WD Gold 18 TB will not initialize

WD Internal Drives Internal Drives
1

I just bought a new WDGold 18TB drive from WD. When I plug it into my Gigabyte Z390 computer the BIOS shows no drive connected. I plugged the drive into a USB interface, and now Windows 10 Pro drive manager shows the drive there, with no partition, and a drive size 7452.04 GB, but it will not initialize the drive. WD Dashboard (3.8.2.10) shows the drive having 2199 GB unallocated space, but no other data. I just tried to attach the WD dashboard report, but WD does not permit “new users” to upload files.

Is this brand new drive just toast, or is there a process to make it usable?

2

Hi @jelecroy,

Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting:
https://support-en.wd.com/app/ask

3

I have attempted to open a support case, but not succedeed, because the Western Digital support site remains down due to a hack.

Jerry