GPT formatted 4TB HDD gets detected but reports incorrect capacity and doesn't show the files stored in it

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kkumar28

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Aug 16, 2015
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Hello Hardware Gurus,

I bought an ST4000VN000 some 1 year ago and initialized it to GPT with the entire 4000GB allocated to one partition. It was basically intended to be used as a storage drive. The drive worked fine in my home country and since it had a lot of data in it, I decided to carry it over to the country where I'm staying now. I assembled a PC here and although the motherboard (MSI P55-GD80) is not the latest and greatest, it does support larger than 2.2 TB hard drives (I updated the motherboard to the latest BIOS version to make sure that it does). I connected the hard drive and powered on the system. The POST took some time but I was eventually booted to Windows 7. The hard drive wasn't detected straight away so I did a "Scan for hardware changes" in Device Manager. After this, Windows detected the hard drive and installed the necessary drivers for it. Then, I went to Disk Management to mount my partition but to my surprise, Windows wanted me to initialize the drive and Disk Management was showing two 128GB partitions instead on one 4000GB. In BIOS, the drive shows up but the capacity is shown as 0MB. The drive passes the SeaTools SMART test but fails the short generic test. Connecting the drive through a SATA to USB bridge didn't help either.

Please suggest a solution if you have any. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you need more information.

Thank you very much!
Regards,
Kaushal
 
Solution
Boogieman_WD
Hey there, kkumar28.

You could try the drive with a different computer to see if the same thing happens, or at least with a different SATA port and cables. Although it sounds like the drive might still be under warranty and I'd try to RMA it if I were you, having in mind it fails one of the tests.
If you don't need your data, you could try to low level format it (a.k.a. write zeros) and then initialize, partition and format it, to see if anything changes.

Hope that helps
Boogieman_WD
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, kkumar28.

You could try the drive with a different computer to see if the same thing happens, or at least with a different SATA port and cables. Although it sounds like the drive might still be under warranty and I'd try to RMA it if I were you, having in mind it fails one of the tests.
If you don't need your data, you could try to low level format it (a.k.a. write zeros) and then initialize, partition and format it, to see if anything changes.

Hope that helps
Boogieman_WD
 
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kkumar28

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Aug 16, 2015
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4,510


Hi Boogieman_WD,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I don't have a spare desktop lying around but I did check with my laptop using a SATA-to-USB bridge and the result was the same. I tried with different SATA ports and cables as well. I do have backups of the important stuff but I would be willing to pay a small amount to someone who can fix it. I noticed that it makes some beeping(not clicking) sounds when I turn on the computer. After some research, I understand that this maybe due to a stuck head. If I give my hard drive to a third party for recovery/repair, will it void my warranty?

Thanks,
Kaushal
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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If the drive is still under warranty, I'd suggest again that you try to RMA it, having in mind you don't need to recover any data. If you give the drive to a 3rd party company you'll most probably void its warranty, but I can't be sure about that. It's best that you contact the drive manufacturer's customer support and ask, so that you know what your options are.
It really sounds like the drive might be having mechanical issues, so I doubt that it can be repaired if this is the case.
 
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