USB Seagate 8TB HDD not recognised with MED800X3D v3.0.1

[xga]

Hi Guys,

I recently purchased an 8TB USB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive to replace my USB WD 4TB HDD which has become full.

After plugging it into one of the USB ports on my MED800X3D and then turning it on, the drive did not show up under the MEDIA LIBRARY menu.  Plugging it back into my Windows 8.1 computer I could read the drive fine.  I thought that the partition might have been too big for the MED800X3D to recognise, so I deleted the volume through Windows disk management, created a new 1TB partition and then formatted the partition selecting NTFS.  Plugging it back into the MED800X3D and powering it on made no difference, it was still unable to recognise the drive. 

I then carefully removed the actual HDD from the plastic Seagate case and installed it into the internal drive bay of the MED800X3D.  After powering it up again, this time I had a "FORMAT" (Internal HDD) option available in the setup menu.  I formatted the drive twice (as per the recommendations on this forum) and I can now see the drive and access it over the network.

I'm guessing that there is some sort of compatibility issue with the USB host board which is used in the Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive's.

Would anyone have any other ideas why this USB drive may not have worked and or anything else you could suggest I try to get it working?  I honestly prefer having the USB drive rather than the internal as it offers me more flexibility if I want to take a drive with me.

Cheers

[jer1956]

Why on!y  1tb? What partitions did the 8tb drive have? Even recent Seagate  3tb usb drives have issues as the USB controller appears to be emulating a single gpt partituon on top of multiple mbr ones.

If you posted before removing the derive I would have said remove the 8tb volume via a PC,and then see what appears. If multiple MBR partition then appear, remove each of them, then convert to a single 8tb gpt partition.

[xga]

Why on!y  1tb?

Just as a test to see if the 8TB partition size was the cause of the issue,

If you posted before removing the derive I would have said remove the 8tb volume via a PC,and then see what appears. If multiple MBR partition then appear, remove each of them, then convert to a single 8tb gpt partition.

Using the Windows Disk Management console, I did blow away all of the partitions and created a single 8TB GPT partition, but the Mede8er failed to detect it via USB.

I'm tempted to throw in a different (and smaller) HDD into the USB enclosure and see if I can get that to work / be recognised.  In terms of partitioning then, should it definitely be a single GPT partition?  Nothing else I should have to do?

[jer1956]

Is that a USB powered drive?

[xga]

Is that a USB powered drive?

No it isn't, it has its own 12v 1.5a PSU.  This is the model http://www.seagate.com/au/en/external-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/backup-plus-desk/.

I've found an old working Seagate 2TB SATA drive and if I plug it into the USB enclosure that came with the 8TB drive and format it as a GPT disk using NTFS as the filing system on my Windows 8.1 computer, the Mede8er still does not recognise it when I plug it into its USB port.

[xga]

Ok, so I got this 8TB USB drive to work.  For those that are interested, here is what I had to do.

* Created a Gparted USB boot disk (using http://tuxboot.org/ and a USB memory stick)
* Booted the Gparted USB boot disk with the 8TB USB drive connected to the computer
* Selected the 8TB drive as the device to work on in Gparted
* From the Gparted menu, selected Device ---> Create Partition Table
* Selected gpt as the partition table type and clicked apply
* Right clicked on the unallocated partition and selected New
* Selected ntfs as the file system
* Gave the partition a label (kept it under 8 characters) and clicked Add
* Clicked Apply from the main menu bar to run the pending operation of Creating Primary Partition with ntfs, followed by another click to apply button
* Once completed, clicked close and Exited Gparted

The Mede8er now recognises the 8TB USB drive when I plug it into it and Windows also recognises it when I plug it into my computer.

So I can now confirm that the Seagate Archive 8000GB HDD works in the internal bay of the MED800X3D (using the Mede8er format function in the setup menu) and the 8TB USB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive works with the MED800X3D if it is setup / formatted through Gparted.  I simply could not get the 8TB USB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive to work with the MED800X3D if it was formatted through Windows.

Hopefully this information might help others in future. 

[Wookie Groomer]

That's excellent news. No one on this site was able to confirm that drive's compatibility when I asked about it a while ago. This means I can proceed to order the hardware.

[xga]

The only thing to note is, with the 8TB USB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive connected to the USB port of the MED800X3D, it takes a bit longer for the drive to be mounted and become accessible compared to the 4TB USB WD drive I was using before.  Perhaps another 30 seconds.  Not a massive deal, but worth noting.

[capitanharlock]

Wondering if the med could use the hd taken from the usb cradle and put inside the Med box...

 

[docbill]

Interesting.  I still seriously wonder if the Archive drives are suitable for this task.   The two year warranty is a show stopper for the USB enclosure, but the drive itself has a 3 year warranty.  Generally though the really really slow write speed means it is going to take a long time to copy your data onto the drive.   For now, I'll stick to the Red Drives, but it is nice to know this is an option.

In regards to sticking the drive in the mede8er, or even using it as a USB drive, I personally advice against both.   My experience has been in both cases the mede8er will corrupt drives connected to it.  NTFS becomes corrupted much more quickly than EXT3, but both are unstable.   If you do want to connect the drives directly to the mede8er treat them as read only while connected.  Do not attempt to write to them with SMB or any other such updates.  That will cause even more issues.

I had tried the experiment for six months where I had drives connected to the mede8er.  By the end of 6 months, I thought I had 4 failed drives.   It turns out I had 0 failed drives, but I ended up reformatting everything I had connected to the mede8er in order to fully recover the drives.   The Mede8er itself also ran less reliably with drives connected to it.  There where frequent crashes and hangs.   Ultimately I thought I could play 1080p movies better with the drives connected directly to the mede8er.   It turns out I was wrong.  CAT6 cable is your friend, and taking the load off the mede8er of trying to access the drives via USB3 or SATA will allow the mede8er to do what it does best, better.

Of course it could be that my mede8er is defective, and this is not the typical results.   However, I seriously doubt that.

[capitanharlock]

Good to know.
 
I guess I am going to copy the 4tb hd that I have inside the Med into my NAS, and then back to the new 8TB Seagate...

I will let you know.

[argumon]

Hopefully this information might help others in future. 

Many thanks, this worked with my WD Elements 5TB and MED600X3D 

[aorfix]

It worked with my new Seagate Backup Plus Hub 8TB My question is if it work with an 8TB or 6TB internal HDD, and maybe I could replace my WD Green 4TB inside of the Med800x3D
When I bought the med800x3D a few years ago, it was announced that it doesn't recognizes external and internal drives up to 4TB.