How do I make use of a G Raid Thunderbolt 4TB external HDD on a 64-bit Win7 system?

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mhdapp

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Apr 20, 2015
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I have a 64-bit Windows 7 system. I recently purchased a fully functioning used GRaid 4TB(2TBx2) Thunderbolt external HDD. I pulled the drives, since I don't have Thunderbolt capabilities on my pc, and connected them to the SATA ports on my mb. I installed Disk Drill which allowed me to see what's on one of the drives(414GB's of media), the other is empty. How can I access the EXT4 file system with my pc and actually use it. I'm not totally against putting the drives back in the enclosure and getting some type thunderbolt adapter if that would work. The loss in speed wouldn't be an issue.
I hope my question makes sense. Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
WyomingKnott
A couple of questions.

First, do you need / want / have license to use the files on those drives, or can they be scratched? Second, do you want to use the features of the GRaid box, or are you happy with just two new empty drives?

I ask because, depending on the answer, the process can be simple or complex. If you just want to use the drives as new drives, I would go the simple route of re-initializing them as GPT drives (or even plain old MBR drives), creating one partition each, and formatting the partition. It would be like you got two new drives.

==================================

If you need to read what's already on the drives, you could download some software to read ext4 from Windows - google "ext4 file system windows"...
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WyomingKnott

WyomingKnott

Legenda in Aeternum
Aug 29, 2006
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A couple of questions.

First, do you need / want / have license to use the files on those drives, or can they be scratched? Second, do you want to use the features of the GRaid box, or are you happy with just two new empty drives?

I ask because, depending on the answer, the process can be simple or complex. If you just want to use the drives as new drives, I would go the simple route of re-initializing them as GPT drives (or even plain old MBR drives), creating one partition each, and formatting the partition. It would be like you got two new drives.

==================================

If you need to read what's already on the drives, you could download some software to read ext4 from Windows - google "ext4 file system windows" and all sorts of stuff will pop up.

If you don't want to give up the external functionality, such as portability and possibly using RAID1 to enhance reliability (at the cost of half of the usable storage space), then you need a way to connect that box to your machine. Does it have any ports other than Thunderbolt, such as USB 3.0 or SCSI over Fiber Ethernet?

(note that the latter choice was a bad joke)

EDIT: If this is the product: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1024614&gclid=CI6J5fydhcUCFZIdgQodWVgA8g&Q=&is=REG&A=details , then it has USB 3.0 and you can just plug it into a USB 3.0 port. Heck, you can plug it into a USB 2.0 port, but that will limit the speed.
 
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