Cant format Seagate 1TB 2.5-Inch in external dock

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travistee

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Nov 28, 2016
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Seagate 1TB Barracuda Sata 6GB/s 128MB Cache 2.5-Inch

I want to upgrade my laptop drive. win10 64

I tried two of these drives. I can see them in device manager, and in diskmanagement but
they don't format. I can initialize them but thats it.

Seagate says to try them installed in the laptop (HP pavilion 17 about two years old).
It has sata 2 and usb 3

I also have two new WD drives. 3.5 blue 2TB, and 2.5 blue 1TB.
Those formatted fine in the kingwin ex-dock.

Should I give up on the seagate drives?
If I can format when in the laptop should it work in the external ?
 
Solution
SuperSoph_WD
You should be able to test it even without an installed OS onto your laptop, @travistee! However, you will need another computer to create a bootable flash drive with the DOS version of your HDD's brand-specific diagnostic tool. You should be able to find this tool version on the manufacturer's official website together with the instructions on how to create the USB utility drive.

You can also clean install Windows onto the drive and use the Windows version of the tool, if you plan to use this HDD as your booting/primary drive in the laptop. :)

SuperSoph_WD
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Hey there, @travistee!

Could you please share what is the storage purpose for those drives? Are you planning to use the problematic one as a booting drive in your laptop or will you be using it as an external backup HDD in the docking station? Since you have managed to initialize the drive and if you want to use it as a booting drive in the laptop, you should be able to format it during the installation of Windows (just make sure you don't have any secondary drives connected to the laptop at that time to avoid the so-called OS confusion).

If it's supposed to be used as secondary or external storage, you can just plug it in the laptop or PC and format it from there. Afterwards, put it back in the dock and see how it will get recognized. Often, external cases/docks are configured with different LBAs which might require to re-format the HDD again through the dock externally. Posting some screenshots from Disk management would be really helpful as well.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting & details!
SuperSoph_WD
 
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travistee

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Like I said,. I'm upgrading the 500mb drive in the laptop to The 1T Seagate. The Seagate has 128mb cache. The 1T 2.5 WD has only 8mb cache.
The kingwin ezdock is old and only usb 2.0. It always worked with any other drive I had.
I have a current discwizard system backup. And a win10 system back up, as well as usb flash to boot to either one. I plan to restore the full system backup to the new internal Seagate drive, instead of cloning it. So the Seagate will be internal in the laptop and only my Seagate 4T backup plus will be attached to the system. If this works I don't need the Seagate to work in the ez dock. If it doesn't I'll use the 2.5 WD. Otherwise the laptop is working fine and I'm not installing windows to the new drive. It will be formatted during the full system restore.
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Indeed, @travistee, if you are planning to use the 2.5" as an internal HDD for your laptop, there's no need for you to try and format it through the docking station. However, don't forget to backup your data from the notebook before you tamper with its storage configuration. This is the surest way to avoid any potential data loss. Always remember to keep duplicates of your files on various drives (on-site as well as off-site) to keep your peace of mind.

Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Hey there again, @travistee!

In order to keep track of your hard drives' health and SMART status, you can simply download the manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic tool from their official website. It will help you monitor these stats and let you know if there's anything wrong with the drives. Make sure you run both the Short & the Long tests and also backup your data from the drives elsewhere prior to the tests just to keep your peace of mind. Having duplicates of your files stored in different storage locations is what will help you avoid any potential data-loss headaches. :)

Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Yes, of course, @travistee!
You can do this by downloading the HDD manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic tool from their official website. Once you have it installed, make sure you run both the Short & the Long tests and it will help you keep track of the brand-specific internal & external hard drives.

Keep in mind that doing regular backups and storing your files on at least two different locations is what will prevent any potential data loss in the future and it will also keep your peace of mind! Better be safe than sorry, right?!

Good luck! Hope I was helpful! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

Glorious
Jul 30, 2014
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You should be able to test it even without an installed OS onto your laptop, @travistee! However, you will need another computer to create a bootable flash drive with the DOS version of your HDD's brand-specific diagnostic tool. You should be able to find this tool version on the manufacturer's official website together with the instructions on how to create the USB utility drive.

You can also clean install Windows onto the drive and use the Windows version of the tool, if you plan to use this HDD as your booting/primary drive in the laptop. :)

SuperSoph_WD
 
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