2 TB Caviar Green -> two one TB partitions; only one readable HELP

I have a 2 TB Caviar Green drive which I had to configure as two single TB partitions since my mboard would not support a drive larger than 1 TB.

I can access one of the partitions, but not the other under Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit.

The drive is making clunking noises, so I know it’s not long for this earth, but why is only one partition accessible if it is a single physical drive?  It makes no sense to me that partition one is accessible and readable but partition two acts as if it does not exist, at least according to Windows.

I’ve tried to use Spinrite on it but the PC won’t boot when this drive is connected; I have to connect it after Windows loads.

What can I do to get at partition two?

I have used the Western Digitial utility the WD Data Lifeguard but because Windows doesn’t “see” the second partition, this doesn’t help me.

Hi dbacksfanbrian,

If you computer has an actual HDD limitation of 1TB, then you won’t be able to access the other half of the drive since the computer doesn’t understand how to address it. Also, if the drive is making a clicking/clunking sound, then it sounds like the drive may be damaged or failing and that could be another reason why the drive isn’t accessible.

Are you using this drive in an external enclosure? If so, then some computers will try to boot from the external drive and it has to be disconnected in order for the system to boot properly. Some enclosures also have limitation so it could be limiting your access to the drives full capacity and not your computer. If this drive is an internal drive, it is not recommended to plug in an internal drive while the computer is running. It can cause system issues unless your hardware and OS support hot swap.

Data Lifeguard works on the physical drive level, it doesn’t need to see the partitions, it should still be able to test the drive. I would still run the DLG diagnostic software and see if the drive passes. If it doesn’t, then I would recommend replacing the drive. I included some links below on how to replace a drive using an RMA if your drive is under warranty.

Drive Warranty Check

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/915

How to Get an RMA

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1073

thank you for your response.  when the drive was new and I first created the two partitions, the system saw both logical drives just fine.

as you suspected, I am using a “toaster” to house the internal drive so I can swap out easily with other drives.

I will try some other ideas to access the drive and then copy off what I can before it fails completely.  I’ve never had a drive fail before and it figures it would be on one with such a large capacity I have no good way to rescue all of the data.

Oh well, lesson learned.

I thought I would tell everyone what I did to recover from my situation.

The Western Digital Data Lifeguard application for Windows, in my opinion, is worthless.  I remember trying to use it when I bought my two new WD Caviar Green 2 TB drives to help me and found it to be of no help at all.  I also tried HD Tune, something someone else mentioned in another thread.

At that time, I then downloaded a free version of EASUS Partition Master which I found easy to use, and, the only thing that worked!

Just today I bought the professional version and was able to repair partition 2 on my problematic WD Green Caviar 2TB drive.  There is a repair buttion that will invoke a DOS version of chkdsk if necessary.  For my partition, it was necessary.

In my opinion, to overcome limitations with Windows, which is what I suspect causes WD Data Lifeguard to work so poorly, EASUS Partition Master is the only way to go.

dbacksfanbrian

Thanks for the feedback about how you got the drive working and I’m glad that you were able to retrieve the data.

Data Lifeguard is only designed as a diagnostic software, it isn’t intended to repair damaged partitions or recover data. Also, some enclosures can impede the software by not passing all the commands to the drive that DLG supports.

You can repair the partition table with DMDE (freeware disc editor). You can also mount missing partitions with Partition Find and Mount (freeware).

http://dmde.com
http://findandmount.com