Unable to format G-RAID (Removable) 8TB USB

G-Technology G-RAID & G-DOCK
1

Hi there,

I reconfigured my G-RAID (Removable) 8TB USB and is trying to do “quick format” with Windows 10, following G-Technology’s instruction here (https://support-en.g-technology.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/663/related/1), but the reformatting never ends. About once in 10 seconds, the computer seems to access the drive and makes a read/write click noise.

In fact, It is the latest of the series of problems I’ve had in a day. The first one was a sign of a physical damage when I used the drive with Mac: the drive’s LED had turned red. I emptied the drive and reconfigured & formatted it a few times, as I wanted to see a physical damage was fixed or not. After the second successful attempt, the LED indicator turned back red. In the third attempt or so, I could format the 8TB RAID-0 configuration only as a 4TB drive, and soon Disk Utility started to fail to delete/create a partition.

That’s why I am formatting the drive with Windows 10. From the Windows PC, I was able to see unused 4TB and to initialize the entire 8TB.

Is there any good suggestion on what to do from here?

Is there a way to find which drive needs to be replaced?

I am also not sure about whether the drive really has a physical problem. Mac’s Disc Utility reported no errors.

2

Since I was able to set up a 4TB RAID-1 partition on Mac, I pulled out and tested the HDDs one by one, and a disk diagnosis tool found that one of them had significantly damaged areas.

Now, what I would do is
A. buy two new HDDs, 4TB (original size) or 6TB if possible
B. continue to use the G-RAID in RAID-1 mode with the single disk for the time being
C. buy a G-DRIVE (single disk)

I appreciate it if someone could advise me:

  • on Option A whether I could use two 6TB HDDs instead of original 4TB
  • whether Option B is as safe as Option C