External HD formating

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by samy, Jan 29, 2023.

  1. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    I have a Toshiba external HD 1 TB USB 3 for years,( I have never used), and decided to use it.
    I tried it on one of my PCs running Windows 7. The disk shows 931 GB of free space, but under Disk Management it shows exFat format. I tried formatting it to NTFS with no success.
    I tried also formatting it using Disk Director with no success.
    I connected it to another PC running Windows 10. The HD does not appear under This PC. It appears Under Disk Management but showing a capacity of 55.88GB and the format was missing.
    How can I format it n order to be used on both PCs
     
  2. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    samy,

    I suggest deleting the partition. Then create a new partition, NTFS.

    If the new partition doesn't have a drive letter, assign one.
     
  3. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Brian
    How to "delete the partition"?
    Is it, on Disk Management to click on Delete Volume?
     
  4. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Brian
    following my last thread above:
    I clicked on Delete Volume and followed the wizard to Delete Partition
    after formatting it, the disk is now in NTFS format but shrank to 55.89GB
     
  5. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    samy,

    Can you post a screenshot of Disk Management?
     
  6. A_mouse

    A_mouse Registered Member

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  7. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Brian
    attached here 2 screen shots:
    1. after the NTFS formatting (DM1)
    2. I tried to re-format the HD to exFAT (under Disk Management)- see the second picture (DM2)- the HD shows the same volume
     

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    • DM1.png
      DM1.png
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  8. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Samy, thanks for the screenshots. That is weird. Maybe a Disk Management issue.

    Do you have a WinPE media, DVD or USB? I'd like you to run diskpart. Preferably from WinPE but in Windows if you can't.

    Open an Admin command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter.
    Type
    list disk (and press Enter)

    You will see your disks and their sizes. Can you post the disks and their sizes.

    Now type

    list vol (and press Enter)

    Can you post the Volumes, Ltr, Label and size.

    Screenshots if you can.
     
  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Before you start, change the Label of the external HD from New Volume to External. This makes it easier to identify in Diskpart.
     
  10. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    In "This PC" what size is the G: drive.

    If you have any USB flash drives plugged in, remove them. Only have the external HD plugged in.
     
  11. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Brian
    I run diskpart from Windows.
    I am using the same PC (i.e. with Windows 7) on which the affected HD shows previously (prior to Volume Delete) 931GB both in "This PC" and in "Disk Management"
     

    Attached Files:

  12. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    congrats, you screwed your drive.
    any external drive not using eSata has its own controller and thus its own internal format.
    exFat is compatible to all operating systems, ntfs not.

    maybe another tool than windows can help you out, eg "diskpart"
    https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/format-usb-external-hard-drive-to-exfat.html

    in worst case you need a boot medium with another partition tool (see link again) to work without windows.

    good luck.
     
  13. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Hi Brummelchen
    Amazing issue.
    the probleme begun as follows:
    I have two PCs one with Windows 7 and the other with Window 10.
    As I mentioned in my first thread, in the first PC the HD appears in ""This PC" and in "Disk Management" and showed 931 GB. On the second PC (with Win 10) the HD did not appear in "This PC" (and therefore was unusable)
    and in "Disk Management" it appeared with a volume of 55.88 GB and no format showed, and the line on the disk representation was a very light yellow/green color (in lieu of the usual dark blue).
    it's curious how the same disk has two different volumes
     
  14. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    I connected the HD to the PC with Windows 10. Run diskpart as showed on above link. the HD is with exFat format but the volume is the same?
     

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  15. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    blue top outside a green border means: primary partition (maximum:4, per disk)
    blue/green inside green border means: extended partition(s) (green border = extended)
    (green top means not formatted, blue top means formatted)
    black top is here after all and means: not assigned (=free) and not in extended space.

    for you: disk 0 partition 6 is not usable as a primary partition, you already have 4 in front of that.

    for windows 7, its "ancient" although it supports exFat. maybe you can re-format it under win10 and get a proper result. if not, then use as mentioned a boot medium, not windows itself. if that wont help it might be a controller failure or the disk itself is broken (maybe RMA).
     
  16. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Download the Toshiba Storage Diagnostic Tool and run a quick/full diagnostic scan on it and see if it detects the full capacity of your Toshiba hard drive.

    On the following link scroll down and under any hard drive (the tool is the same for all), click Tools. Download and run it.
    https://www.toshiba-storage.com/downloads/

    Here is a user manual for an older version of the same tool
    https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91ED1z2ssKL.pdf
     
  17. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    This was my thought after looking this over. Make absolutely sure you are looking at the correct drive and not a flash drive or SD card. If you're sure there is nothing else try a different USB port to make sure there is no issue there.
     
  18. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Brummelchen
    I formatted it using Windows 10 (see the thread #14 above) - same issue

    Raza
    I downloaded the tool and ran it- the HD has not been identified.... ?
    I connected another Toshiba HD and ran the tool - it was properly identified

    I will try later formatting it using Acronis Disk Director
     
  19. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    This reminds me of the HPA (Host Protected Area) Dell (and others) used to use 15 years ago. A portion of the disk becomes inaccessible. I've no idea why you should have created a HPA but see if you can find SeaTools for DOS. My link is 15 years old and doesn't work.

    Other options (links could be invalid as I made these notes 15 years ago)...

    You can only use these tools on a MBR system, not a UEFI system.
     
  20. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    That is very odd. If it is a Toshiba Drive and it is showing up in Windows, even with reduced capacity, the tool should have been able to identity it.

    I sure hope you have not been a victim of a scam. Scammers sell hard drives and SSDs online with inflated capacities for very low prices. These drives have a modified firmware and controller to spoof the OS into thinking they have the capacity that is shown on the box, but once you format them, using a sophisticated partition manager, like Acronis Disk Director in your case, their true capacity comes out. If the drive is out of warranty, I recommend you open the external case and see what is inside. I bet you will find a small circuit board with a 55 GB SD card glued on it. Come to think of it, exFat is a format typically associated with SD cards.

    I dont want to alarm you, hopefully your problem is minor and can be corrected, but your situation appears too similar to the cases I have heard of people who bought 16 TB SSDs from Amazon for $30. The SSD show full 15+ TB capacity under Windows, but when you format them, they drop down to the size of whatever the SD card was used in them.
     
  21. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Raza
    After various tests, I think your assessment is correct, it is a scam, but it is worth the study in order to be more vigilant
    Thanks
     
  22. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    I am sorry to hear that. If you don't mind sharing, which test finally convinced you that it was a fake drive? It may be of some help to someone in a similar situation searching the web for answers.
     
  23. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    where bought? a trusted shop? price? scam is not that rare.
     
  24. samy

    samy Registered Member

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    Hi Raza and Brummelchen
    I will try to summarize here the "chain of events" regarding this HD.
    For a little over 3 years ago, I asked a colleague at work who used to travel a lot due to his occupation (in marketing) to purchase for me two discs because according to what I saw (and was told), they costed less than the Disc-on-key I was using. Indeed he traveled to Beijing and brought them to me (see the picture - "really original"). I gave one to my daughter and kept the other until about two weeks ago when I wanted to use it.
    I don't remember the exact prices but they were much lower than the Disc-on-key (64GB) I was using at the time.

    The tests I performed were firstly using my both PCs (one with Windows 7 x86, and the other windows 10) as described in the threads above. The second test was using Acronis Disk Director and the third one the Toshiba test (Raza link above).
    I decided also to check the second HD (my daughter's one). This HD shows in Windows a capacity of 298GB (not 1 TB as on its box) that is it "exact" available volume, but the Toshiba test (picture attached herein) shows it is a Toshiba HD.
    Conclusion:
    Not to be tempted when the price is unreasonable low and the source is unreliable or not known. Not to be tempted also by the physical presentation of the product - see the attached picture of the box with the inserted hologram golden sticker with the word "Original" and the compatibility of the S/N and P/N on the sticker on the HD and the one on the box.
    Lucky the price was low, but it's worth the lesson
     

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  25. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    toshiba dt8310 is a 1TB hdd drive, around 40-60 euro at trusted shops. its fair for 2.5" hdd

    the "mja2320bh g2" fujitsu is a 320gigabyte (!) hdd drive.

    gibibytes <> gigabytes. giga means 10^x, gibi means potential of 1024. thats why 320gigabyte (gb) is only ~300gibibyte

    now you got a hardcase with a lost drive. currently a 1TB samsung 870 evo is around 95-100 euro (500gb ~55 euro) (cant tell you in $$$)

    if your case is only usb3 -> sata with a universal controller then you can try some ssd disk as a replacement.

    to avoid scam - if you want to buy such product, in special in china then you really need a comparison price. and a trusted shop which is listed at a trusted list, eg https://www.trustedshops.com/
    click the trusted shop logo on the shopping page, if it do not lead to the trusted list because its just an image, dont buy, its fake.
    even amazon is no secure shop, its a "marketplace", same as ebay.
     
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