How to Fix Seagate DiscWizard Does Not Detect Drive?

Question

I have the latest version of Seagate DiscWizard, a mixt of WD, Seagate and Samsung drives, including a new 840EVO SSD as my boot drive. I tried to clone my C partition to the SSD disk with DiscWizard and it worked pretty well. Now, when I am attempting to image and back up that C partition from my SSD, DiscWizard won’t offer the SSD as a source disk for any partition. I tried this by using Win 7 interface and using the boot/rescue disk. All other drives are shown in the list for me to choose from, but not the Samsung 840 EVO. Anybody can give any suggestions?

- Question from Miky

Overview of Seagate DiscWizard

Seagate DiscWizard is an integrated software suite made by Acronis which ensures the safety of all data on your PC. It can back up the entire disc drive or selected partition including operating system, applications, and all of your files. Nevertheless, this program only works with Seagate and Maxtor hard drives in Windows.

Why Seagate DiscWizard Does Not Detect Drive?

If you find Seagate DiscWizard doesn’t detect any drives, it can be caused by following factors.

1.       The hard drive is not Seagate/Maxtor hard drive. Only Seagate/Maxtor hard drives are supported by Seagate DiscWizard.

2.       The hard drive is a dynamic one while Seagate DiscWizard doesn’t support any dynamic disks.

3.       The hard drive has no valid MBR.

4.       Third-Party software or antivirus programs is blocking the access to the hard drives.

How to Fix It When Seagate DiscWizard Does Not Detect Drive?

As said above, you might solve the issue of Seagate DiscWizard not detecting by converting dynamic disk to basic disk or rebuild MBR. Now, follow my tutorial and learn how to get them done.

Solution 1. Convert A Dynamic Disk to A Basic One

Since Seagate DiscWizard doesn’t support dynamic discs, you have to convert dynamic to basic to make the program work normally.

Using Disk Management:

1.       Back up all data on the disk that you want to convert from dynamic to basic.

2.       Run Disk Management with administrator permissions.

An easy way to get it done is to type “Computer Management” in the search box on the taskbar, right-click “Computer Management”, and then, select “Run as administrator”. After the window is opened, go to “Storage” > “Disk Management”.

3.       Delete every volume on the disk you want to convert from dynamic to basic.

4.       Once all the volumes are deleted, right-click on the disk and select “Convert to Basic Disk”.

Using Command Line:

1.       Back up all data on the disk that you want to convert from dynamic to basic.

2.       Run the Command Prompt, type “diskpart” and hit “ENTER”.

3.       Type “list disk” and hit “ENTER”. Note the target disk number.

4.       Type “select disk ” and hit “ENTER”

5.       For every volume on the disk that you want to convert, type “select volume= and then, “delete volume”. Hit “ENTER”.

6.       Type “select disk ”and hit “ENTER”.

7.       Type “convert basic”.

❤ Note: The operation above is based on the fact that there is only one partition on the dynamic disk. So, if there’re several partitions on the dynamic disk, you have to manually delete them all.

Both the methods above are not lossless because in the course of the conversion, your data will be entirely lost and in this case, you might as well resort to some easier third-party software to convert disks from dynamic to basic.

Solution 2. Rebuild MBR

Seagate DiscWizard not detecting drives can also be caused by corrupted MBR in Windows. So, this time, I’ll bring a powerful third-party program – AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard - which is able to repair corrupted MBR in Windows 7/8/10 within only 3 steps. Moreover, with this multifunctional software, you can also clone hard drives and back up computer data safely. In this case, it’s also a better alternative to Seagate DiscWizard.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

Step 2. Right-click on the disk on which you want to rebuild MBR.

Step 3. Choose an MBR type in terms of your OS.

Step 4. Click on “Apply” on the upper left side of the main interface and hit “Proceed” to get started.

In a few seconds, the rebuilding process can be finished and then, you can check whether the drive is detected.

Solution 3. Using Task Manager

If some antivirus software is blocking the access to the hard drive, you should disable the software in task manager,

1.       Hit “Ctrl + Delete” simultaneously.

2.       Select “Task Manager”.

3.       Under the tablet of process, right click on the antivirus program you want to shut down.

4.       Select “End task” to close it.

Clone non-Seagate/Maxtor hard drive with another freeware

If your hard drives are neither Seagate nor Maxtor, then, you can not use DiscWizard for hard drive clone because they can’t be successfully detected. But luckily, in this case, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can still help you out as the best alternative to Seagate DiscWizard in hard drive clone. It supports almost all popular hard drives on market.

1.       Run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

2.       Right-click the disk and select "Clone Disk".

3.       Select “Clone Disk Quickly” and hit “Next”.

4.       Select the target disk and click on “Next”.

5.       Edit the partition on the destination disk and hit “Next” to return to the main interface

6.       Hit “Apply” > “Proceed” to start the disk clone.

Conclusion

What to do when Seagate DiscWizard does not detect drive? After going through the entire tutorial, I believe you’ve learnt some pragmatic ways to fix the issue. As for AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard in Solution 2, if you want to try more of its features including migrating OS from MBR to GPT and converting system disk between MBR and GPT, you should upgrade it to pro version.