# Problems with 4TB HDD



## Saidrex (Dec 17, 2016)

Bought a 4TB internal HDD, connected, set it as GPT disk, formatted it and everything works fine. Then I removed HDD and put it in external enclosure, connected to USB and it requires formatting again. Did everything again - GPT and formatting.
After a while, I needed to move large amount of files from internal HDD and it's faster done if both drives are connected to SATA than using USB2. I removed it from external enclosure and connected to SATA - it requires formatting again. It already has files on it so I can't format it. Why it keeps doing that? Requiring formatting whenever I connected it in different way and even when I use different external enclosure? Thing is I plan to purchase USB3 enclosure for it in future, problem is, it requires formatting even when I change enclosure, when I buy new enclosure it will be decently filled up so I won't be able to use different enclosure, ever, because of this weird behavior of HDD.

OS is Windows 7 x64

*Edit1*: Mobo - Asus P5G41T-M LX; HDD - Toshiba MD04ACA400
*Edit2*: same problem when using HDD dock.


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## natr0n (Dec 17, 2016)

I always format as mbr and can swap drives as you have never an issue.


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## Saidrex (Dec 17, 2016)

natr0n said:


> I always format as mbr and can swap drives as you have never an issue.



HDD's larger than 2TB require GPT.


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## natr0n (Dec 17, 2016)

Saidrex said:


> HDD's larger than 2TB require GPT.



Only if booting from it otherwise you can use mbr on a 4tb for storage.


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## Saidrex (Dec 17, 2016)

natr0n said:


> Only if booting from it otherwise you can use mbr on a 4tb for storage.



I tried that, it allows to use only 2TB of drive. Other space remains unallocated and it doesn't allow to create another partition.


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## xorbe (Dec 17, 2016)

Saidrex said:


> Bought a 4TB internal HDD, connected, set it as GPT disk, formatted it and everything works fine. Then I removed HDD and put it in external enclosure, connected to USB and it requires formatting again. Did everything again - GPT and formatting.
> After a while, I needed to move large amount of files from internal HDD and it's faster done if both drives are connected to SATA than using USB2. I removed it from external enclosure and connected to SATA - it requires formatting again. It already has files on it so I can't format it. Why it keeps doing that? Requiring formatting whenever I connected it in different way and even when I use different external enclosure? Thing is I plan to purchase USB3 enclosure for it in future, problem is, it requires formatting even when I change enclosure, when I buy new enclosure it will be decently filled up so I won't be able to use different enclosure, ever, because of this weird behavior of HDD.
> 
> OS is Windows 7 x64



I was able to move disks between my Vantec Nexstar enclosure (no hdd included) and the PC, but not between a Seagate enclosure (came w/hdd) and the PC.  So, it seems like some hdd enclosures do something funny, maybe a sector offset or something.


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## R-T-B (Dec 17, 2016)

Some HDD enclosues incorperate internal data encryption.  This is likely what you are running into.


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## Saidrex (Dec 17, 2016)

R-T-B said:


> Some HDD enclosues incorperate internal data encryption.  This is likely what you are running into.



I also tried using HDD dock - same problem. Connect to SATA - format it, then remove and connect trough HDD dock - requires format again.


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## R-T-B (Dec 17, 2016)

Saidrex said:


> I also tried using HDD dock - same problem. Connect to SATA - format it, then remove and connect trough HDD dock - requires format again.



What HDD and what enclosure / HDD dock?


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## Saidrex (Dec 17, 2016)

R-T-B said:


> What HDD and what enclosure / HDD dock?



Logilink QP0020 dock and Gembird ee3-u3s-2 enclosure


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## R-T-B (Dec 17, 2016)

Hmmm...  sadly I have nothing further to offer other than I don't think either of those would use encryption.


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## revin (Dec 17, 2016)

Saidrex said:


> HDD's larger than 2TB require GPT


I use MBR on both my 3Tb drive's, but the 2nd one I had to use an external partition manager to format the last sector.
For some reason, with my first 3Tb I was able to use MBR for all four partitions, and nobody has had a clue how I was able to perform that


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## newtekie1 (Dec 17, 2016)

This is very strange, MBR vs GPT shouldn't matter.  I've moved plenty of GPT drives from SATA to USB and vice versa without problem.

What file system are you formatting these drives to?


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## Saidrex (Dec 17, 2016)

newtekie1 said:


> This is very strange, MBR vs GPT shouldn't matter.  I've moved plenty of GPT drives from SATA to USB and vice versa without problem.
> 
> What file system are you formatting these drives to?



NTFS. Yeah, it's very weird. I haven't been able to find anything online even similar to the problem i'm having.


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## Vulcansheart (Jan 7, 2017)

The disk is not set to dynamic is it?


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## Jetster (Jan 7, 2017)

It all depends on the USB device. Some may have there own type of partition. Also, now you can format larger than 2 Tb with MBR because of 4K sector technology on newer drives

MBR permits a maximum of 232 sectors. This means that with conventional 512-byte sectors, the maximum supported disk size is 2.2 TB (2 TiB). However, with 4K sectors, the maximum disk size becomes 17.6 TB (16 TiB).

There is no benefit to using MBR. Unless your are using an old system

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/218619en


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## cdawall (Jan 8, 2017)

newtekie1 said:


> This is very strange, MBR vs GPT shouldn't matter.  I've moved plenty of GPT drives from SATA to USB and vice versa without problem.
> 
> What file system are you formatting these drives to?



I have never seen this in the thousands of drives I see monthly...


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 8, 2017)

That usb controller is crap


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## areamike (Feb 1, 2017)

Specs. say your USB enclosure supports USB 3.0.

I'm a little confused. Is the drive in the enclosure when you format it, then you move it to the dock and it requires formatting again?


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## Miguel2013 (Feb 3, 2017)

Saidrex said:


> HDD's larger than 2TB require GPT.


what if I make a 2TB partition can I then use MBR?


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## Miguel2013 (Feb 3, 2017)

eidairaman1 said:


> That usb controller is crap


on the main board or the enclosure?


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 3, 2017)

Ubuntusario said:


> on the main board or the enclosure?



Id say the enclosure.


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## Jetster (Feb 3, 2017)

Enclosures aren't meant to be hot swapped back and forth. Get a proper docking bay if you want to move the drive around


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## cdawall (Feb 3, 2017)

Ubuntusario said:


> what if I make a 2TB partition can I then use MBR?



You will only be able to make one 2tb partition doing that. You cannot allocate the rest of the drive using mbr


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