Seagate 3TB External convert to Internal

[evanesce]

Hey, I have this Seagate branded 3TB External drive, that I want to take out of the case and convert to an internal drive.

Normally this is no problem at all, just take it out, stick it in a windows PC and repartition it. However, I want to preserve the data on it.

The little adapter that connects the drive to USB3 has some sort of different partition geometry that makes it compatible with pre 3gb technology for backwards compatibility on systems, but when you move a data filled drive internal windows does not recognize the partition table whatsoever.

Is there any way I can convert this drive's partition table to a format windows will read it? I guess you may not understand the problem unless you had experience with 3tb drives at the very least. Thanks!

 

[evanesce]

I found an article that I think explains what's going on:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh182553(v=vs.85).aspx

I believe the external storage circuitry is emulating the 512 byte partition size and the actual disc is 4k sectors.

Now if i stick this drive in windows, windows is automatically going to see that it's 4k sector size and try to read a partition using that schema. But it will fail. Is there a way to force windows into reading a 4k disk as 512 byte emulation much like the enclosure is doing on the fly?

 

[jordan12]

Why cant you just copy the data to a different internal, and throw the external drive into the case. Format and go

 

[evanesce]

I would do that hands down, but finances are tight at the moment and I don't have another drive that large I could use as an intermediary.

 

[DPI]

I would do that hands down, but finances are tight at the moment and I don't have another drive that large I could use as an intermediary.

Then you'll have to wait until you do.