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Unable to assign drive letters to disk partitions

Computernaut
By Computernaut
in Storage Devices
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Go to solution Solved by Godlygamer23,
5 minutes ago, Computernaut said:

A brand called G-Drive. It was a 2.5" drive enclosure with a USB 3.0 Type-B connection.

G-Drive is a Western Digital brand, and when I looked up some details about it, Western Digital's page says that it has native support for Mac OS, but needs to be reformatted to work on Windows. Was it ever reformatted? If not, that would point to it being used on a Mac, and thus why it's not currently working.

 

I have a screenshot attached of the specs page.

 

Capture.thumb.PNG.dafbca168ed304fbb292e7a1f62b276f.PNG

Here's a link to WD's page for it:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/external-drives/sandisk-professional-g-drive-pro-thunderbolt-3-hdd?sku=SDPH51J-004T-NBAAD

Posted

I found an old drive at work recently and was tasked with discovering what is on it. It was originally in an external enclosure, but the enclosure is broken so I took out the hard drive and connected it directly to my computer via SATA. Disk Management reports two partitions on the disk, but I am unable to do anything with them (all options are greyed out save for Delete Volume, which I don't want to do in case there is important data there). I tried using PowerShell to assign drive letters to these mystery partitions, and while PowerShell itself seemed to think the command worked, neither Disk Management or File Explorer can find any drive letter.

Thoughts?

What is actually supposed to go here? Some people put their specs, others put random comments or remarks about themselves or others, and there are a few who put cryptic statements.

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4 minutes ago, Computernaut said:

Thoughts?

Is the drive greater than 2TB?

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1 minute ago, AbydosOne said:

Is the drive greater than 2TB?

Nope, just 1 TB.

What is actually supposed to go here? Some people put their specs, others put random comments or remarks about themselves or others, and there are a few who put cryptic statements.

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6 minutes ago, Computernaut said:

I found an old drive at work recently and was tasked with discovering what is on it. It was originally in an external enclosure, but the enclosure is broken so I took out the hard drive and connected it directly to my computer via SATA. Disk Management reports two partitions on the disk, but I am unable to do anything with them (all options are greyed out save for Delete Volume, which I don't want to do in case there is important data there). I tried using PowerShell to assign drive letters to these mystery partitions, and while PowerShell itself seemed to think the command worked, neither Disk Management or File Explorer can find any drive letter.

Thoughts?

What file system are they using?

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2 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

What file system are they using?

I can't tell since the Properties option for the partitions is greyed out.

What is actually supposed to go here? Some people put their specs, others put random comments or remarks about themselves or others, and there are a few who put cryptic statements.

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4 minutes ago, Computernaut said:

I can't tell since the Properties option for the partitions is greyed out.

Try using MiniTool Partition Wizard and see if it's able to do something with them, barring total deletion.

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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3 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Try using MiniTool Partition Wizard and see if it's able to do something with them, barring total deletion.

The File System in MiniTool shows up as "Other." There is also no "Change letter" option like there is for normal partitions.

What is actually supposed to go here? Some people put their specs, others put random comments or remarks about themselves or others, and there are a few who put cryptic statements.

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1 minute ago, Computernaut said:

The File System in MiniTool shows up as "Other." There is also no "Change letter" option like there is for normal partitions.

What kind of enclosure was this drive installed into?

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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1 minute ago, Computernaut said:

The File System in MiniTool shows up as "Other." There is also no "Change letter" option like there is for normal partitions.

That is what I expected. Was this used on a Mac or linux machine by any chance?

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Just now, Blue4130 said:

That is what I expected. Was this used on a Mac or linux machine by any chance?

No idea, but I doubt it since our environment is almost exclusively Windows-based.

What is actually supposed to go here? Some people put their specs, others put random comments or remarks about themselves or others, and there are a few who put cryptic statements.

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2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

What kind of enclosure was this drive installed into?

A brand called G-Drive. It was a 2.5" drive enclosure with a USB 3.0 Type-B connection.

What is actually supposed to go here? Some people put their specs, others put random comments or remarks about themselves or others, and there are a few who put cryptic statements.

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Posted (edited)
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5 minutes ago, Computernaut said:

A brand called G-Drive. It was a 2.5" drive enclosure with a USB 3.0 Type-B connection.

G-Drive is a Western Digital brand, and when I looked up some details about it, Western Digital's page says that it has native support for Mac OS, but needs to be reformatted to work on Windows. Was it ever reformatted? If not, that would point to it being used on a Mac, and thus why it's not currently working.

 

I have a screenshot attached of the specs page.

 

Capture.thumb.PNG.dafbca168ed304fbb292e7a1f62b276f.PNG

Here's a link to WD's page for it:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/external-drives/sandisk-professional-g-drive-pro-thunderbolt-3-hdd?sku=SDPH51J-004T-NBAAD

Edited by Godlygamer23
Slight reformatting.

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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I'd probably try the disk in a linux live disk as it generally does much better with different disk formats and has much better support for filesystems than windows. Also likely you can get better information about the filesystem.

 

 

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41 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

G-Drive is a Western Digital brand, and when I looked up some details about it, Western Digital's page says that it has native support for Mac OS, but needs to be reformatted to work on Windows. Was it ever reformatted? If not, that would point to it being used on a Mac, and thus why it's not currently working.

 

I have a screenshot attached of the specs page.

  Reveal hidden contents

Capture.thumb.PNG.dafbca168ed304fbb292e7a1f62b276f.PNG

Here's a link to WD's page for it:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/external-drives/sandisk-professional-g-drive-pro-thunderbolt-3-hdd?sku=SDPH51J-004T-NBAAD

I looked into it and it seems that the drive in indeed MacOS-based. I'm currently attempting a recovery using HFSExplorer. Thanks so much for your help!

What is actually supposed to go here? Some people put their specs, others put random comments or remarks about themselves or others, and there are a few who put cryptic statements.

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