New external WD 5tb hdd only works on usb, not internally. Any ideas?

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MrThomas

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Jan 28, 2016
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I hope you can help me solve this, I'm running out of ideas.
I've bought an external 5tb WD hard drive, that I wanted to use internally in my computer.
Thus I've removed the drive from its cover and connected it to a sata cable & can see it in my Windows Explorer (Windows 10). However, when I try to access it, I'm told that I need to format the drive, in order for Windows to use it/recognize it.
When looking at it in Disk Management, I can also see the drive, but it tells me the Primary partition is RAW and the remaining two partitions are unallocated. It should all be one big partition, since I haven't partioned it into smaller sizes though.
Since I have files on my drive, I don't want to format it & it works perfectly fine, if I connect it via usb.
So, to sum it up, here's how things look currently:
I've tried different sata cables, incl. the powercables, no luck.
I've tried different sata ports, no luck.
I've tried switching a setting in my BIOS, to IDE, which didn't do anything.
I've tried deactivating the drive in device manager, rebooting and reactivating it, no luck.
I've tried updating its drivers, no luck (Windows claims to have already installed the best ones).
I've tried connecting it again via the original usb from its external case, works perfectly.

So, any ideas? Is the original formatting via usb, somehow preventing it from working internally? Do I actually need to format this again and will that even work? It was a lot of work copying files to the external drive, so I don't want to waste time having to do that again after a format, if a format won't help any.
 
Solution
Boogieman_WD
Yes, that drive doesn't feature hardware encryption, which would make this situation a little odd. But actually cases like this one are not unheard of. Even with internal drives when reformatted via a 3rd party external enclosure or a different device, such as a DVR for example, they might not be recognized when connected to a computer's mobo.
Sorry you have to go through that, but I'm afraid that unless a partition recovery program is able to fix things up, the best option would be to reformat it. And when you do that, don't forget to use GPT instead of MBR so that you can use the whole capacity of the drive, otherwise you'd be limited to 2.2TB.
Either way, if you have any suspicions that there might be a problem with the drive, I'd...
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Jose Luis Lopes

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Apr 5, 2015
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I may be completely wrong but some years ago I had a external drive that had some type of security feature, the enclosure interface asked for a paswword in order to access the HDD itself, if I took it out and used it as internal it also didn't work, my guess was that it was somehow encrypted and it needed to apss trough that sata-USB interface in order to decrypt and to be able to use the drive.
Maybe your drive has some kind of encrtption aswell and it need the sata-usb interface to be able to access it.

My best idea is to connect though USB again, move everything to a backup drive, connect though sata, format and see if it works
 
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MrThomas

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I hope it's not encrypted that way. My files on the drive actually are backup files, I haven't deleted the original ones yet, luckily. It's just that it took me a day and a half to move everything to the external drive. But thank you for your suggestion, unless an easier solution comes up, that's probably what I'll end up doing.
 
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mjslakeridge

mjslakeridge

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What Jose Luis is referring to is "Hardware Encryption". If your external drive indeed has that feature, it will only work in the enclosure it came in (or another enclosure of the exact same specifications). What specific model external HDD do you have?
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, MrThomas.

@Jose Luis Lopes might be right here. If the external drive is not a WD Elements, it most probably has hardware encryption, which would make the data on it encrypted and irretrievable without its original enclosure. So in order for you to use it as an internal drive, you'd have to reformat it with your computer, while connected internally via a standard SATA connection.
Just FYI - it's never recommended to take a drive out of its original enclosure as this voids its warranty and because of the hardware encryption if it has such.
Sorry about all the time you lost backing up your data, but I'm afraid there's no other way if there's hardware encryption.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD
 
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MrThomas

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Thank you for trying to help everybody. :) And sorry I didn't inform of the name of my drive to begin with. It's a WD Elements 5tb usb 3.0 drive. According to the box, it shouldn't have any encryption on it, as that should only be available with WD My Book editions.
And yes, I do realize I'm not the brightest bulb, having torn the drive out of its case, but I took the chance. Otherwise, if all goes wrong, I haven't broken anything and should be able to put it back together, only I'd really prefer to put it inside my cabinet instead.
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Yes, that drive doesn't feature hardware encryption, which would make this situation a little odd. But actually cases like this one are not unheard of. Even with internal drives when reformatted via a 3rd party external enclosure or a different device, such as a DVR for example, they might not be recognized when connected to a computer's mobo.
Sorry you have to go through that, but I'm afraid that unless a partition recovery program is able to fix things up, the best option would be to reformat it. And when you do that, don't forget to use GPT instead of MBR so that you can use the whole capacity of the drive, otherwise you'd be limited to 2.2TB.
Either way, if you have any suspicions that there might be a problem with the drive, I'd suggest that you download DLG (Data Lifeguard) and test it, just to make sure that it's OK. Here's how to do it: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.
 
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Solution
mjslakeridge

mjslakeridge

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I assume you initially bought the external HDD to back up data (which is a good practice). Why do you want to now install it in your computer? Not trying to tell you what to do, but it might be a better idea to just buy a HDD specifically designed to be used as an internal. Prices have really come down in the past few years, I personally like the WD Black HDDs.
 
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MrThomas

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Boogieman_WD, I don't think there's anything wrong with the drive itself, since it works perfectly fine using usb, for which it was originally designed. And thanks, I'll keep the GPT thing in mind. Still trying to decide exactly what to do rigth now.

mjslakeridge, I bought it because the price seemed lowish (about $190, I think) and I'd previously had luck, by inserting an external hdd in to my computer. This was actually meant as a download drive and a place to store files I often use. I know, not that bright, but it seemed like a great idea at the time.
 
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MrThomas

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My motherboard is only a couple of years old, I think. It does say UEFI, I just call it BIOS. It has 6 different sata ports, two of those are 6gb/s, so that shouldn't be an issue, I hope.
 
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MrThomas

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Boogieman_WD, it turned out you were right. I checked the hdd for errors, found nothing. I formatted it, deleted the drive in disk manager and had I not known about the GPT, I would have lost my mind. So thank you very much. That goes for all of you, trying to help me out. :) All my files now need to be copied all over again, but it works as it's supposed to and that's the only thing that matters. Problem solved. :)
 
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