How long to format a 4TB Drive??

[scottvf]

I'm full formatting a new 4 tb drive. So far it's been about 24 hours and it's only 31% done. Is this normal?

 

[scottvf]

It's been 3 days and it's at 75%
Is this normal or could there be something wrong with the hard drive?

 

[lp231]

Formatting a 4TB in non quick mode takes a long times, but for 3 days sounds like there might be something wrong with it.

 

[popatim]

is this a usb drive?

 

[scottvf]

No, It's a Seagate ST4000DM000 . I bought 2 of them and they each want to take the same time to format. I have the drive in a icy dock
http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=119
I'm using windows to disk management and format full (I always do this to new drives to make sure they don't have bad sectors)
This is the first 4TB drive I bought so I don't know how long is normal for the format time.
I started one drive and after 24 hours and it only being about 33% done I stopped it figuring there might be something wrong with it, I starting formatting the other drive and it seems to be taking the same amount of time.
When this drive gets done I'm going to try the partition wizard that someone suggested to see if it takes the same amount of time.

 

[scottvf]

Actually partition wizard doesn't have an option to do a full format

 

[lp231]

Could be the controller on the ICY dock that's bottle necking the drive? Should have try connecting directly to SATA on motherboard.

 

[Paperdoc]

Based on the photos in the Icydock link, it appears there is no controller interface in the unit. It appears it draws power for all three HDD's from 2 4-pin Molex connectors from the PSU, and the data connections for the three HDD's are each individual connections directly to a mobo SATA port, so the mobo's controllers are the only ones involved. Even the unit's eSATA and USB ports on the front panel have separate cable connections back to mobo ports.

OP, to settle whether or not the Icydock system somehow is causing this long process, can you connect one of your new drives just directly to a mobo port and power connection, and try it that way? By the way, I assume you have used some method of Partitioning using GPT, not MBR, right?

 

[lp231]

The green PCB in the dock is the controller.

 

[scottvf]

Based on the photos in the Icydock link, it appears there is no controller interface in the unit. It appears it draws power for all three HDD's from 2 4-pin Molex connectors from the PSU, and the data connections for the three HDD's are each individual connections directly to a mobo SATA port, so the mobo's controllers are the only ones involved. Even the unit's eSATA and USB ports on the front panel have separate cable connections back to mobo ports.

OP, to settle whether or not the Icydock system somehow is causing this long process, can you connect one of your new drives just directly to a mobo port and power connection, and try it that way? By the way, I assume you have used some method of Partitioning using GPT, not MBR, right?

I just create one large GPT Partition using windows disk management

 

[popatim]

Does your motherbd actually support 4tb drives?
Do a shutdown. Now time how long your bootup is from power-on.

 

[Paperdoc]

The green PCB in the dock is the controller.

The way I see it, that board likely has no active circuit components - it is just connections from the SATA and power input sockets on the back to the HDD connectors inside the dock case.

 

[lp231]

The green PCB in the dock is the controller.

The way I see it, that board likely has no active circuit components - it is just connections from the SATA and power input sockets on the back to the HDD connectors inside the dock case.

Even the image doesn't show any active circuit components, I'm sure it has something to do with it, because the HDD really isn't connected directly to the motherboard.
It's HDD---->Icy dock SATA-------->Motherboard SATA
Not HDD-------->motherboard SATA
According to that product link OP provided this thing supports hot swap. Now not all boards can do hot swap. First SATA controller needs to be ACHI and if it works windows will show the eject icon along with the HDD that can be hot swap.
My old board can do ACHI, but not hot swap, but I have a SATA card that can and the HDDs shows up under the eject menu.

 

[TheIronFistOfDeath]

I have the same drive. It's the drive. It's a 5900rpm drive, and 4gbs, so I figured it would take a while. I'm nearing 24 hours and have only made it to 60%. This drive is connected directly to the mobo, so your icy dock may be bottle-necking a little, but the drive absolutely does format slowly.

 

[FireWire2]

check the BIOS to see whether the SATA port is in Legacy | Compatible | IDE... <== these are slow modes (133MB/sec max).

 

[TheIronFistOfDeath]

I'll look into it when the drive is finished. I'd rather not lose all the progress it's made so far. However, I'm fairly certain it's set to AHCI as I'm using a Crosshair V Formula mobo, with stock SATA settings, and I didn't have the speed issue with the 2tb drive I installed last year. However, stranger things have happened, so I'll check into it once it finishes.