HD loses format when swtiching HD Enclosures

biisama · Mar 22, 2013

I've formatted a 3TB Toshiba (DT01ACA300) Internal HD with GPT on a Windows 7 machine. I am using the drive as external storage.

When the drive is in Enclosure A, 3tb is recognized. When the drive is removed from Enclosure A and put in Enclosure B, it shows up as RAW. When I put the same drive back in Enclosure A, 3tb is recognized.

So, I formatted the same drive as GPT on Enlcosure B. When the drive is in Enslosure B, 3tb is recognized. When the drive is removed from B and placed into A, the drive shows up as RAW. When I put the same drive back in B, 3tb is recognized.

So, that rules out the HD enclosures (Rosewill RX358 U3C- they work fine with other 2tb HDs formatted as MBR and are listed as supporting 3tb drives). Do you think the problem is with the Toshiba brand? (I have 2 Toshiba 3tb HDs that I've tried. Both have same problem) Or, is it the fact that the drives are 3tb?

I do not feel comfortable knowing that my 3tb internal drive will lose its formatting if I put it in a new enclosure.

petteyg359 · Mar 22, 2013

I strongly doubt the rive is "losing its formatting". Do you have a different enclosure you can test with? A quick Google search suggests that the chipset in that enclosure might not fully support GPT, and it's possible whatever workaround might be in place depends on the same drive remaining in use.

cullam3n · Mar 23, 2013

Most likely it is incompatibility between the bridges used in those enclosures.

biisama · Mar 23, 2013

Enclosures A & B are the same model. They support 3tb. The 3tb drive will work in whichever enclosure it is formatted in (A or B). It loses the format when it is switched between A & B. So, the problem is not whether the enclosure supports 3tb.

Also, A & B have no problem switching back and forth drives that are 2tb and keeping the 2tb formatted. So, that would indicate the interface chips are compatible and not the problem.

Also, the reason I buy Internal HDs and put them in enclosures, is to afford me the luxury of switching enlosures when the enclosure breaks. Not being able to remove the internal HD from the enclosure defeats the purpose.

I think I'm just gonna RMA the 2 Toshiba 3TB drives.

biisama · Mar 23, 2013

petteyg359 said:
it's possible whatever workaround might be in place depends on the same drive remaining in use.

Good point.

cullam3n · Mar 23, 2013

biisama said:
Also, A & B have no problem switching back and forth drives that are 2tb and keeping the 2tb formatted. So, that would indicate the interface chips are compatible and not the problem.

Not necessarily. I think that both bridges read LBA (Large Block Addressing) differently from each other, which is how they report their drive size to Windows with partitions over 2TB. 2TB and under it wouldn't be an issue, which is why you can swap in between one. I would imagine that one is presenting 512KB sectors while the other is presenting 4KB. If you take them out of the enclosure and put connect them directly via SATA, try this command here (tested with Windows 7)

Code:

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:  # where C: is the drive in question

in command prompt for

1) A drive formatted with enclosure A
1a) With the drive formatted with enclosure A directly connected with SATA
2) A drive formatted with enclosure B
2a) With the drive formatted with enclosure B directly connected with SATA
3) A drive formatted with enclosure A connected to enclosure B
4) A drive formatted with enclosure B connected to enclosure A

and post the results.

petteyg359 · Mar 23, 2013

cullam3n said:
512KB sectors while the other is presenting 4KB

Pretty sure that should be 512B.

cullam3n said:
3) A drive formatted with enclosure A connected to enclosure B
4) A drive formatted with enclosure B connected to enclosure A

If Windows isn't seeing partitions on those drives, there aren't going to be drive letters to use in that command

Regardless, this still points to the enclosures as being the problem.

@biisama, you might check Rosewill's site for a firmware update, perhaps one of the enclosures is using an older version that doesn't support 4KB sectors. See http://www.rosewill.com/products/917/ProductDetail_Download.htm (I think that's the right model).

cullam3n · Mar 23, 2013

petteyg359 said:
Pretty sure that should be 512b.

If Windows isn't seeing partitions on those drives, there aren't going to be drive letters to use in that command Regardless, this still points to the enclosures as being the problem.

@biisama, you might check Rosewill's site for a firmware update, perhaps one of the enclosures is using an older version that doesn't support 4KB sectors. See http://www.rosewill.com/products/917/ProductDetail_Download.htm (I think that's the right model).

Yes you are right I meant 512B

You can have disks show up as RAW assigned with drive letters.

HD loses format when swtiching HD Enclosures

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