# How to get 4kb sector size drives to work with Windows backup?



## jaredudu (Sep 28, 2012)

Hello, I was hoping someone could help me here. I have an external Seagate 3tb drive. Apparently it will not work with Windows backup because Windows barely supports 4kb sectors. Is their any way to work around this with different partitioning, etc?

This review for the product may explain a bit:



> Simply stated, do not purchase this if you would like to backup with Windows Backup & Restore. Why? (Warning: Nerd speak ahead, skip the following paragraph to proceed to rant)
> 
> The drive is formatted in a way that causes the windows backup and restore to fail when creating a system image because it uses a native 4k sector size. Native 4k drives are not supported by Windows 7 ([...]). Although, it seems as though windows is beginning to support 4k sector drives([...]). The hot fix previously referenced does not seem to fix the known compatibility issue referenced in the first URL resulting in Error code: 0x8078002A. I tried everything from reformatting to sharing the drive on another computer and attempting to save the back up through the networked drive. The result of 9 hours of troubleshooting == null.
> 
> ...


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## TRWOV (Sep 28, 2012)

I've got two Seagate 3TB discs and they work fine. Maybe the review is old? I don't use them for backup though.


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## AsRock (Sep 28, 2012)

Back up the hard drive contents and use Windows Disk Manager and format it how you need it ?.. Format 1/2 the drive and the other 1/2 as another ?..

Other wise phone them up and ask for ya money back lol.

Or is there a issue doing that ?.


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## jaredudu (Sep 28, 2012)

Hey guys, the drive works fine when in windows explorer, but the backup utility gives an error when writing to it. Seagate's tools also will not backup to it.


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## jaredudu (Sep 28, 2012)

Here I tried to create a single 2tb partition and the same error occurred.


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## Sasqui (Sep 28, 2012)

jaredudu said:


> http://i.imgur.com/ASw08.jpg
> 
> Here I tried to create a single 2tb partition and the same error occurred.



You are trying to make an image backup onto the 3TB drive?  Perhaps different backup software?  Norton Ghost?


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## Steevo (Sep 28, 2012)

It isn't the 4KB sector size that creates the issue directly, it is the mount point that needs an offset.


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## jaredudu (Sep 28, 2012)

I am trying to backup some computers at my church so purchasing Norton Ghost for all them is not really an option 

Care to elaborate on the offset?


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## 95Viper (Sep 28, 2012)

*First thing you might try is running a Chkdsk/r on all your drives.
If you find errors try the backup after that.*

Second, I don't know who you quoted in that rant, but Advanced Format drives are a different animal.
ADF drives use 4k Physical sectors and your external 3TB drive is using 4k logical sectors and WD fixed their problem with this using their WD Quick formatting tool. Info on that here--> Error: 0x8078002A occurs when backing up to a 2.5 or 3.0 TB drive in Windows 7 Backup and Restore

Now, it seems it may have something to do with using the USB connection. A couple have people have connected their drives up using SATA and had success, but no luck on the usb.

Quote from a Seagate forum poster (last post on that page):


> I have discovered that if you remove the USB adapter and plug the hard drive directly into SATA, repartition and format, it works with windows backup. This seems to confirm what I have read elsewhere, that the drive is normally formatted with 512 byte clusters and the USB adapter emulates 4k clusters. I guess this gives better compatibility with windows xp. When the drive is reattached with the USB adpter, it fails to recognize the partition, if one was made directly thru SATA.



Here are some other threads at Seagaste with some more info: Windows 7 Backup produces errors 0x8078002A, 0x8007045D

GoFlex Desk does not backup MS Windows 7 hard disc

Just a little info for you...
Hope it helps and you get it straightened out.
You may need to contact Seagate for some support and see if they have made any recent remedies.


EDIT: Oh OK, found it.  It was an amazon customer review -->  Backup Minus by Rocky


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## AsRock (Sep 29, 2012)

Maybe you can use WD's version of True image as it should work as your specs indicate that you have a WD HDD in your system.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en


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## jaredudu (Sep 29, 2012)

95Viper said:


> *First thing you might try is running a Chkdsk/r on all your drives.
> If you find errors try the backup after that.*
> 
> Second, I don't know who you quoted in that rant, but Advanced Format drives are a different animal.
> ...



I wonder if purchasing a different hard drive enclosure and pulling the drive out of the current one would help?

AsRock, I believe Seagate's tools use Acronis as well and it did not work.


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