Hard Drive Problems

[DizKiller]

I am having trouble with my new hard drive. I bought a 250 Seagate hard drive and it is show that i only have 128 GB.... Can some1 please give me some information on this subject!!!!!

I am running Windows XP Pro SP2, i have a 2.8 GHz Dell Optiplex GX280, so i dont think that the bios is the problem........

 

[OatesyX]

i dont know much about hard drives but check the jumpers on the hard drive, i know some of them have jumpers for limiting the drives capacity

 

[DizKiller]

It is set to Cable Select, as is the other hard drive on my ribbon. And if it was set to limited capacity, it would set it to 36 GB. But thanks neways!!

 

[an51r]

sometimes ur mobos bios has size limitations as far as hds go

 

[Snake-Eyes]

Chances are, being a Dell, they have a hidden partition with an image of your factory-installed Windows on it. That way, if you manage to mangle Windows into submission, they'd be able to boot from the image and fix Windows (either by copying the image over or actually reinstalling).

 

[DizKiller]

OK, i will make this a little easier to diagnose. Here are the specs of my computer:

Dell OptiPlex GX280

2.8 GHz P4 W/ HT
1 gig Ram
2x Sony DVD-RAM -- DVD+/- RW -- CDRW (On Onboard IDE)
1x 40 GB SATA Hard Drive (Operating Sysyem)
1 IDE Controller Card W/ The 4 Drives Listed Below on it:
1x 80 GB HD
2x 160 GB HD
1x 250 GB Hard Drive (The one i am having trouble with)

All Drives (Except SATA Drive) are set to Cable Select.
Need any more info tell me.

 

[DizKiller]

I just obtained a 250 GB Seagate 16MB Buffer 7200 RPM Hard Drive and i am having trouble utilizing all of the 250 GB that the hard drive has to offer. I think that i know what the problem is but you take a look and offer any advice that you can. Here is what i have done so far:

I have a Promise ULTRA100 IDE Controller Card that has 4 drives on it:
1x 80 GB
2x 160 GB (1 showing 128GB and the other showing 149GB)
1x 250 GB (The one that i am having problems with.

I flashed the BIOS on the controller card to the newest BIOS that the have to offer from the Promise web site. (Says this at the site: - Supports 48-bit LBA for drives larger than 137 GB) -- : http://www.promise.com/support/down...os&os=100&go=GO

I also updated the drivers for windows:
http://www.promise.com/support/down...iver&os=0&go=GO

And i am still having the same problem. Only showing 128GB

Here are the spects of my computer:

Dell OptiPlex GX280

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 With SP2

2.8 GHz P4 W/ HT
1 GB Ram
2x Sony DVD-RAM -- DVD+/- RW -- CDRW (On Onboard IDE)
1x 40 GB SATA Hard Drive (Operating Sysyem)
1 IDE Controller Card W/ The 4 Drives Listed Below on it:
1x 80 GB HD
2x 160 GB HD
1x 250 GB Hard Drive (The one i am having trouble with)

All Drives (Except SATA Drive) are set to Cable Select.
(Need any more info tell me.)

Now here is another quirk that puzzles me:
Remember that i told you that i had 2x 160GB had drives (one showing 128GB and one showing 149GB?)
Now if the limit is 128 then why is one of the Drives showing 128 and the other 149? They are on the same Controller Card...... HMMMM

Well, any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[DizKiller]

OK I found out what the problem was!!!! What i did was uninstalled the "windows" driver and installed the promise drivers that they provided for me. Also i flashed the BIOS on the controller card to the newest one that supported hard drives bidder than 137 GB. That solved my problem. I went to the computer management and then to storage devices, ect.... and it had a unallocated portion of my hard drive, i made it a dynamic hard drive, mounted it, then i made it a basic disk and all of the 232GB was there. (I also done that to the 160 that was showing 128 GB. **NOTE** Before you make a basic hard drive into a dynamic hard drive, transfer all of the files to another hard drive, you will loose all of the data if you dont.) So thanks for all of your guys help and shot out to || DizKiller ||