Help needed in External HDD iOmega 232GB

[dr_iton]

I have na external HDD with capacity 232GB and the problem is that I can write in this disk only 26GB, not more.
I formated it 3 or 4 times but still having the same problem. The external HDD looks like:


When I want to write more than 26GB on it, just stops writting and don't shows any error, it shows only the writing dialog box jus like following picture:

Question: Is there a way that i can fix this problem to use full capacity of HDD or it is time to buy a new one.
Thank you in advance for your patience taking time reading this topic and for your reply.
Cheers. 

[Salmon Trout]

have you ever been able to use the full capacity? Is this a new drive? Did you get if off eBay?

[dr_iton]

I bought it unused about a year ago at a PC Shop, and yes I have had used the full capacity of it until two weeks ago.

Cheers.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

What format is the drive, NTFS or fat32. Also can you copy many smaller files under  2.0gb to the drive . How does the drive display in disk management in windows is it showing the full 232 gb.

Lisamaree

   

[dr_iton]

Answering your Questions:
Yes, I can copy files with less and more capacity (multiple files as well).
About other questions you made, please take a look at the following picture, I think you have the answers there.

Cheers.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

You could try HDD capacity restore a program from here http://hddguru.com/software/2007.07.20-HDD-Capacity-Restore-Tool/

If that doesn't work, then it's copy off the data and and re partition.

Thank you for the picture

Lisamaree
 

 

[Hackeriz]

Is it only for one computer (I mean does it show half-capacity only in your pc ?) If it does, maybe computer is using drive for paging file memory (Virtual RAM).
You can go and try doing this:

Windows 7:
Start > Right-Click on Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Advanced Tab > Click Settings under Performance > Advanced Tab > Change under Virtual Memory > Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives > Highlight your drive > Select No paging file > Click Set > Click OK and close it will ask you to restart your computer, do it.

[patio]

It's an external data HDD...i don't think the pagefile exists on it...

[rjbinney]

Just to be clear - when you say "Write more than 26GB on it", you mean:

You are trying to write files that would cause the drive to be at least 26GB full, regardless of the size of the file? (e.g., the drive is currently 25.5GB full, and you're trying to copy last night's "Project Runway" over, and it's hanging)....

As opposed to:

You are trying to copy a folder/file that contains more than 26GB in it at once.

I believe that was what Lisa Maree asked and you answered.


Since you said you had it at full capacity recently, I'm presuming you mean - you had 200+GB of data on it, and then you deleted a whole bunch, and now you're trying to put stuff on it again. Is it possible than when you deleted the files, the computer - and I can't explain why - never reallocated the space for writing? What if you run something like Eraser to clear the unused space?

[dr_iton]

After this reply I will try the software that suggested to me Lisa_maree.
I'll try to make clear to all other reply's:
Before two week ago I could use the full capacity of mentioned Hard Drive, that means 232GB (I could write and delete everything that was less of this capacity). Now the problem is whatever I try to copy, that for example in my disk is writen somthing with 25.8GB and i try to write something (File/folder) more than 200MB that exceeds the full capacity of being writen more than 26GB, I can't write that.
My opinion is that probably ther is a bad sector or whatever.
Cheers.

EDIT:
I don't want to double post.
The Disk Tool that suggested Lisa_maree didn't recognize the external HDD so I'm trying my last option that I have in mind for the moment and that is to find if there are some bad sectors on it like following picture shows what I#m pretending to do:

[KAJE]

With more or less the same problem but for my case it an iomega network hard drive that just disappeared from the network and cannot be accessed but the connectivity seems to be perfect and it has got alot of my staffs work. please help me solve this out.

[patio]

With more or less the same problem but for my case it an iomega network hard drive that just disappeared from the network and cannot be accessed but the connectivity seems to be perfect and it has got alot of my staffs work. please help me solve this out.

Welcome...
It's probably best if you start your own Topic on the subject so it can recieve the proper attention...
Thanks.

[dr_iton]

I couldn't find any solution for my Drive, it seems that something it's damaged and can not solve it.
After all I tryed with Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool but the result was negative.
12% of HDD I still can use it, that means it could be worse.
At the end i will thank you all for your replys.
Cheers.

[DaveLembke]

* Just curious as to what disk management shows. Such as do you just need to delete the partition after getting your data to a safe location off of that drive and create a new partition.

In disk management if you see unused space without a drive letter assigned to it, this can be the cause. And getting your space back is a matter of deleting the partition and create a new partition to use all the space available to you.

The only drives that can shink and still function are SSD's, a normal hard drive will not shrink like this and still function on its own unless a user shrinks the partition with a partition manager software application which has to be intentional to perform this process, its not as simple as a mis-click oops and resize.

[Salmon Trout]

12% of HDD I still can use it, that means it could be worse.

You cannot trust this disk. That 12% usable figuremeans 88% of the disk space is unusable.  That could become 100% unusable at any time. You should now discard this disk.