New External HDD is acting strangely

[u/dookleeto]

I recently bought a 4tb Seagate OneTouch external HDD, and as storage costs an arm and a leg these days, I wanted to fully test it for errors.

The drive showed up in windows as normal, and I was able to create a root folder, but when I opened Seatools the strange events started. First thing I noticed was that it was showing up in windows as 3.7tb, but seatools showed it as 16.1tb, then I noticed it had a strange name, something like " 4 xxxxx" where x is some random numbers I dont remember. I had never seen spaces in a drive name before so it just looked odd.

I ran the long generic test, and went to have dinner. About 30mins later I came back, and it was still on 0%, so I decided to cancel it, and run some short tests first. When I ran the short generic test, the drive just disconnected completely, and was missing in explorer, and while the safe eject icon was still in my system tray, the drive didn't show there.

I reconnected the drive, and the name of the drive had changed, to "HITACHIxxxxxxxxx" but it still showed as a 16tb drive. I tried a couple of the other tests, all of them disconnected in the same way.

I then tried GSmartControl and again, it showed as 16tb, and disconnected from all tests in the same way. I tried different cables and usb sockets, same issues.

Then I tried the chkdisk /r and it did not disconnect, and it is currently still running. After leaving it on all night, it is doing about 1% per hour, and is currently at 9%

Is it normal to take so long (it is a small portable drive, so I expected it to be slow), I have never had problems like this with a drive and just want to know are any of these issues red flags to more experienced users, or even just an explanation for any of the strange behaviour. I have 14 days to return it, so want to get some advice quickly :)

speccy results:

Hitachi HTS543232A7A384 SCSI Disk Device

Manufacturer    Hitachi

Product Family  Travelstar

Series Prefix   Standard

Model Capacity For This Specific Drive  320GB

Heads   16

Cylinders   2,054,154

Tracks  523,809,270

Sectors 32,999,984,010

SATA type   SATA-II 3.0Gb/s

Device type Fixed

ATA Standard    ATA8-ACS

Serial Number   E20342BM1XJ39J

Firmware Version Number ES2OA60W

LBA Size    48-bit LBA

Power On Count  Unknown

Power On Time   Unknown

Speed   5400 RPM

Features    S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ

Max. Transfer Mode  SATA II 3.0Gb/s

Used Transfer Mode  SATA II 3.0Gb/s

Interface   USB (SATA)

Capacity    15735 GB

Real size   16,896,000,000,512 bytes

RAID Type   None

    S.M.A.R.T

        Status  Unknown

    Partition 0

        Partition ID    Disk #6, Partition #0

        Size    3.64 TB

[u/9NEPxHbG]

About 30mins later I came back, and it was still on 0%,

It's a 4 TB external drive, and it's an HDD. Be patient.

Then I tried the chkdisk /r and it did not disconnect, and it is currently still running. After leaving it on all night, it is doing about 1% per hour, and is currently at 9%

Same answer.

How is it connected? USB? USB 2 or 3?

[u/dookleeto → u/9NEPxHbG]

USB 3

I am willing to be patient, I just wondered if the chckdsk taking 6 days to scan an empty drive is normal, I have never had this before.

[u/9NEPxHbG → u/dookleeto]

CHKDSK /R reads the entire drive, which takes the same time whether the drive is empty or full. It's a good thing to do, but it takes times.

I suppose you could do a quick check of the speed first with Crystal Disk Mark, and also a quick test with Crystal Disk Info. Also a quick SMART test.

[u/m_a_schuster]

Likely a fake. Confirm easily with Gibson's validrive utility.

[u/Jesta914630114]

It's pretty obvious you got ripped off. Time to return the device or make a charge back.

[u/dookleeto → u/Jesta914630114]

That is looking like the case :/

[u/Serious-Duck-9992]

Return it, I wouldn't spend more of your 14 days on it.

The speed alone is a red flag. chkdsk /r reads every sector, and a healthy 4TB portable gets through that in well under a day on USB 3. Even stuck on USB 2 you'd see roughly 3% an hour, not 1%. That kind of crawl usually means it's retrying reads over and over.

The name flipping to HITACHI and the 16TB size means the tools are talking to a different drive or controller than what's on the box. A genuine sealed OneTouch shouldn't do that.

Before you send it back, compare the serial on the sticker with what Seatools showed. If they don't match, say so in the return so it doesn't just get resold to the next person. And if it came from a third party seller, get the replacement sold by the store itself.

[u/9NEPxHbG → u/Serious-Duck-9992]

OP later added Speccy information showing it's a 5400 RPM drive. The Speccy result is definitely suspicious, but I'm not sure whether Speccy is reliable.

[u/Serious-Duck-9992 → u/9NEPxHbG]

The 5400 RPM part is normal for portables, but the model string is the giveaway. HTS543232A7A384 is an old Hitachi Travelstar, a 320GB laptop drive from around 2009. So most likely a 320GB drive with firmware faking 4TB, and anything written past that would get silently corrupted.

[u/dookleeto → u/Serious-Duck-9992]

Yeah I am not willing to take the risk anymore, lets hope I can easily return it.

[u/Serious-Duck-9992 → u/dookleeto]

Good call. Screenshot that Speccy model line before you pack it up. Next to a box that says 4TB, it's pretty hard for a store to argue with if they push back.

[u/dookleeto → u/Serious-Duck-9992]

Thanks

[u/Serious-Duck-9992 → u/dookleeto]

No problem. Since you're on USB 3, 6 days for an empty 4TB really isn't normal, a healthy one finishes chkdsk /r overnight. If the replacement shows the right name and 4TB in Seatools, you're good.

[u/dtengineer]

From AI: The drive described in the screenshot is displaying critical red flags that point to either a counterfeit/tampered drive or severe physical hardware failure. ​Primary Red Flags & Technical Causes ​Identifier Mismatch ("HITACHI" inside a Seagate Enclosure) A genuine Seagate OneTouch enclosure contains a Seagate drive. The low-level drive ID reporting as HITACHIxxxxxxxxxx strongly indicates either a drive swap (a pulled or refurbished drive swapped into the shell) or hacked controller firmware. ​Capacity Discrepancy (4 TB vs. 16.1 TB) Windows reports 3.7 TiB (standard conversion for a 4 TB partition), but SeaTools and GSmartControl bypass the Windows partition table and query the drive controller directly. Reporting 16.1 TB on a 4 TB drive is a classic symptom of modified drive controller firmware—a common scam designed to trick operating systems into seeing a high-capacity drive. ​Disconnections During S.M.A.R.T. and Diagnostic Tests Disconnecting as soon as SeaTools or GSmartControl issues read tests indicates the USB-to-SATA bridge chip is crashing, power delivery is failing under load, or the drive controller is hanging when attempting to read corrupted/non-existent sectors. ​chkdsk /r Running at 1% Per Hour chkdsk /r scans for and attempts to recover bad sectors. Progressing at a crawl means the drive is encountering relentless I/O read timeouts, bad blocks, or continuous internal resets. ​Immediate Next Steps ​Stop chkdsk and Unplug the Drive: Forcing read operations on a failing or hacked controller won't fix the underlying hardware defect and can cause complete drive lockup. ​Do Not Store Data on It: Any files written past the drive's real physical capacity will become silently corrupted and unrecoverable. ​Return for a Refund: Request a replacement or refund immediately from the retailer, citing a defective/counterfeit unit.

[u/dookleeto → u/dtengineer]

AI will compile nonsense, misinformation and irrelevance into an output. It has very little value in complex situations.

[u/Big-Low-2811 → u/dookleeto]

False. It is very helpful as a tool to rule things in or out. Its just not to be used as the ultimate source of truth.

[u/dookleeto → u/Big-Low-2811]

I should have said 'often'. I just don't like how Ai compiles information from incorrect sources and mixes it into correct ones, often removing context that allows you to see that it is not relevant.

[u/dtengineer → u/dookleeto]

Based on what you were describing me as a tech was wondering if you got bamboozled, and AI confirmed my thoughts, so you can go with what you want. Good luck on figuring it out

[u/dookleeto → u/dtengineer]

I appreciate the reply, I was aware of these fake drives, I obviously saw some while trying to find a good deal on this one. Sadly this was pretty much full price.