Having troubles with 8Tb Seagate drives

louwin · 14 Nov 2015

I went and bought 2 8Tb drives as one 3Tb and one 4Tb had died and I thought I would "bite the bullet".

I have an Asus Z87 motherboard on a system about a year old(?). I also have an SI-PEX40071 8 port SATA 3 PCIe card and a fully updated Windows 10

I tried the first drive with 3 different ports and 2 different cables, it wasn't visible in Disk Management and it got HOT (much hotter than any drive I've felt before). I suspect that is a dud

So I moved on to the second drive. On switch on the system dropped into the BIOS so I exited without changing anything and it booted up.

I loaded Disk Management (DM from now on) :) and it asked me to choose MBR or GPT. I chose GPT. I then started a "Quick Format" expecting it to finish fairly quickly but it kept the hourglass on for a while then I noticed it was "Not responding". Left it for a while longer then "End Task" in Task Manager.

Changed ports and left it for another little while and then kicked off DM again.

DM just sits there with "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service". I exited it and re-activated a couple of times but it never gets past the "Connecting...." message.

This drive is barely warm so that is different :)

I would really appreciate any help or advice as to how I can proceed to get DM working and formatting this drive.

I am taking both drives to try on a friend's system later today and I will get back with an update. He has a later Asus motherboard.

I have 2 SSDs (240Gb each) and a few 3Tb and 4Tb drives. I also have 2 RAID mirrors so wouldn't want to play with Intel SATA ports for fear of upsetting them

I have searched the forum for info on 8Tb drives but they appeared to be pre release of 8Tb drives.

Out of desperation I disconnected the cable but DM still just displays the "Connecting..." message

Any guidance or help would be appreciated

Quick Update.... After a few minutes there was a "chime" so I loaded DM again. This time it came up. I plugged the cable back in and now it shows....

Rescanning Disks

Disk rescan in progress, please wait

And this has stayed on the screen for 20 minutes

The message went when I disconnected the cable again

spapakons · 15 Nov 2015

I would first try changing the SATA cable. A bad data cable can cause I/O errors and incompatibilities. Then I would check in Device Manager if the SATA controller is properly installed and I would also update the drivers from manufacturer (not Microsoft) if possible. Then I would hide the relevant driver update so the OEM driver is not replaced again with the Microsoft driver.

Last thing to check, visit manufacturer's site and see specifications. Are you sure the controller can handle such large disks? It may be compatible with smaller disks (2TB, 3TB or 4TB max) but not 6TB or 8TB disks. In that case I'm afraid you have to use the Intel SATA ports.

louwin · 16 Nov 2015

Thanks for your reply

spapakons said:

I would first try changing the SATA cable. A bad data cable can cause I/O errors and incompatibilities. Then I would check in Device Manager if the SATA controller is properly installed and I would also update the drivers from manufacturer (not Microsoft) if possible. Then I would hide the relevant driver update so the OEM driver is not replaced again with the Microsoft driver.

Last thing to check, visit manufacturer's site and see specifications. Are you sure the controller can handle such large disks? It may be compatible with smaller disks (2TB, 3TB or 4TB max) but not 6TB or 8TB disks. In that case I'm afraid you have to use the Intel SATA ports.

I tried 3 different SATA cables and 2 different ports on the PCIe card with no success. The 8 port card IS correctly installed and has 3 other working discs on it (and a Bluray writer). I have also checked the card driver several times and it is the latest available (which isn't saying much as I don't think it has ever been updated)

I have written to the manufacturer (of the card) but no response yet.

This morning I tried using one of the Asus SATA ports (the motherboard comes with 4 Asus ports and 6 Intel ports). Couldn't see the drive

In desperation I just tried an Intel port!!!! BIG MISTAKE!

I lost ALL SIX Intel ports (including my 2 RAID mirrors) and another HDD. I quickly restored the status quo and disconnected the 8Tb drive....

Since neither the PCIe nor the Asus nor the Intel ports work I wonder if my SATA drivers are up to date? Windows 10 Pro is fully updated (can't have it otherwise) but could the SATA drivers require updating? Then there is the BIOS!?

I have to stop "pioneering"

8Tb drives are probably not "main stream" yet? Still experimental?

Any further thoughts?

Thanks again for your reply....

BTW, my friend loaded the drives in an external enclosure and formatted the drives and copied a file to them with not a hiccup!

louwin · 16 Nov 2015

Oops, mistaken post. Can't work out how to delete it?

spapakons · 16 Nov 2015

This must be some incompatibility with the controller. It can handle drive capacities up to a certain number (2TB or 4TB) but cannot handle larger drives. I have seen this happen in older systems that their IDE controller would not handle disks larger than 120GB. History repeats itself, it seems. Your solution is to use the drives in a USB enclosure as external, until some BIOS update enables compatibility with large disks. Or return the large disks and buy smaller instead. You could even sell your SATA controller on eBay and buy a new that you know is compatible with large disks.

EDIT: Anyone knows what are the system requirements for a single 8TB disk? I searched a little in Google, but could not find anything relevant. Is there a utility that can tell you if your controller can handle 4TB or larger disks?

louwin · 17 Nov 2015

Thanks, will do as you suggested. Also looking at a "2 Up" external enclosure but they tend to be pricey

hujtebesuka · 03 May 2016

spapakons said:

This must be some incompatibility with the controller. It can handle drive capacities up to a certain number (2TB or 4TB) but cannot handle larger drives. I have seen this happen in older systems that their IDE controller would not handle disks larger than 120GB. History repeats itself, it seems. Your solution is to use the drives in a USB enclosure as external, until some BIOS update enables compatibility with large disks. Or return the large disks and buy smaller instead. You could even sell your SATA controller on eBay and buy a new that you know is compatible with large disks.

EDIT: Anyone knows what are the system requirements for a single 8TB disk? I searched a little in Google, but could not find anything relevant. Is there a utility that can tell you if your controller can handle 4TB or larger disks?

Wow dint know that can happen
I got 5.5TB hdd running seem ok matherboard Asus Maximus VII Formula
have also 2 ssd drives 480gb thanks for post now i know if build some cheapo for my friends that there is an issue

dwarfer66 · 03 May 2016

I must be lucky as I have a Seagate 8TB running fine on my Gigabyte mobo from 2012.

spapakons · 04 May 2016

Maybe your motherboard already supports large capacity disks, but you may need to enable it from BIOS. I recall an old setting 48-bit disk address or something. It could be a similar setting, have a careful look at all BIOS settings, read the manual.