Partition Magic Issue

[Steve M]

Try the manufacturer site FIRST.

But if you cant find it.

I've used this utility before and it has worked ok. Use at your own risk.

http://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/hddtech/zap.exe

Zap - 18 KB (self-extracting file)
Zap is a DOS software utility that writes zeroes to the first 128 sectors on a hard disk drive, including the Master Boot Record and the first Partition Boot Record. It can be used with both SCSI and IDE drives.
Note: This function is now included in the Drive Fitness Test Version 1.50.

 

[EricB]

Check the jumper settings on the drive they might be set to a max capasity of 32 gigs. Maybe he set that. Just remove them all and then set it to slave/master as you see fit.

being that it a samsung, listen to this advice

and you will probably fix your problem as samsung put that stupid setting on it's drive in the back

 

[Red Fox]

I tried their software, didn't help. It sees the max size as 76+gb, but only sees actual as 32+gb. So I took out the jumper and booted again, ran their utility. Same thing. Reset the size, ran the wipe, didn't change anything. Still only comes up as 32gb after a wipe. But their utility sees it has the capacity for 76gb . Very weird issue.

~ Fawks

 

[Steve M]

Strange. I wish I could help you further at this point I would need to see it in person and try i on seperate machines. Best of luck if you resolve it post back.

 

[ekÆsine]

A 32.6GB limitation is caused by a jumper setting on on back of the hard disk itself. This works similiar to the turbo button on old pc by providing backwards compatability for older operating systems or BIOS. Another possible problem is that your friend is formatting within winXP/2000. winxp/2000 allows a maximum of 32GB for FAT32 volumes. here's an example of where the jumper is at on a hitachi and seagate disk:

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/d120gxp/d120gxpjum.htm


Common Operating System Disc Limits

The only Microsoft Operating Systems that natively support drives larger than 32 GB (to date) are Windows NT 4.0, 2000, ME, XP and .NET.

Windows 98 retail and 98 SE provide built in support for drives greater than 32 GB, however, you need to install ESDI_506.PDR (refer to Microsoft article Q243450 for more information). This allows ScanDisk to properly recognize (E)IDE hard disk clusters beyond 967,393. Failure to do so may cause ScanDisk not to run properly. Most Busmastering drivers for newer MB contain this fix, so it is not as large of an issue anymore.

Windows 95a, b, osr1 and osr2 do not support drives over 32 GB. Please refer to Microsoft article Q246818 for more information.

DOS uses CHS translation only for discs. For this reason, 8 GB is the maximum sized drive that DOS will support.

 

[Red Fox]

He is using Win 98 to format the drive. I'm on XP. I use the samsung hutil program, it recognizes the drive as 76.4gb maximum, but only 32.6gb actual. The jumper is not on currently, it was when I got it though. Even with it out, and after a wipe, it still shows as 32.6gb actual, but with a 74.6gb maximum size. Like I said, very weird issue, I think I'm going to give him back the drive after I fdisk it and have him take it back to the shop where he got it to see what they can do with it.

~ Fawks

 

[EricB]

He is using Win 98 to format the drive. I'm on XP. I use the samsung hutil program, it recognizes the drive as 76.4gb maximum, but only 32.6gb actual. The jumper is not on currently, it was when I got it though. Even with it out, and after a wipe, it still shows as 32.6gb actual, but with a 74.6gb maximum size. Like I said, very weird issue, I think I'm going to give him back the drive after I fdisk it and have him take it back to the shop where he got it to see what they can do with it.

~ Fawks

listen. stop fdisking it and or formatting it as fat 32

use this to do a full low level format

http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/powermax.exe

now use your xp disc to format it as a ntfs partition. then install xp or use a storage drive. set your jumpers in the right spot. you can also use computer managment on xp to partition and format it

your friend formatting with his win98 is what cause your problem.

 

[Steve M]

Redfox,
Disregard EricB's post. He oubiously didn't read through the entire posting. Not to mention him recommending a maxtor utility that does the exact same thing as the seagate utility we went through earlier in this post which writes the drive back to zero's and which you have already done which would have already wiped the fat format when your friend formatted it with a 98 boot disk.

Whenever possible never use another drive manufacturer's utilities on a different brand drive.

 

[EricB]

Redfox,
Disregard EricB's post. He oubiously didn't read through the entire posting. Not to mention him recommending a maxtor utility that does the exact same thing as the seagate utility we went through earlier in this post which writes the drive back to zero's and which you have already done which would have already wiped the fat format when your friend formatted it with a 98 boot disk.

Whenever possible never use another drive manufacturer's utilities on a different brand drive.

Disregard Steve M post

The only reason I told you to use powermax was because it was I use personally and it will work on any hard drive. Ontrack's (the data recovery specialist) makes it, so you know you are getting the best. I didn't get mine from maxtor. actually somebody of this forum pointed me to that link when I uploaded my powermax 4.0 to a website to help people on this forum who didn't know how to fdisk and want to test their hard drives. my website was having issues so he point me to this link. Plus I don't beleive in using win 98 tools for xp. they are too outdated

Steve didn't read your post or he would know that the way your friend formated it plus the way samsung set up their drives is why it is show up as 32gigs. oh, I forgot to mention I have your hard drive. actually I have 2 of them (the other is a 160gig storage drive). when my digital camera get charge I will post the configuration I have. it you don't configure them right they will show up as 32 gigs. also if you don't use them as storage drive on win 98 they will show up as 32. so your problem is to figure out which way you are doing it wrong

These settings are the hard drive upside down

 

[EricB]

here is how my samsung hard drives are configured.