4TB Western Digital Hard Drive Won't Initialize; Reads 0GB

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PixelSlayerr

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Apr 30, 2017
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I recently purchased a Western Digital Black 4TB hard drive to work alongside my 1TB boot drive. After installing it, Windows booted perfectly fine, but the new drive was barely recognized by Windows (I'm using Windows 10) http://imgur.com/vj03rA7 After attempting to initialize it, I got an error saying "The request could not be performed because a device error". I later figured out that this was because I was attempting to format it as MBR, but since the drive is over 2.5 TB, I tried initializing it as a GPT. I later got an error saying the drive was not the minimum required capacity to be converted to GPT. My guess is that it's because the hard drive's capacity isn't recognized by Windows, so it reads it as 0 GB. I tried things such as going into a command prompt and converting it from there manually, installing new motherboard drivers, and purchasing a new SATA III cable because I thought my current one was potentially faulty. None of these solutions worked. I was also told that my motherboard could potentially not support 5TB of total storage, but I doubt this is the case. My motherboard is a fairly high-end MSI Krait Z170, so that combined with the new drivers made me assume that my issue is not caused by the motherboard. I also installed Hard Drive Sentinel to see if it would pick up anything more. The drive was detected, but no other information was read. I also attempted to reinstall the hard drive's drivers, but I was still met with the same issue. Occasionally, the hard drive is no longer detected, but then comes up after refreshing Disk Management or rebooting my PC. The BIOS also occasionally won't detect the second drive. In the end, this new drive just doesn't want to be picked up by Windows possibly for the issues listed, but I'm rather confident I'll find an answer asking here. Thanks to everyone! :pt1cable:
 
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PixelSlayerr

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Apr 30, 2017
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I actually forgot to mention I tried that software out lol. The drive passed both the quick and extended tests instantly presumably because no data whatsoever is stored on the drive since it's never been initialized or accessed. It didn't pass the Erase test, saying that there was some sort of "partition error" right as I began the test. Not the exact solution I need, but your reply was still appreciated. Thanks!
 
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elbert

elbert

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Jan 11, 2005
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I see the newer versions have changed. Seagates seatools still does this. It will say something about drive not being seagate but will still work.
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

You should be able to fix the issue in disk manager. To get disk manager open control panel>System and Security>Administrative tools>Computer Management>Disk Management. Then right click on either disk or volume should allow you to fix the issue with deleting/shrike/extend depending on the issue. Here is more info and partition master is good.
http://
 
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PixelSlayerr

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Apr 30, 2017
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Seatools only detected my 1TB boot drive I mentioned earlier, which is Seagate. The Western Digital drive was still not detected, even after refreshing. Attempting to shrink the drive wasn't possible since the drive can't be formatted or initialized. I already tried using EaseUS Partition Master, which still wouldn't detect the drive. I should also mention that the information that was picked up about the drive using Hard Drive Sentinel specified that the drive's interface was SCSI, whereas my boot drive was S-ATA II. Both drives are currently using SATA cables so I don't see why the 4TB drive would read SCSI lol. Maybe that has something to do with the issue???

 
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PixelSlayerr

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Alright, I re-installed the OS and the issues still is not fixed. ): I did not wipe the OS and throw a new copy of Windows on my computer, however, just reinstalled it. I also tried converting it to a GPT manually via a command prompt, but I got an error saying, "Could not complete task because of an I/O device error" something along the lines of that. Unless the problem is being caused by the 4TB hard drive registering as a SCSI interface drive, I think I'll have to RMA the drive. What are your suggestions?
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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It certainly sounds like a defective disk. The fact that a drive has a disk-space capacity of > 2 TB does NOT prevent a user from initializing the disk with the MBR interface if, for some reason, he/she prefers that partitioning scheme. There is no requirement that a drive > 2 TB *must* be GPT-partitioned.

Incidentally the fact that a SATA HDD is detected in Device Manager as a SCSI device is not unusual. It's of no importance.

I think you're right in pursuing the RMA route.
 
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elbert

elbert

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Jan 11, 2005
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As long as you started CMD as admin it should have worked. Maybe you should try using another PC and partition the drive into 2x2TB partitions. Could be something cant handle the 4TB.

Try getting around windows by using a bootable USB Gparted tool. Here is a program to make you a bootable usb for just that job.
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
 
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PixelSlayerr

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Upon booting up my PC, the drive will begin to spin up in a normal fashion, but will completely stop spinning a few moments after booting. The drive also goes in and out of spinning. My side and front panels are off right now, so I can plainly hear the spinning sound, but might stop for a while, and then begin again. Going into Task Manager and looking at the drive's properties or anything that is involved in detecting the drive causes the drive to spin for about 15 - 30 seconds, but then stop immediately. I think RMA is my best option.
 
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