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I used a procedure like this one to remove the derive from an external 4 TB WD Elements Desktop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3xVRmOgrs4

Once I connect the drive directly to my PC, Windows 10 does not recognize its partition. I tried different USB connectors, or direct SATA, no luck.

When I use the original USB3 controller in the WD enclosure, everything is fine.

When I create a new partition and format it with windows 10 disk manager, I have the drive space.

Is there any way I can help windows 10 to recognize the partition format done by WD factory without using the USB controller board comes inside the enclosure?

Update 1

Yes with a reformat I can perfectly use the drive. However, it is such pain to copy 4TB files before and after format. I was hoping to find a way to salvage the partition done at WD factory.

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  • This is likely a sector size conflict. You will have to reformat the drive in order to use it outside of the enclosure
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 17:24
  • @Ramhound, yes with reformat I can perfectly use the drive. However, it is such pain to copy 4TB files before and after. I was hoping to find a way to salvage the partition done at WD factory.
    – Allan Xu
    Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 17:32
  • I've seen similar issues before (albeit on a different model hardware so this may not apply). A hex dump of the disk showed that the interface in the enclosure was adding 64 to all block numbers. Result, what the computer thought was block 0 (the MBR on an MBR disk) was actually at block 64 on the drive, and so on.. I don't know why they did it (though I have some suspicions), but there it was and there was no help for it - either use the drive in the enclosure it came in, or reformat it.
    – Jamie Hanrahan
    Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 18:31
  • @AllanXu You can by keeping it in the enclosure.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 14, 2018 at 22:44

1 Answer 1

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After a lengthy research, I found that during a period of time, WD used "Advanced Format" on 4TB drives. With Advanced Format, you have 4TB in an MBR partition. It sounds impossible, but the magic is in the controller board:

https://community.wd.com/t/4tb-on-mbr-and-not-gpt/208765

Here is more technical detail:

https://www.anandtech.com/print/2888/

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  • MBR and GPT just define the partition position and size. They don't know anything about partitions or files inside them so obviously it's not related to the amount of files stored in the partition The links you shared also don't say any thing about the number of files
    – phuclv
    Commented Jul 15, 2018 at 4:05
  • Ok, I removed the comment about the number of files. It took me a day to find out the root of the problem because no article has keywords and link to the WD external HDDs. That is why I expect this post will help many people when they search.
    – Allan Xu
    Commented Jul 15, 2018 at 14:40
  • MBR stores the partition geometry by its sector address, so actually with Advanced Format, i.e. 4KB sector, you can have maximum 16TB MBR drive which is 8 times 2TB, because the sector is 8 times the common 512-byte sector
    – phuclv
    Commented Jul 15, 2018 at 14:44

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