Formatting SATA HD via USB Hard Drive Dock, not recognized in Windows.

1

I recently took a Hitachi 750GB SATA HD from an Old Laptop and formatted it, from my laptop, via USB HD Docking Station. I transferred files to it and was planning on using it in a new desktop build. While the drive is in the dock, connected to EITHER my laptop, or the new desktop via USB, the drive is fully accessible. However, if I remove the drive from the dock and connect it via SATA cable, the drive, shows in the BIOS, at startup and in the Device Manager, just fine. However, in the Drive Manager, it shows as RAW and Unallocated, and in Windows 10, the drive appears as an unformatted drive, requiring formatting.

Is there any reason, a drive formatted via an external USB dock, would not be recognized when installed internally, via a SATA connection?

I have tried different SATA cables, different ports, even a PCI SATA expansion board. All drivers and BIOS are up to date.

System is a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Motherboard
AMD FX 6300 Black CPU
8GB G.Skill X DDR3 Memory
Windows 10

2

Hello,

Thanks for contacting Plugable!

Can you share the exact make and model of USB HD Docking Station the hard drive was originally formatted in?

It sounds like that dock may be using a proprietary type of sector emulation formatting. If that is the case, the hard drive will only be readable in that dock. A standard SATA controller like a Plugable hard drive dock will not be able to read that hard drive until it is reformatted in a standard way.

Your safest bet is to return the hard drive to the dock where it was last formatted, back up your data, then reformat this drive in the new location. You can then migrate the backed up data to this new volume.

Thank you,
Jordan
Plugable Technologies

3

Yea, Jordon, that was what I was afraid of, Thank You, for the info. I have to do the same with a WD 4TB drive that was removed from a USB enclosure. WD’s are encrypted and require their USB to SATA bridge, in order for the system to recognize it., Oye, the little things, that bite you in the fanny, that take up so much of your time.

Thanks Again,
Rich

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Trust me I’ve been there! Plugable products do not support special sector emulation by design for that specific reason - we want your drives to be able to function outside of just our dock. Good luck on your data migration! - Jordan

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A “Selling Point” to be sure. Lessons Learned.