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I am replacing my current HDD (WD10EZEX 1TB HDD, henceforth “Old Drive”) with a new HDD (WD40EZAX 4TB HDD, henceforth "New Drive”). I used Casper 11 to clone Old Drive to New Drive. Windows 10. PC is a Lenovo Ideacentre.

When New Drive is connected via SATA, I get “Error 1962: No operating system found. Boot sequence will automatically repeat.” Running Startup Repair from a USB Windows 10 Recovery Drive just gives me “Startup Repair couldn’t repair your PC.” However, when New Drive is connected via a USB Enclosure instead, Windows 10 boots up fine.

I’m not sure about the SATA cords being the issue because the Old Drive still boots up Windows 10 just fine when connected via SATA.

With Old Drive connected via SATA and New Drive connected via USB Enclosure, diskpart gives me the following:

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt




Disk 0    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online           14 GB      0 B


DISKPART> list vol


Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info




Volume 0     F                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    909 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition    260 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition   1000 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4         LENOVO_PART  NTFS   Partition     20 GB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 5     D                NTFS   Partition   3703 GB  Healthy
  Volume 6                      FAT32  Partition    260 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 7                      NTFS   Partition   1000 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 8         LENOVO_PART  NTFS   Partition     20 GB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 9     E   ESD-USB      FAT32  Removable     14 GB  Healthy
  Volume 10        LRS_ESP      FAT32  Partition   1000 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 11        LRS_ESP      FAT32  Partition   1000 MB  Healthy    Hidden

With New Drive connected via SATA and Old Drive connected via USB Enclosure, diskpart gives me the following:

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt




Disk 0    Online         3726 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online           14 GB      0 B


DISKPART> list vol


Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info




Volume 0     E                       DVD-ROM         0 B  No Media
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    909 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2                      FAT32  Partition    260 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition   1000 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4         LENOVO_PART  NTFS   Partition     20 GB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 5     D   ESD-USB      FAT32  Removable     14 GB  Healthy
  Volume 6         LRS_ESP      FAT32  Partition   1000 MB  Healthy    Hidden

As you can see, when the New Drive is connected via SATA it doesn’t identify as GPT and doesn’t list its volumes. In both of these instances, the listed removable USB is a Windows 10 Recovery Drive.

What next steps can I take to identify and rectify the issue?

user2477661
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1 Answers1

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As Cliff Armstrong suggested, the enclosure did something it shouldn’t have, resulting in a sector alignment issue. I have resolved the issue and will detail my findings here:

The cause of the issue was the USB Enclosure itself – it was silently changing any inserted drive’s sector size from 512 bytes to 4096 bytes! More information on this issue can be found here, but it all boils down to this: “Certain chips used for USB-to-SATA conversion in some USB enclosures will convert the drive sector size to 4096 bytes, regardless of the drive's physical sector size… If you then remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it directly to a SATA port, the drive will present its own 512 bytes per sector, thus invalidating its partition tables.”

For reference, the USB Enclosure I used was a “Sabrent EC-DFLT” that shipped with an old firmware version. After running the “Jmicron FW Update” tool available on Sabrent’s website and updating the Enclosure to the latest firmware, I am now able to use it without the sector size changing.

Unfortunately, I found this out after I had already put the Old Drive in the USB Enclosure for the diskpart test, resulting in neither drive working when connected via SATA due to the sector size fiasco. To resolve my issue, I first connected the New Drive via SATA and reformatted it, then reinstalled Windows 10 on it via the Recovery Drive. Afterwards, I connected the Old Drive via the USB Enclosure and copied everything over manually without Casper.

Moral of the story: never use a USB Enclosure until you’ve confirmed it’s on the latest firmware… and better yet, do everything via SATA instead when you can!

user2477661
  • 41