Oh boy. Please tell me I can save this drive. USB to SATA nightmare.

Yes.

So it ran for smaller partitions when it wouldn't run for the full 3tb? What did it find, if anything?

If your data is visible when plugged in via USB then there is nothing to recover using PW Partition Recovery Wizard which is to undelete a partition that is accidentally deleted, period.

gregrocker said:

So it ran for smaller partitions when it wouldn't run for the full 3tb? What did it find, if anything?

If your data is visible when plugged in via USB then there is nothing to recover using PW Partition Recovery Wizard which is to undelete a partition that is accidentally deleted, period.

Data is visible whether 1 large partition or 2 partitions when plugged in via USB. No bad sectors. File system checks out. No errors.

No worky when plugged in via SATA.

I wouldn't mess with PW Partition Recovery Wizard which works fine to undelete accidentally deleted partitions, but gives me an uneasy feeling to run when it isn't indicated like this where your data partition is clearly intact when read via USB, but likely not seen due to SATA limitations.

It would be instructive to see if the partitions and data show up when plugged into SATA port on another PC. This would tell you it is a limitation of the problem PC BIOS.

So I let it PW Partition recovery run all night and now my disk is hosed and shows as 'Bad disk' in PW, when plugged in via USB.

I am so freaking mad and frustrated right now.

Please help.

Twice I warned you not to run PW Partition Recovery wizard which was not indicated since you did not delete the partition accidentally and need to undelete it - this is only a undelete function.

I also warned you to back up your files when you had it plugged in via USB and could see the partition and data, even repartition as you did.

Run the HD maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan followed by Disk Check on both partitions. If neither will run or report unfixable errors then RMA the drive.

I was able to get the missing partition back by assigning a drive letter to it inside of the Windows Disk Manager.

I am about 20 minutes away from having everything copied over to another 3TB external I bought today.

I'm pretty sure I will be able to then format/initialize the 3TB installed via SATA as GUID and then I will be good to go.

I will post back in a 1/2 hour.

noone said:

I was able to get the missing partition back by assigning a drive letter to it inside of the Windows Disk Manager.

I am about 20 minutes away from having everything copied over to another 3TB external I bought today.

I'm pretty sure I will be able to then format/initialize the 3TB installed via SATA as GUID and then I will be good to go.

I will post back in a 1/2 hour.

So as expected, I am now able to format the drive after initializing as GUID.

Lessons learned:

If you plan on using an external HDD as an internal SATA drive, make sure you copy your data ***AFTER*** you install the drive as an internal SATA, as you may be required to initialize and format the drive prior to the OS recognizing it.