Windows 7 & GPUID hard drive issue

[55trucker]

Hello to all:

I wonder if anyone else has encountered this issue I have? Is it considered possible for the op/sys to corrupt the fat tables of a large 3 TB GPUID drive when the information located in that drive exceeds 2TB? I have multiple drives that are in installed into hot swappable cartridges (Vantec EZswap 2), I have 5 of these cartridges, I have but one GPUID drive that is 3TB, the rest are 2TB and formatted as MBR, I've been using the 2TB's for more than 5 years no with no issues at all, since the install of the latest 3TB I've seen the op/sys wipe out the FAT tables of the drive twice making ALL the info on the disc inaccessible.

Since this in an Intel processor Win7 requires the install of Intel's Rapid Storage program to *see* the drive as a GPUID drive in it's entirety, without this the bios & system will not see the full capacity of the drive. I can safely load up to & just under 2TB onto the drive with no worries (swap the drive without issue), but as soon as I go to 2.2TB the drive will be corrupted. What usually happens is (seeing as I am constantly swapping drives) the drive will be pulled out, another one goes in for my use, when I am finished what I am doing on THAT particular drive I'll come back to the 3TB drive, install it, boot it up and the bios sees the drive, but when the drive displays in *My Computer* the name I applied to the drive is gone, all the information is gone and what I see is this drive needs to be formatted.

I've used chkdsk /f to try to retrieve what WAS on the drive to avail, it's all gone.

As I said this has happened twice, the drive is NOT corrupted, there are no lost sectors, nothing to blame on the drive. I'm at a loss as to what's happening here, but to lose 4TB of material that had to be replaced twice is a real heartache, if anyone can shed some light on this I'd be most grateful to them,

thx very much

 

[lehnerus2000]

SATA Driver

I experienced a similar issue recently.

The culprit was the AMD SATA driver for the motherboard.
The cure (for me) was to uninstall the driver and to use the generic W7 driver.

See post #5 in this thread:
http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/356200-3tb-hdd-gpt-problems.html

 

[55trucker]

With regards to your XP problem, XP (32bit) absolutely will not accept a GPUID hard drive, the 64bit version will, your other post didn't state which op/sys you were using.

As for my problem I am using the latest Intel RST program that 7 will accept, I have XP SP3 (32bit) alongside of 7 and that op/sys cannot see the GPUID drive at all when it is loaded into the swap drive cartridge (don't expect it to).

What I do find odd is that XP does NOT need the Intel RST program at all to use the swap drive, the SATA drivers I slipstreamed into my custom install disc are fine, but 7 DOES need the RST program.

 

[lehnerus2000]

With regards to your XP problem, XP (32bit) absolutely will not accept a GPUID hard drive, the 64bit version will, your other post didn't state which op/sys you were using.

Since I couldn't get the "3TB+ Unlocker" software to work, I rebuilt my system without XP (it was 32 bit).

The "3TB+ Unlocker" software is supposed to allow you to use 3 TB HDDs in XP (the 2 TB limit still applies so you have to create 2 partitions).

My XP would BSOD after the initial splash screen, which was one of the 2 results I was expecting.
However after installing "3TB+ Unlocker" it still performed a BSOD.

As for my problem I am using the latest Intel RST program that 7 will accept, I have XP SP3 (32bit) alongside of 7 and that op/sys cannot see the GPUID drive at all when it is loaded into the swap drive cartridge (don't expect it to).

What I do find odd is that XP does NOT need the Intel RST program at all to use the swap drive, the SATA drivers I slipstreamed into my custom install disc are fine, but 7 DOES need the RST program.

I've left a message for other members about your problem.
Hopefully someone will drop in with the answer.

 

[55trucker]

Thx,

appreciate that help.

 

[lehnerus2000]

I'm always seeing comments about how great Intel gear is, so someone must know the answer to your issue.

Since no one has posted anything, I've left another message asking for help.

 

[Slartybart]

What's the full model of your Vantec EZswap 2

The specs for model: MRK-300ST-BK state 4TB, so that can't be the issue. Your swap cradle is older though and if I read your post correctly, you've been using them for 5 years (I'm not sure if it is the 2TB drives or the 2TB drives in the EZswap)
Vantec

Some cradles don't support drives over 2TB. You said two things that perked up my ears:

I've been using the 2TB's for more than 5 years no with no issues at all,
since the install of the latest 3TB I've seen the op/sys wipe out the FAT tables of the drive twice making ALL the info on the disc inaccessible.

and

but as soon as I go to 2.2TB the drive will be corrupted​

My first inclination is to verify that the cradle supports drives over 2TB.

Why intermittent? The problem occurs when it hits the 2TB boundary. If the firmware in the cradle doesn't support greater than 2TB, the MBR gets screwed up on the write.

That's my best guess. Easy to check.

Bill
.

 

[jumanji]

^This was my first thought too.

We have seen many users putting more than 2TB drives on older incompatible docks and losing data. Yes once it reaches 2.2TB limit these docks will wrap around and start writing from the beginning destroying the GPT structure and whatever data beyond that, making the drive inacesssible.

In this case I was not so sure that this was happening because 1. This seems to be a just cartridge/contraption that you plug into the CDROM drive bay to connect a single HDD to a Sata port. ( Whether it has the same electronics as in a dock, I was not sure.) 2. A quick check on Vantec EZswap2 showed that it can handle a single drive upto 4 TB.

So I kept away. You had the courage to bring this out which I didn't have.

If as your sharp eyes caught that it is a 5 year old contraption, the OP should check the specs on its handling capacity as it existed then when he bought it.

 

[55trucker]

Hi there guys:

the swap drive is the sata version of Vantec's EZswap 2 series, it does have the ability to allow GPT 4TB drives but all of my other hard drives are MBR 2TB drives so I can't comment on whether the tray indeed does allow this size drive.

I've sent a request for info to Vantec for more info on this matter, if it turns that THIS is my problem I suppose that I will have to pull the drive out & install it into a permanent bay and run it all the time, I deliberately tried to keep from this as it is a big hard drive, only has my entertainment files on it and did not want it running 24/7.