Partitions Appear, Writes Fail, Formatting Fails, Passes Seagate Tests-Seagate 3TB USB HDD

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

The drive had 3 partitions of ~950-970GB each but one of them seemingly failed one day, followed by the other 2 quickly after. No files are on any of the partitions, as the family member who gave it to me never used it after partitioning it (planned for a NAS, never got to it).

The drive now has 2 partitions, one of 2048GB and the other of 768GB due to me thinking the partitions had failed. Both appear just fine. However, neither pass formatting from Windows or the recommended EaseUS partition tool. Even when combined back into one large partition, formatting still fails.

The drive passed the Seagate Tools tests, but I cannot write to the drive and as mentioned prior, formatting it fails. Any suggestions? It is out of warranty now and I can hear it spin up with no noticeably "wrong" noises (like clicking).

techgeek · May 2, 2016

It's unlikely to be the problem, but it couldn't hurt trying. Have you tried another USB cable? Or another USB port on the computer you are attempting it on? Even another PC for that matter?

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

techgeek :

Yes, I bought a secondary cable and the same result.
Then tested the original cable with a friends similar drive, worked perfectly.
I've tested it in multiple known-working USB ports, yeah.

Same failures on alternate PCs.

Thanks though.

techgeek · May 2, 2016

Have you checked with Seagate to see if there is a firmware update for that drive. It's a stretch, but you don't have anything to lose at this point.

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

techgeek :

Yeah, no updates I haven't installed.

techgeek · May 2, 2016

Well if there are no updates, that's out. Do you know if the drive is partitioned with GPT or MBR partitioning? If so, have you tried partitioning it the other way?

SkyNetRising · May 2, 2016

Please check health of your drive with hdtune.

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

techgeek :

Converting it passes, but it fails formatting both ways. Nothing changes. It is recognized correctly, just unusable.

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

SkyNetRising :

HDTune is not detecting the drive. Detects everything else.

techgeek · May 2, 2016

HDTune can only work with partitions that have been formatted and assigned drive letters.

Try running the USB Erase Boot Tracks from the Advanced Tests in Seatools. Then try to re-partition / format it.

SkyNetRising · May 2, 2016

ChiBisonic01 :

You may need to remove drive from external enclosure and connect it to computer with sata cable to get SMART readings from it.

techgeek · May 2, 2016

I've never had an external drive that didn't read the SMART data over USB.

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

techgeek :

It did not like that.
BSOD'd at 3% and now my PC is stuck on the W10 Attempting Repairs screen despite the drive not having any information on it.
So I now have a new issue...

First thought was to check the SMART status for errors, but all utilities claim it's not supported and none of my sata cables fit the drive, all of them are too large for the connection despite it clearly being sata. Would be easy if I knew how to remove the enclosure, but I've failed to discover how to without damaging the enclosure.

techgeek · May 2, 2016

Well that is odd, it's unlikely that you could have inadvertently picked the wrong drive for the USB Erase Boot Tracks, it should have only displayed the connected USB drives, not your internal drives. Although from your description, that is what it sounds like has happened, it sounds like it performed that function on your boot drive. That or it's completely a coincidence that it crashed while performing this function and the crash caused the drive corruption.

Seatools should show you the SMART data even if third party utilities don't. However in your present predicament, you'll have to sort out your Windows issues before looking into this further.

Keep us posted.

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

techgeek :

Had to repair W10 with a backup.

Booted with an old hard drive into W7 and reattempted Seatools. Results:
Fix All Fast: Pass
Fix All Long: Pass
Short Generic: Pass
Long Generic: Pass
Erase Boot Sectors: Fail
Erase: Fail
Drive Self Test: Pass

To clear a few things up, Seatools claims SMART is enabled but Speccy says it is not supported. I'm unsure as to how to check the SMART status in Seatools itself.
I can write to the drive for a brief moment before it stops writing completely. It then locks up any program trying to access it.

techgeek · May 2, 2016

Under the drop down for Basic Tools, you should see a SMART Check option. If not, then maybe the drive doesn't support SMART over USB, but that would be a first for me. I guess I haven't had a Seagate external HDD either though. Only WD and generic enclosures with BYOD's, but all of these supported SMART over USB.

Any idea what happened with your Windows 10 install after the crash? That seems odd to me. Almost like it executed the USB Erase Boot Tracks on your OS drive.

ChiBisonic01 · May 2, 2016

techgeek :

Windows 10 no longer boots. Stuck on an error screen saying WdFilter.sys is corrupted or missing.

Search

Partitions Appear, Writes Fail, Formatting Fails, Passes Seagate Tests-Seagate 3TB USB HDD

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

techgeek

Splendid

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

techgeek

Splendid

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

techgeek

Splendid

SkyNetRising

Titan

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

techgeek

Splendid

SkyNetRising

Titan

techgeek

Splendid

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

techgeek

Splendid

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

techgeek

Splendid

ChiBisonic01

Honorable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page