So i found a deal in facebook marketplace, a second hand 10TB SATA HDD for just $88 (on my country’s currency). The HDD in question: https://imgur.com/a/vzqryfk
I’m interested, and i chatted the seller. While negotiating, the seller warns me about something.
- It’s an enterprise HDD
- He said that some normal motherboard might not support it (can’t detect)
- He tried plugging it on Z270, Z370 and B550 board, all of them didn’t detect the HDD
- Using adapter or pcie (stuff?) might allows it to be detected
- he mentioned the example of using HP Smart Array (that thing is expensive af)
- for external use, using docking/dongle might be possible
- He use this kind of dock from Orico and it works: https://www.amazon.com.au/ORICO-Docking-External-Enclosure-Interface/dp/B086YF8Y21?th=1
I was a bit sceptical at first, i searched on internet and reddit, like, “does motherboard has hard drive size limitation” and something like that. And things that i found is something in the line of “limitation is for old OS and mobos”, “as long as SATA and the mobo is on UEFI it’ll work”, “NTFS theoretical maximum disk size is 256 Terabyte”, things like that.
I was convinced by that, and ends up buying the HDD. And when it arrived, turns out it’s right. It can’t be read by my mobo. It i plugged the sata cables correctly and it doesn’t shows up in the Disk Management and even UEFI setup.
My option is now to find workaround if there’s any. Buying the same exact dock would be my last option, since i already spent much money on the harddisk alone. I’m curious on what was the reason it can’t be read by normal motherboard but readable with a dock. And does all dock do the same? Can i opt for the cheaper Orico one?
Helps and/or explanation would be really appreciated.
My rig:
- MSI B760M-A DDR4
- Intel i3 12100F
- Latest Windows 11
Test with a molex to sata adapter so that 3.3V on pin 3 is not provided. If it doesn’t spin up it’s dead.
will try, thx for the advice