I have an odd problem with an external drive. I'm formatting it connected to my laptop prior to connecting it to my router. The HDD enclosure has both an eSata and USB connections.

Generally, I connect it via eSata to my laptop. I created my partitions and connected it to the router, but I see partition information that is different than what I created.

After chasing leads concerning large HDD size, I mindlessly connected the HDD to my laptop with USB.

Lo! I see the same partitions as the router.

Attached are screenshots using the same program and the HDD in question. The only difference is the connection. For the first, I connected via eSata and hit "refresh" on the partition program. Then, turned off the HDD, disconnected the eSata cable, and connected via USB. Power and refresh.

eSata: reports a total HDD size of 2328 GB, with four partitions (the third being 1.96TB) USB: reports a total HDD size of 280 GB, with three partitions (the third being 279 GB)

Any idea why this is happening?

It looks like it clearly is an issue of the 4K sector size and not playing nice with the USB enclosure. I tried it eSata and USB in Windows and Linux and it appears consistently that eSata is reporting correctly, USB incorrectly.