3TB HDD shows as Unformatted

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860 posts

Ultimate Geek

#947688 8-Dec-2013 22:27

Hi Richard, so you had the same thing happen? A bit scarey... the 3TB thing is that unstable?
How was the drive after that - did you keep it or have it replaced?

richms

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#947700 8-Dec-2013 23:14

Its fine on proper operating systems, not on old junk that doesnt support GUID partitions without some crazy software from a third party.

Nothing wrong with the drive, its just there was some crazy stuff that the software to make it work on an obsolete OS left that 7 clearly nuked when it did a checkdsk on it that was needed.

Hes still using the drive to back up on, not using it on any other computers and will hopefully be getting a new machine before the next time I am asked to provide stuff to him.

Richard rich.ms

nzkiwiman

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#948815 10-Dec-2013 16:22

The 3TB version of the drive I was looking at is only $25 more than the 2TB
But all this talk of issues with 3TB drives has me thinking I will stick with 2TB for a while longer

Hope you manage to recover your backups

ADKM

860 posts

Ultimate Geek

#948871 10-Dec-2013 18:06

Thanks... and like everything, up till problems it was working great !

And Western Digital aren't too flash with customer support... one reply, courteous but not very helpful and still waiting on next one. Had a look at testdisk. It's a bit daunting... not sure exactly what the heck to do - or perhaps not do!! For practice I'm using an old 250GB drive which oddly shows only 128 GB in Windows. All testdisk seems to do is show 2 partitions that "can't be recovered".

Batman

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#948880 10-Dec-2013 18:14

So hang on

It's the problem linux or xp or other

ADKM

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Ultimate Geek

#948887 10-Dec-2013 18:31

Its XP. I could also use Win7, no linux.

KevinL

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#948910 10-Dec-2013 19:29

Did you follow the step by step guide?

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

ADKM

860 posts

Ultimate Geek

#949051 10-Dec-2013 23:30

Thanks Kevin, that was very helpful. Haven't tries it on the 3TB yet (waiting for email from WD first). Maybe I could check here before I do something if I'm unsure ?

jpoc

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#949079 11-Dec-2013 05:18

richms: Its fine on proper operating systems, not on old junk that doesnt support GUID partitions without some crazy software from a third party.

Nothing wrong with the drive, its just there was some crazy stuff that the software to make it work on an obsolete OS left that 7 clearly nuked when it did a checkdsk on it that was needed.

Hes still using the drive to back up on, not using it on any other computers and will hopefully be getting a new machine before the next time I am asked to provide stuff to him.

I have been using 3 & 4 TB drives for some time now on FreeBSD/ZFS and I have had no problems. No need for weird sector-size manipulations and no need for EFI support on motherboards either. It all just works.

ADKM

860 posts

Ultimate Geek

#951105 12-Dec-2013 16:54

I've had a shot with testdisk but results aren't looking good. Maybe someone more familiar with the programme could comment or suggest anything else to try?

There's 3 screenshots which I tried to upload here (but don't know what happened to it!) . Is it in "gallery" ??

It shows 2 partitions which is right but only sems top allow one to be analysed - then after many hours it says "corrupted"and gives up ? (picture 3).

Guess it's time for a beer !!
Thanks for any more help. Could I even trust the thing again.... it'll be hard to.

ADKM

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Ultimate Geek

#951302 12-Dec-2013 22:46

Well, further to my last, I kept trying and I can't believe it but one of my partitions has restored.
I have half the data back !!!

Instead of being the size it was though (about half of the 3TB) it's showing 2047 GB and no sign of the missing partition in disk management.. I think this 2047 is some limit you need to get around. This needed setting up when the drive was new and the partitions were first created.

Perhaps it has gone for good, but I'm not writing anything to it just in case. Until all hope is lost!

Many. many thanks for suggesting testdisk.

Batman

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#951317 12-Dec-2013 23:25

when you've given up quick delete everything (windows - manage computer - disk management ->)

and then create new drive partition -

in its current form it is highly unstable!

Batman

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#951318 12-Dec-2013 23:25

when you've given up quick delete everything (windows - manage computer - disk management ->)

and then create new drive partition -

in its current form it is highly unstable!

Batman

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#951319 12-Dec-2013 23:25

when you've given up quick delete everything (windows - manage computer - disk management ->)

and then create new drive partition -

in its current form it is highly unstable!

Batman

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#951320 12-Dec-2013 23:25

(%$#@ stupid touchscreen laptop!)

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