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os wont see hard disk drive fully

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AMD

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Aug 28, 2007, 10:24:09 PM8/28/07
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I've got a 300gb ata133 drive as master. I've got several other drives and
have windows installed on one. Well, the OS only sees 127gb and it's a 300gb
drive. It was working fine before, but now not all is seen. Partition magic
805 says bad on the drive for bad partition info or something. format does
not work and pmagic cannot format or create a partition on it or anything.
dos format does not work nor does right clicking on the drive and saying
format.

the disk management tool also shows it as the 300gb, but it won't let me
format it or anything.
no messages that help at all as unable to format is all that happens.


Shenan Stanley

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Aug 28, 2007, 10:30:02 PM8/28/07
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What does the BIOS see it as?
That matters first.

Next - can you download/run the diagnostics utility from the manufacturer's
web page on it?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


AMD

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Aug 28, 2007, 10:49:10 PM8/28/07
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bios sees it as the actual drive it is.
there are no tools as far as i know from the companies site. i never seen
any since they have been 10 years old if there is any.

i think it's a maxtor drive.


"Shenan Stanley" <newsh...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:OLg9BSe6...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

Shenan Stanley

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Aug 28, 2007, 11:19:57 PM8/28/07
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AMD wrote:
> I've got a 300gb ata133 drive as master. I've got several other
> drives and have windows installed on one. Well, the OS only sees
> 127gb and it's a 300gb drive. It was working fine before, but now
> not all is seen. Partition magic 805 says bad on the drive for bad
> partition info or something. format does not work and pmagic
> cannot format or create a partition on it or anything. dos format
> does not work nor does right clicking on the drive and saying
> format.
> the disk management tool also shows it as the 300gb, but it won't
> let me format it or anything.
> no messages that help at all as unable to format is all that
> happens.

Shenan Stanley wrote:
> What does the BIOS see it as?
> That matters first.
>
> Next - can you download/run the diagnostics utility from the
> manufacturer's web page on it?

AMD wrote:
> bios sees it as the actual drive it is.
> there are no tools as far as i know from the companies site. i
> never seen any since they have been 10 years old if there is any.
>
> i think it's a maxtor drive.

So the BIOS sees a 300GB hard disk drive...

Do you have at least SP1 installed on Windows XP at this time?

What errors - if any - do you get when you try to partition it in Disk
Manager?

How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

How to use Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000

If there is no visible error - is there anything in the Event Log after you
try to create the partition, assign a drive letter, etc?

How to view and manage event logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427


As for the tools on Maxtor's/Seagate's site... Surprised you missed them...

There's MaxBlast! (* 04/2007 I believe) to help you setup...
http://www.seagate.com/support/maxblast/mb_ug.en.pdf

There's also SeaTools (for both Maxtor and Seagate branded drives):
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

(SeaTools for Windows has replaced SeaTools Online and PowerMax. SeaTools
for DOS can test Seagate or Maxtor Parallel ATA (PATA and IDE) and Serial
ATA (SATA) interface disc drives. Because the software boots to its own
operating system you can test your drive regardless of the OS installed on
it. You can even test a new or completely blank drive.)

Come back and respond with whatever you find!

Neil

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Aug 31, 2007, 8:48:00 PM8/31/07
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The usual cause of this problem is that your system does not support 48 bit
LBA, however your reply suggests that your BIOS sees all 300gb?

Go to www.48bitLBA.com for a set of articles and tools that will allow you
to check out your system fully.

HTH

Neil
www.nwarwick.co.uk

Shenan Stanley

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Aug 31, 2007, 9:08:03 PM8/31/07
to
Neil wrote:
> The usual cause of this problem is that your system does not
> support 48 bit LBA, however your reply suggests that your BIOS sees
> all 300gb?
>
> Go to www.48bitLBA.com for a set of articles and tools that will
> allow you to check out your system fully.

Neil,

Because the original poster chose to multi-post instead of cross-posting -
you do not know that they have already solved their issue...

The post where the OP (unbeknownst to the other groups) fixed their issue:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windows.vista.general/browse_frm/thread/f842b90e6b872dd4/0393691596fc21bd?lnk=st&q=author%3AAMD&rnum=1#0393691596fc21bd

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