hard drive 185.2gB - 128gB = wheres the 47.3gB?

Chalk

ok,
simple problem, simple solution:)
bought a 180 gig hard drive recently,
gone thru hell getting it working.

initially windows wouldnt even read it,
comp managemnet said unreadable drive
couldnt convert/format/partition nothing.

linux boot disc and usb drive = no fun
[im on a laptop]
eventually got it partitioned with cfdisk
went to windows,
formatting - 5% failed to read drive

2 more pcs and similar problems
at one point i got it working fine as an 8gB drive :rolleyes:

got an old pc [no lba] and the hirens boot disc
used various low level formatting tools and check tools to get to the point where i now have a fully formatted and working drive in xp,
except its 128gB.....

i believe the problem is that partitioning under the old pc set it at the non-lba limit.
my xp laptop is fine with other large drives so no problem there.
all i want now is to get the rest of this drive active and partitionable without too much hassle.

any simple solutions/tools/tickable boxes etc?

comp management in xp is showing 128gB as is fdisk.

please help

chalk

KdjaCL

Get the makers system tools
and test the HD
if it fails bring it back
to wence it came from


kdjac

Chalk

passes all tests.

bought it second hand.

KdjaCL

Did you try format it with the makers tools?



kdjac

Chalk

thats what got me to this point.
took about 3 hours to low level format.

but using the old pc has caused it to format from block 1 to whaterver block 128gB is at.
i just want the other few gigs without too much trouble.

i know its working now so if the worst comes to the worst ill stick it in a modern desktop and low level format again but id rather just get a small partition.

Sparky

i had the same problem with a 160gb hdd with win XP where it wouldnt take more than 130 and left the rest unused, so i just use the rest as a D drive.

Random

You need to enable Large Disk Support in Windows XP. As far as I remember SP1 does this by default, if not SP2 certainly does.

Also, the manufacturers drivers for Windows will also enabled it.

Chalk

lol,
thanks for the advice guys but will you read my original post.

i need to make the rest of the drive avaialble and dont want to low level format it to do that.

is there such a thing as drivers for a hard drive?

Gilgamesh

how much is the BIOS showing for the HDD?

Chalk

130000mB or thereabouts on the windows 98 pc
i havent checked the laptop bios but its a usb drive so i dont know if it will show up.

on the later pcs that i tried it on when i had the chance it was displaying 1750000mB

unkel

Chalk wrote:

130000mB or thereabouts on the windows 98 pc
i havent checked the laptop bios but its a usb drive so i dont know if it will show up.

on the later pcs that i tried it on when i had the chance it was displaying 1750000mB

175GB is about right for a 185,000,000,000 byte drive. Remember a GB is really 1024*1024 bytes, not 1000*1000 bytes

You won't see more than 128GB under windows 98. Under XP (you need at least SP1) you should have LBA enabled, if not, try this registry hack: (copy into text file called lba.reg and save it, then doubleclick on the file to add the info into the registry)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters]
"EnableBigLba"=dword:00000001

Hope that helps!

Chalk

lba is enabled,
my 2 other 180gig drives work.
ill try the reg hack when i get home but cant see it having much use.

basically,
what i think anyway,
is using the drivetools under the older pc has set the end of the drive as at 128gB instead of the 185gB.

170 to 175gB is what im expecting from the drive

is there a way

unkel

Chalk wrote:

my xp laptop is fine with other large drives so no problem there

Chalk wrote:

lba is enabled,
my 2 other 180gig drives work

Ah, so you're using an external usb/firewire case with the 180GB 3.5" IDE drive? Sorry didn't make that connecion!

Forget about the lba hack so. Did you try some of the partition fix tools on hiren's cd? You probably did...

Did you try checdisk with fix errors ticked? Do you have Partition Magic? What does XP disk management (administrative tools) see?

Chalk

admin tools sees a 128gB drive.


gonna reboot and try some more drive tools now,
ill try checkdisc after if i have no joy

Mac daddy

update the bios most older bioses do not support drives larger than 130 is the max - has to do with lib 48 bit bios extensions

Chalk

well, ive been saved by hirens boot disc.
a quick low level format put the bits and bytes back in order.
and an even quicker partition/format in pm8.0 put it all in the right place.

now hopefully it stays that way
before i rebooted i checked the drive propertied in pm8 and it was deifnitely missing about 2000000 of something.

thanks for the help lads

if anyones having trouble with hdd's id recommend hirens boot disc -
absolute lifesaver and incredible amount of apps in one package

astrofool

large drive support was probably not enabled, it is enabled in xpsp1, so you would probably have to format the pc using that. If not enabled the drive shows up as 137gigs (or 128 effective).

Have you had a look under drive management, for empty space? (right click my computer, choose manage)

unkel

Chalk wrote:

if anyones having trouble with hdd's id recommend hirens boot disc -
absolute lifesaver and incredible amount of apps in one package

Yup, saved me more than once

A bit harder to get these days as he had to close down his site due to some license violations

Chalk

yeah,
god bless usenet

weird how many people continue to say to enable lba,
even after i repeatedly say i have :rolleyes:
such is life.

unkel

Chalk wrote:

yeah,
god bless usenet

and torrents