Acronis Disk Director 11 not seeing External 3GB drive
Using Win7 Ultimate 64-bit and Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Update 2 (build 11.0.2343) does not "see/recognize" external Hitachi HDS72303 USB 3, yet, Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack (build 6151) does work with the same external drive.
Is there a way to have that external USB 3 drive recognized by ADD? Thank you.

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Thank you MudCrab. Both Windows and CrashPlan (backup) see and use the drive without any problem.
I'd rather not disconnect drive from USB3 to try connecting to USB 2 port as I would never use it as a USB 2 drive since its main advantage is higher speed. I do use other external USB 2 drives that are recognized by ADD 11.
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Sorry MudCrab, forgot to mention that TI does see and use the external USB 3 drive with no problem.
Thank you again.
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What about the DD CD? Does it see the drive?
It shouldn't hurt anything to connect the drive to a USB 2 port and see if DD can see it. I was just trying to determine if the problem is that it's USB 3 or if it's something to do with the drive itself.
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I'm having this same problem with my Seagate 3TB hard drive (ST3000DM001) connected to a USB 2.0 port using a Rosewill external enclosure (RX-358-U3B) and I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
Other programs (Windows Disk Management, Roxio Retrospect 7.7) all recognize the new drive and the new partitions I have created ... using the Windows tools. But Acronis DD 11 (Home Update 2 build 11.0.2343) does not see the drive or the partitions of this disk. I should also note that the last release of Acronis DD 11 I had installed did not see it either. I updated today and had the same problem, so it is not a "new build" issue.
Any idea why my dedicated disk management utility would not be doing its job here?
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Thanks MudCrab. Connecting via USB 2 does not change anything regrettably.
DD has a problem and hopefully Acronis is on top of it and will fix it fast. Of all programs, to have such a dedicated disk utility not able to recognize a drive is a real bummer.
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Summary of the following:
The "DD does not see/recognize external Drive" problem is independent from the Windows version and from the Computer's Hardware. It looks like the Drive installs a special Driver in the Windows System to talk to. Therefore the Drive is not shown in the BIOS Boot list. The drive can first be seen, when Windows is running. The drive shows a slighly reduced capacity compared to an other 1 TB Harddisk of the same Harddisk manufacturer. (Remark: Also EaseUS-Todobackup doesnt show the drive.) I use the word "Drive" for the USB case, and "Harddisk" for that what is inside the USB case.
In Detail:
Same Problem with Win7 Professional 64-bit and Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Update 2 (build 11.0.2343) on a Desktop
Same Problem with Win XP Professional 32-bit and Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Update 2 (build 11.0.2343) on the same Desktop
Same Problem with Win7 homel 32-bit and Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Update 2 (Demo, build 11.0.2343) on a Laptop
*Drive a*: DD does not "see/recognize" external "PHD 3.0 Silicon-Power USB Device" 1 TB neither on USB3.0 nor on USB2.0. Windows itself sees the drive and it can be used within Windows. (Internal Harddisk in the USB Case = Toshiba MK1059GSM). The "Windows>Property" Capacity is 1.000.193.650.688 Bytes.
*drive b*: Another external Drive "Toshiba MK1059GSM USB Device" 1 TB is seen/recognized by DD on USB 3.0 without any problems. (Internal Harddisk in the USB Case = Toshiba MK1059GSM, wich is the same as in *drive a*. The "Windows>Property" Capacity is 1.000.202.240.000 Bytes.
I opened the case of Drive *drive a* (which is not recognized by DD). There was as seal between the USB Electronic and the Harddisk (Toshiba MK1059GSM) mentioning: "Waranty void if broken". I broke the seal and connected the Harddisk directly as SATA. It showed up as a drive letter in Windows, but the Formating was shown by Windows as "RAW" . Sorry, I didn't check, if DD recognizes the harddisk connected as SATA.
I guess that drive *drive a* uses a special driver which works if Windows is startet. I remember, that a driver was loaded to Windows, when the case was first connected to the computer. That would explain, why the BIOS doesn't recognize the drive.
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As for the drive installing a special driver in windows just to be seen. I do not believe this to be so. I have the drive working on a western digital tv live hub which is a standalone movie player from western digital. The device is locked down and does not allow a driver to be installed. The device sees my 2 3tb seagate external drives just fine. I too opened up a call to acronis about a year ago long before the version 2 upgrade to disk director 11 and was told there would be a fix in the near future. It never came and does not appear to be coming. They eventually closed out my call telling me to just be patient and wait. I suspect it will be a marketing scam to sell upgrade or new version. They did however patch and make True Image 11 work just fine with the 2 drives. Very strange indeed.
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Same here? My DD does not see my Seagate BackupPlus 3TB usb3 external hard drive.
Can something be done about this? What does Acronis say? This seems like something ripe for an update or driver or something. My drive is new. I should be able to get support on this from the Co.. Ill get back with whatever I get. Just bump me if you can.
Thanks For any help you can give.
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Same issue here. My DD sees my 3TB Seagate 3TB as 100 GB drive. Even though I have parition the drive to a 2 TB and 800 GB disks.
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Same Problem:
Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Upgrade 2 (Build 11.0.2343) doesn`t recognize the external USB-3.0-Drive Seagate ST3000DM001-9YN166 (3 TB) in a TrekStor-Case.
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I think that give Acronis told me they would fix the problem in an email over a year ago maybe longer by now I'd have to check that email again. With disk director 10 even before version 11 we had these same problems. They don't seem like they want to fix the issue because if they can do it with true image it can be done with disk director. They just are not willing to do it. I have 11 installed currently and no drive larger then 2tb is being seen period. Not with special acronis boot disc, not with a special acronis driver, not anything period. 3tb and 4tb drives will not be partitioned with disk director and that is so said. Those of us who paid for the application expected better.
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Just bought a Western Digital 3TB USB 3.0 External today, and am having the same problem with DD 2011. Win7 64 bit Home Premium, and WIndows sees the drive just fine. I even plugged it into my ASUS router, where I intend to use the drive for NAS, and it recognized it too. It is disheartning to see from this thread that this has been an ongoing problem for over a year. If that is Acronis' attitude, to be "patient and wait," from Joseph Godwin's comment last April, I'll start looking around for some different disk management software.
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I have just bought a Seagate 4TB external USB 3 drive and I am unable to see it in DD build 11.0.2343 under Windows 8 x64 Enterprise on a USB 2 port (no USB 3 on my work laptop). Windows Explorer sees the drive fine.
Is this going to get fixed?
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Greg,
You are risking a lot even trying to run DD on Windows 8, as it is not compatible with nor supported on this OS.
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same here:
win7x64 ultimate
Seagate 4TB usb 3 drive connected to a usb 2 port
the windows disk management snap in sees the drive fine
explorer sees it fine
a cmd window sees it fine
DD 11 current revision doesn't see it at all..... and from looking at the forum here, they haven't bothered to fix it in a year and a half.
seems like this is an outrageous solid rocket booster type product defect and Acronis literally stole my money
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From the Acronis DD sales information page:
"Supports large disks: up to 2TB volumes on MBR and any size on GPT"
Have you changed the partition type to GPT so that the product "should" support it?
This can be done with Windows 7 DISKPART command line utility.
The specific command is CONVERT GPT.
Open an administrative command prompt and enter "DISKPART" without the quotes and press enter.
enter "LIST DISK" and press enter.
Looking at the list of disks detected in your system, select your 4TB disk by
entering "SELECT DISK #" with the # sign replaced with the listed disk number and press enter.
enter "DETAIL DISK" and press enter to verify you have selected the correct disk,
If not LIST the disks again and re-enter the SELECT disk and DETAIL disk commands as above until you have selected the correct disk.
Once the proper disk is selected, issue the command "CLEAN" and press enter.
*** THIS WILL WIPE ALL DATA OFF THE DRIVE. ***
Once the drive is "clean", issue the command "CONVERT GPT" and press enter to convert the disk to GPT.
You "should" be able to use DD with the 4TB disk converted to GPT according to the documentation/sales info site.
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thanks for the reply.... yes it's GPT... GPT is required to have a 4TB volume in windows, it would only partition to 2.2TB if it were MBR... both the shell and the disk management snap in see it just fine
BTW you dont need the command line to manipulate the disk type in windows
1- open computer management
2- click on disk manager
3- on the bottom panel where the partition layout is, right click on the drive number... the context menu says "convert to GPT" if it's MBR.... or says "convert to MBR" if iit's GPT... yes it easy as that
4- if you want to confirm it's GPT, on that same context menu click "properties" ... the center tab "partitions" says the "parttition style" meaning GPT or MBR
this is definitely a DD defect
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Thanks for your update on this issue, and the hints on Disk Management (I apparently needed a refresher).
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Convering the external hdd to GPT will not help. DD just will not see the external hdd.
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Very disappointed. I had an older version and updated to DD 11 about a week ago. Can't even install the Seagate Diskwizard to create new partitions on their drive without uninstalling DD 11. Apparently Acronis built the Seagate Diskwizard as the installer lists Diskwizard as an older version of DD 11. It is not even listed as compatible with Windows 8.
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Hello AK_Dad
current version of Acronis Disk Director 11 doesn't support Windows 8.
And you are right; Seagate Diskwizard is powered by Acronis.
Thank you.
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Acronis still needs an MBR somewhere on your disk whether it's mbr only or GPT. You'll need to format with GParted or other utility, and build entire space as GPT with Fat32 and block size 512. I believe its the block size that holds you back. Try it again in DD after. IF you still don't see the drive, check the logs. It will show if there is an issue. If there is, you usb enclosure is locked to a specific memory size. Your usb will not allow the buffer to use a memory size of 512, so the block size is still reading as 4096kb (the typical buffer length). Try using a different enclosure, one that didn't come with a drive. They are popping up all over. Try a usb2 first, and then a usb3. Most vendors will lock down the usb3 memory due to the performance standard. Not a DD issue. A usb standards issue.
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