2 of 4 partitins of my 250gb no longer detected..

[timrick2]

I'm using XP Home installed on an 80 GB.  I then use a Maxtor 250 GB for all my storage almost 1 yr old.  It's atached to an ATA/133 Contoller.  The drive is divided into 4 partitions.  Two at 50 GB's and two at 75 GB's.  It's been working fine until a moth ago.  Now I can only detect the two 50 GB partitions.  I tried re-installing the Contoller software to no avail.  I plug the drive into my CD's position and the reading is still only the two 50 GB partitions.

Couldn't find any other posts pertaining quit to this.  I'm wondering if for some reason the driver is failing and I'm running into the common 130 GB limitation and therefore only detecting what the PC is capable of.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Tim

[Silencer_RPMs]

look for any BIOS updates for your computer.

[timrick2]

Thanks Silencer,
  I will check the ASUS website, but why would I have not had to update the BIOS previously?
It has been working fine for nearly a year.

  Thanks again for the suggestion.
tim

[IT-Guy]

you said it only detects the two 50 gig.. Is that under Disk management?  If so.. what does it say is there for the remaining disk space?

[timrick2]

Hi Guy,

  It shows exactly the same.  As if there were only the two 50 gb partitions and the remaining 150 gb didn't even exist.  Strange!

  Now...I may have done something else as well because although it still shows up as stated above when connected to my CD drive spot, (with only the two 50's) the computer freezes on startup when I connect the HD to the PCI controller.  It recognizes the model of the HD, and goes through the entire process, then when "XP Starting Up" displays....the screen goes black, and stays black for about 30 seconds then tries to re-start and just keeps repeating the process until I power down with the power button, and disconnect the drive from the PCI Contoller.  When I plug it back into the CD slot...it starts normally and reads...once again the two 50 gb partitions, and only those two!

  Thanks for trying to help.
tim

[GX1_Man]

The drive may be failing. I would download and run the free diagnostics from the manufacturer's web site pronto.