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Really Wierd HD Problem
Hey,
Ok, I installed Win2k on an old machine in my room with a 4GB HD. Now, a few months later, i started getting VFAT BSOD's when i started the computer, so i decieded i would just use the HD as a linux partition for my real computer.
I hook up my 2nd HD to my comp and fdisk it as a FAT32 partition, the whole drive, and everything. Now here comes the really weird part, i went to check the size of the drive, only 503MB???!?!?
I used ranish partion to check the FAT table and here is what i got.
Code:
PriPart: Win32 Cylinders:1062 Sectors:63 Heads:15
this is for both the table AND the "Hard Drive Specs" in top corner of screen. However, according to the sticker of the HD (Maxtor) it says:
Code:
Cylinders:6997 Sectors:63 Heads:15
Which comes about to 4.0GB....?????
Any ideas on whats going on here and how i could fix it?
Thanks
EDIT:
I've done everything i can think of to try to get the HD back to it's original size, but nothing works.
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Moved this to the Hardware forum.
Have you checked the jumpers (some hard drives need jumper settings to identify what size you want)? What kind of hard drive is it (beyond just a Maxtor -- model, type?) Did you install anything just prior to this happening?
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Try downloading wdclear.exe (should be able to find this on Western Digital site - if you can't find it let me know). It will overwrite everything on the drive with zeroes and can be used on drives that are not manufactured by WD. Delete all partitions, reboot and recheck to ensure there are no partitions present. Reset your partitions, format and note the file sizes during both procedures. If this doesn't work at getting back the use of the entire drive, try fdisk /mbr and repeat deleting and resetting partitions. If after this you still are not seeing the entire use of the drive - was a proprietary program ever used to set the drive up for use? This will sometimes interfere with a new set up. Advise and I can recommend programs for deleting. Good luck.
V.
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after running WDClean (great prog btw) it registered the drive correctly and wrote out 6697 cyln and the rest of the HD specs, i watched...
at this point, i restarted and loaded up XP and checked, unfortuanly, i was unable to see the drive??? I didn't change jumpers or anything... So i went into dos, and set the drive as primary (on an old comp) and ran fdisk via 6.2 DOS and set a pri dos partition...
However, when i tried to check the drive, C: Invalid Drive Spec...So i loaded randish and the FAT table still recognized 503MB only 1062 cyln???
Any other ideas, thanks :)
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Hrmm.. I think I see the problem. IIRC, FDISK in DOS 6.2 and earlier only recognized partition (drive?) sizes to a certain point. Try the process again and if possible use another partitioning tool (say the one that comes with a linux box), a tool like Partition Magic (or some other 3rd party tool) or partition it into two halves of 2GB each. The issue, IIRC, is that FAT16 will only go to 2GB and DOS is attempting to adjust for all the extra heads.
Hope this helps.
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ok,
I'll see what i can do, and i'll let you know how it goes...
Hopefully that will work :)
One small question: Does processor power have any affect on lowlevel format time? (I would assume so, but i try not to assume :))
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The Tempest -
Glad you liked wdclear - it really is a nice program. As for low level formatting time, I believe the biggest factor has more to do with the program used for formatting . . . although processor size could also make a difference and the larger the drive the longer it will take. I've used different software on the same system setup with the same size drive and some programs run faster than others. I don't consider myself an expert . . . so if someone else has additional data, please advise.
V.
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well,
if this just don't beat all....
After running wdclear and running ranish partition the drive size is 3.0GB (on the dot???) and whats even more strange is that the HD info, isn't right but the size is.
Code:
Cylinders: 750 Sectors: 255 Heads:63
compared too what it should be:
Code:
Cylinders: 6997 Sectors: 63 Heads:15
oh well,
tested theHD and everything seems to be running very smothly, thanks everyone for their input. You saved me $40 from buying a new HD =)
