I have a drive that had a mishap while being used in a RAID array. That array no longer exists, I dont even have the enclosure anymore. The drive now thinks its only 1.4TB instead of 8TB. It reported its size fine prior.
I have tried many, many pieces of software to try and reset MAX LBA.
Diskpart - clean, clean all, etc. do fix the issue
HDAT2 - the menu items that will let me reset to MAX LBA are not visible due to disk locking which I can not seem to turn off. I have secure boot turned off in my BIOS and i’m told that it should allow HDAT2 to work, but it does not. the options dont show up in the menu.
Seatools -
Option to reset MAX LBA allows me to select it, but then fails.
Option to Erase/Sanitize - failure as well
WD Drive Utilities, but it won’t even recognize WD drive exists. It will only recognize My Drive products.
DiskCheckup but that tool has the Modify HPA/DCO section greyed out.
HDD Capacity Restore Tool, and that gives me a driver error on startup. when I click past the error dialog then it shows a blank dialog.
Seagate SeaChest(Windows) Sanitize command and I get a response of “Command not supported by the device”.
I’m really bashing my head in over here. I’m not trying to recovery any data, the drive has been formatted many times in both Windows and MacOS.
My attempts to remove any HIdden Partitions have also resulted in failure.
WD tech help has not even given me a suggestion of what to try, so I thought I would come here
Does anyone have anything I can use to remove a hidden partition, then reset MAX LBA?
Somewhere there is a 32-bit LBA limitation. It could be that you have an old USB enclosure, or your RAID hardware is affected by this limit, or your SATA/RAID driver, or your BIOS.
Im using a VANTEC IDE/SATA to USB3.0 Adapter tool with the raw hard drive sitting on my desk, no enclosure used. The computer is running a MSI Tomahawk B450 motherboard with 64GB RAM, and the most recent BIOS that will fit.
I have connected this to both a PC running Win10, as well as a Macbook M3 Pro Max. On the mac I have tried using tools in both MacOS as well as Windows 11 using Parallels.
The drive is not currently connected in a RAID, but I believe that being used in a RAID is what caused this issue.
I am willing to create a Linus partition on my PC if anyone knows of a reliable tool that will work on Linux.
Unfortunately, you didn’t understand a word I wrote. Your adapter is just a USB enclosure without the box. Vantec is your 32-bit LBA limitation. The problem is the USB -SATA/PATA bridge firmware in the adapter.
The solution is to get a new adapter, or install the drives inside your computer and connect them directly to a SATA port on your motherboard.
What capacity is reported by the drive in response to an Identify Device command? You can see it in CrystalDiskInfo.
Yup. Thanks. I put it directly into my PC and formatted to correct size. Thanks. Sometimes I need to bash my head against the wall before I understand.
The drive is limited by a firmware-level HPA/DCO setting left by the previous RAID controller, not by partitions or formatting. That’s why the 8TB WD Red reports only ~1.4TB and why Windows, macOS, and WD tools don’t work. The only possible software fix is using low-level ATA tools on Linux with the drive connected directly via SATA. If that doesn’t work, the limit is firmware-locked and can’t be removed. In that case, the only realistic options are reconnecting the drive to the original RAID controller to clear it properly or replacing the drive through warranty/RMA if it’s still covered.
I strongly dislike AI bots. I also strongly dislike how AI is being “strongly encouraged” in every possible way. Maybe being Gen-X im just a grumpy old fart. AI has great use cases. But customer support/chat Bots are not one of them.
(is fart going to cause this message to be reviewed by admins?)
