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I have an 8TB Seagate Skyhawk SATA HDD with some data. When I plug it in a windows 10 system through USB, it shows that the HDD is "GPT protective partition" in the dismgmt.msc interface. I need to read the disk in my windows 10 system and I cannot afford to lose the data.

I have tested for both types of computer - with a legacy BIOS and a UEFI BIOS, the problem is identical in both of them.

I have seen solutions using Diskpart, but that doesn't work for me.

Would highly appreciate any solution for it.

Gradient
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    New gpt(GUID) partitioned drives have a protective MBR. That MBR just has one entry saying gpt protective partition, so that old MBR(msdos) tools do see drive as partitioned and do not try to partition with MBR and damage drive. If Windows 10, it should have no issues reading gpt drives. Is system BIOS or UEFI. Is Windows installed in UEFI boot mode? How did you create partitioning? I would see if gdisk sees it correctly: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ – oldfred Nov 24 '19 at 15:05
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    What problem are you having on Windows? Are you trying to read GPT on a non-UEFI computer? – harrymc Nov 24 '19 at 16:50
  • I have checked for both - a Legacy BIOS and a UEFI BIOS computer. The problem is the same for both cases. The HDD is not shown in the windows explorer, and in the dismgmt.msc interface it shows "Healthy GPT protective partition". – Gradient Nov 24 '19 at 17:26

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Instead of connecting the drive externally using USB, shutdown computer and connect disk internally to the computer's motherboard using SATA cable (If disk is in an enclosure, you will have to take it out of the enclosure - caution, may void warranty). Restart the computer and likely the GPT drive in question will be fully readable and useable.

jim
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  • Indeed that's usually the case that bad external enclosures don't support drives larger than 2TB. [Anyone know why older USB drive cases have a 2TB size limit?](https://superuser.com/q/622869/241386) – phuclv Mar 18 '20 at 01:47
  • My USB flash drive is GPT (formatted by Android TV) so I need a way to access it via my computer – vsync Apr 02 '20 at 20:34
  • Your computer doesn't support GPT? How old is it? – TJJ Sep 05 '21 at 17:43