Windows 10: Raw formatted my external

Well, It looks like Win 10 did a # on both drives & I may have a total loss, wish I would have stuck with 7 this OS has been more hassle than its worth.

 

From your post/s, I understand you are using a dock. Please check your dock's specifications - what is the maximum capacity each slot can handle and the total capacity it can handle. Used otherwise - exceeding the specifications - can create all sorts of problems that can result in data loss.

Your problem has nothing to do with Windows 10. It can happen in Windows 7 also. *Smile

I shall in a later post try to explain why a quick format sticks but a full format turns your drive RAW.

 

Mediasonic HUR2-SU3

Windows 7 / 8.1 (with MBR enabled, supports total capacity up to 2TB)
Windows 7 / 8 (32 / 64 bits) (with GPT enabled, support total capacity more than 2TB)
Mac OSX 10.8 or later
Support all brand of 2.5" and 3.5" SATA I / II / III hard drive / SSD up to 8TB per drive

I have been using these for several years w/o any RAW corruption on the rotation of about 60 drives, I can't say that for previous docking stations but these have been good in this regard. The drives in question are 500GB & 2TB.
Perhaps not related to Windows 10 but it is curious that if you google search RAW issues 10 comes up far more than than any other OS's & on a totally unrelated note it's idiotic file security restrictions are driving me crazy.
I think my initial inclination to not trust this drive after failing several attempted long formats should have been heeded & I should have returned the drive to Newegg, I likely will still do this as I see no way to recover all but scraps from the drive with the software options available so I will have to eat the 500GB loss.

 

The specifications as given by you if taken from the document that came with the dock should be taken as correct.

If that be so, you may note that Windows 10 is not mentioned. It must be pre-Windows 10 dock and I would desist using it with Windows 10.

Generally, 500GB and 2TB drives come formatted as MBR drives. If your drives are indeed MBR drives , you cannot use both together on the dock for that exceeds the specified total limit of 2TB for MBR drives. If on the other hand, you have formatted both as GPT drives you can use both together on the dock and in both cases I will still use it only with Windows 7/8 , if the spec document that came with the dock does not indicate Windows 10. And then again I won't use one drive MBR and one drive GPT. All MBR or All GPT. No mix.

I am now more than ever convinced that your old dock is your problem ( Old is not always gold in fast changing Technology. Either you catch up or remain old with your old technology - like me *Smile )

If you want to be safe, buy the current technology dock from well reputed manufacturer. ( I see that you have a Taiwan made dock and the specs are not clearly made. I also see the current model - the same Model Number mentions Windows 10)

 

The specs were those listed on Newegg but the Mediasonic site states that the hur2-su3 is Win 10 compatible: Mediasonic
The station is designed to clone 2 drives on the same station so I don't know where you are getting this single drive limitation from.
I have for some time used it this way w/o an issue & presently I have used number of other drives (about a half dozen) without an issue so far, whereas the new 2TB drive was a problem pretty much from the start, if I had attempted to format it with Win 7 & this was the result I would have returned it immediately, as I have at least once in the past. But not being totally familiar with the OS & having had & still having with dealing with a multitude of bugs I was considering it to be just another one.
The 500GB drive is about a decade old so it may be just the end of days for it, I've considered this risk when using these drives but at least due to the size the potential loss is less.

 

"Windows 7 / 8.1 (with MBR enabled, supports total capacity up to 2TB)"

The total capacity on both slots should not exceed 2 TB. So you cannot put 2TB in one slot and 500GB on another slot, totalling 2.5TB .Usually a well specified dock spec may read something like this Total capacity :8TB (2TB x4) meaning you can put upto four 2TB drives in each slot. You cannot put two 4TB drives in two slots, even if total capacity is 8TB.

Anyway, if you have decided that your 2TB drive is the problem - without testing it with the manufacturer's diagnostic/repair utility or any other third party utility connecting it directly to the motherboard SATA port in a Desktop, I have no more comments to offer.

 

As MBR ONLY supports a 2TB maximum size, I really think they are just reiterating this, it is stated nowhere on the data sheet that the station "itself" is limited to this size + the link I just posted clearly states that the clone function will support 8TB drives so its good for up to two 8TB drives on a single station obviously.
If a drive fails long formatting, as it rarely does in my experience, its safe to say something is seriously wrong with it & it would be wise to return it especially if it brand new, as stated the only reason I questioned this was because of my unfamiliarity with the OS & its potential bugs in this regard, I think my original intuition was correct, the days of spending literally days running utilities to perhaps save a 50 buck blank drive are long past in my life, the data lost is multitudes more valuable, life is short & I'm far too busy to squander away time needlessly.

 

The 8TB limit applies to drives initialised as GPT drive. 2TB applies to MBR drives.

I do agree that if you have a suspicion, better to return it and get a replacement within the return policy of the vendor.

On getting a replacement, check it again ( using data that can be lost *Smile ) and let us know if your problem is resolved or you still experience the same problem. ( Use the same dock and not a different one even if same model. Test conditions should be the same)

( I too agree that Windows 10 has too many problems cropping up but this one I would think is not related to Windows. But that shouldn't stop you from returning it. I am nobody to stop you except giving my opinions. *Smile )

 

I'd like to quickly note that Win 10 has a number of (PITA) default power saving "options" that need to be disabled in the device manager AND under power settings to prevent the USB connection from constantly dropping out, I'm quite convinced that these, rather harsh, disconnects are what caused my partition corruption, I've subsequently have had a SSD partition corrupt likely due to this, in this case it was nothing too important so its not a great loss.
I'm still testing as I just found the 3rd power saving default that needs to be disabled because you know saving a little power is much more important than losing a HD full of data, great priorities Microsoft!