Possibly sold a bogus hard drive. Can anything be done?

B0bbyEwing

Probably more suitable in the consumer rights forum but those that frequent there may not have so much techie knowledge so I'm coming here.

Basiically some time at the end of March I bought 2x used hard drives on eBay. Both 4TB, one from theharddriveexperts & one from pro-avit.london.

First problem is, as the eBay listing just shows a general drive photo & not necessarily the one you'll get, I don't know which drive I'm talking about.

I've put various encrypted file containers on there that come just shy of 2TB.

I've tried to create another & it keeps erroring at the same point. If my calculations are correct then the already done file containers plus the point it keeps erroring at would put it all at like 1.99xxTB - damn near 2TB.

So I'm wondering if this is actually a 2TB drive but has been somehow made to look like 4TB. Especially when scans of the drive say everything is ok.

Short of removing everything off there & throwing a load of big files at it I'm not sure if there's another way to test it.

And if it is a 2TB drive, whether I can then actually do anything at this stage (4 months on almost).

CrazyHorse99

Have you tried opening the drive in disk management or using diskpart to erase all the volumes and partitions on the drive?

It's possible that some sectors are faulty, I would try using chkdsk or some other tool to run a sector by sector check.

You can also try just filling the drive with normal files and seeing if they all can be copied back correctly to verify the size of the drive.

forgotmyname

MBR partition?

mta999

yes check it is gpt not mbr

If it is MBR you can convert it to GPT without losing data by using the mbr2gpt tool - Google how to do it

you will then need to extend the partition to 4gb

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82070483#Comment_82070483

One of the drives was partitioned when it came & I had a bit of a bother getting it to 'be' a complete drive. I forget the process now but I managed it in the end.

Again, whether that was this drive or not, I'm not sure. It could've been the other 4TB one I ordered at the same time.

As for scans - I ran a scan in Hard Disk Sentinel which took 9hrs to complete. Result was the drive is good.

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82070515#Comment_82070515

This is why Google can be annoying some times. I just Googled how to check if MBR or GPT. I got this….

To quickly check if your drive is MBR or GPT in Windows, use Disk Management: press Win + X, choose Disk Management, right-click the disk (e.g., Disk 0), and go to Properties > Volumes. The "Partition style" will list either Master Boot Record or GUID Partition Table. [1]

Did exactly what it said & got as far as Properties because the next step of Volumes doesn't exist - I don't see it.

But FWIW when in disk management it says the capacity is 3726.01GB, NTFS, Basic Data Partition

B0bbyEwing

Just found a site which said a different way how to find out

It's GPT

Newcad

Get a partioning tool such as MiniTool Partition Wizard (it's free):

https://www.partitionwizard.com/

Connect the drive and open the MT Partition Wizard and that will tell you what the drive is, ie. how it is Formatted, how it's been partitioned, and if there is any unused space.

It is also able to expand partitions into free space, shrink partitions, change MBR to GPT or the other way, convert FAT/FAT42/EXFFAT/NTFS either way, etc. etc

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82070596#Comment_82070596

I'll have to have a see later tonight now but thanks.

Just a question - will that bypass if the seller flashed it with some firmware to make it look like 4TB when in actual fact it's only 2TB?

If not then I think something like that, if available, will be an idea to scan it with.

mta999

If you think the disc has been flashed and the firmware altered etc then we only sure way to find out if it is 4tb is to copy or at least try to copy 4tb of data onto it

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82070787#Comment_82070787

Well as it stands I'm at about 1.9TB of data written & if this is the case then I suspect it will be a 2TB drive as Veracrypt keeps failing at about 40GB of a container I'm trying to create.

My question is - I don't want to lose what's already on there. Google suggests if I try and max out the drive then it can corrupt files. But Google can also be wrong.

I need about 50-60GB to test if it maxes out at 2TB, which I can do with a couple .mkv files.

Is it likely to corrupt what's already on this drive if I send those files to it?

If they don't write then I guess that answers the question, because that'll be not writing beyond 2TB & Veracrypt not creating files that'll push me over 2TB.

But if it does write then it just creates more questions.

BUT……..I don't want to corrupt what's already on there.