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Hard Drive (40GB) shows only 8GB

5256 Views 20 Replies 7 Participants Last post by NiteHawk, Mar 20, 2004

HOBOcs

Discussion Starter · Mar 19, 2004

Issue: My 40GB Maxtor hard drive only shows 8GB in my computer C Drive properties. I'm moving this Disk to a "newer" PIII computer.

Request: I'm looking for direction to make it see it all. Note I am aware of some issues with BIOS's not recognizing the disk, although I don't know how to go about correcting this issue.
Any help direction appreciated.

Details:
Singel Partition - contains WinSE, MSOffice, loads of software.
BIOS was originally set to auto have since changed it to "User"

Bios details
User
Size=40024MB
Cyln=4866
Head=255
WPcom=0
Sec=63
LBA Mode=on
BLK Mode=on
PIO Mode=4
32Bit Mode=on

SYSTEM INFORMATION 19-03-2004

[ MY COMPUTER ]
BIOS Type: American Megatrends VER: 1.21.04
BIOS Date: 05/11/01
Memory: 119 Mb
Drives:
A: [DISC DRIVE]
C: [HARD DISC] 7.8 GB FAT32
D: [COMPACT DISC]

[ PROCESSOR ]
Description: intel Pentium III
Vendor: GenuineIntel
Speed: 666.57 MHz
Type: Primary
Count: 1 CPUs found
Features: FPU RDTSC MMX iSSE

[ OPERATING SYSTEM ]
Description: Windows 98 SE
Platform: Windows 95
Version: 4.10 (Build: 2222)

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Elvandil

· #8 · Mar 20, 2004

You mentioned putting this drive in a new computer. If you are going to install it and then put in the OS, you may as well wait until you have it in the new machine.

If you are installing XP, setup will give you the chance to remove partitions and format.

Just wondering since getting the drive all set up in one machine and then moving it may mean setting it up all over again. Depends what your plan is ;-)

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Elvandil

· #10 · Mar 20, 2004

Maxtor has software for setting up large drives. Perhaps you would be well off downloading it from their site. (Not 100% sure they are available for download, but Seagate has similar software for download so it should be! Copycaters!)

Actually, Seagate has an ISO image of its setup software. I just used it. Download it and burn it to CD. You can then boot from the CD and set up your disk from the very easy to use interface:

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

The similar WD software can be found here (but Seagate's is slicker!):

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#dlgtools

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Elvandil

· #13 · Mar 20, 2004

OK. Thanks for clearing that up.

Try downloading the iso (CD version) of the Seagate software I linked above. Burn the image to CD and boot from it.

I just tried this myself and was very impressed at the options available for preparing disks with this program. And it has a GUI that makes it very easy to use. You should be able to do whatever you want with that disk.

I don't know very much about overlays except that many problems can be attributed to them. If at all possible, try to keep the disk in a standard format that all programs and versions of Windows will recognize. Repairs and reinstallations will go much easier.

But, like I said, I don't know much about these, so I will defer to those who have experience in this area.

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Elvandil

· #15 · Mar 20, 2004

Hey, more power to you, pyritechips. Sounds like you may be the overlay advisor.

Just to give at least some hope to those with ruined BIOS, there are many BIOS chips that are removable. They can be replaced and can be bought pre-programmed or blank.

I found this site while searching for "bad flash". "Jack" fixed me right up with a new, pre-programmed BIOS chip for $20. Now if I hadn't thrown away that old computer....

http://www.badflash.com

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Elvandil

· #17 · Mar 20, 2004

It seems to me that any computer with a P-3 ought to be new enough to use a 40 gig drive.

Try the Seagate software. I bet it will format and partition to larger sizes than 64. It may be the solution to the OP's problem and yours, too, if you ever need to fdisk a large drive (you never know----someone may ask you, even if it is unneeded on your machine!).

BTW: I have WD drives on my machine, but the Seagate software doesn't seem to discriminate.

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Elvandil

· #19 · Mar 20, 2004

I forgot about PowerMax. That is one I missed. Off to get it now.

Thanks for that fdisk---I'll keep it for future needs.

(On the other hand, why would anyone use FAT32 on a disk that large? NTFS is much faster than FAT32 over the 32 gig mark. But, you never know when someone may want to use it.)

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