were no booting issues.

I don't remember having to make any BIOS changes when I installed the first 4 TB drive.

The failed format triggered an error message in the Event Viewer:

Unexpected failure. Error code: D@01010004

I'm wondering whether there's a conflict of some sort or whether it's just a dead drive.

dg

 

[dg27]

I just wanted to check back and say that the following worked for me. Much of this will be old hat for you, but maybe something will be useful. I think I stated before, but I did have to uninstall Acronis True Image Home 2012 to even begin this process.

Your post doesn't say which Acronis software you used, but it seems that WD is aware enough of this issue that the have their own proprietary solution. However, I don't see that HGST offers anything similar. As HGST operates independently under WD, I wouldn't expect them to have identical problems or solutions.

So.... just in case you decide to try the WD black drive... it does work, as long as you use the properietary Acronis software.

Thanks--this is useful info. The only version of Acronis I've ever had in this machine is the WD Edition (the one you linked to). You mentioned formatting when you had an HDD boot drive. I certainly hope this isn't a requirement. I hope you're saying that just as long as I have the Acronis WD Edition you believe I can successfully format a 4 TB WD Black drive...I certainly don't want to uninstall/reinstall. My Samsung 840 Pro is great.

 

[aallegre]

I just wanted to check back and say that the following worked for me. Much of this will be old hat for you, but maybe something will be useful. I think I stated before, but I did have to uninstall Acronis True Image Home 2012 to even begin this process.

Your post doesn't say which Acronis software you used, but it seems that WD is aware enough of this issue that the have their own proprietary solution. However, I don't see that HGST offers anything similar. As HGST operates independently under WD, I wouldn't expect them to have identical problems or solutions.

So.... just in case you decide to try the WD black drive... it does work, as long as you use the properietary Acronis software.

Thanks--this is useful info. The only version of Acronis I've ever had in this machine is the WD Edition (the one you linked to). You mentioned formatting when you had an HDD boot drive. I certainly hope this isn't a requirement. I hope you're saying that just as long as I have the Acronis WD Edition you believe I can successfully format a 4 TB WD Black drive...I certainly don't want to uninstall/reinstall. My Samsung 840 Pro is great.

Yes--I believe it would have worked if I had used that software from the SSD, I just didn't try it first, so can't say for sure. But the drive is perfectly functional, and the software did exactly what it was supposed to do--Windows formatting was the problem in this case, I believe. Hopefully this works for you!

 

[dg27]

Yes--I believe it would have worked if I had used that software from the SSD, I just didn't try it first, so can't say for sure. But the drive is perfectly functional, and the software did exactly what it was supposed to do--Windows formatting was the problem in this case, I believe. Hopefully this works for you!

Thanks. I may give it a go and will post back. It's weird that the WD Edition wouldn't behave with an HGST drive...