Hard Disk Partition Size Issue

[leeburge]

Has to be the oddest error I have ever seen. I have a WD2500 that I somehow repartitioned from a 250 GB drive down to a 32 GB drive and I cannot get this back to it's correct partition size. I think I have tried just about every hard disk utility known to man.

The drive is in perfert working order as a 32 GB drive and nothing detects any errors. The Western Digital Hard Disk utility even detects it correctly as a 250 GB drive will not restore the correct partion size even though that option is available and it says it will. It appears to run normally but still ends up as a 32 GB drive.

Any opinions out there?

Thanks!
Lee

[BC_Programmer]

remove the cylinder reduction jumper from the drive; set it to the appropriate setting shown on the Drive case.

[leeburge]

This is even stranger than I thought. The drive is partitioned for 32 MB, not GB. I removed the jumper ran the WD Hard Disk utility and it still comes back to a 32 MB drive when completed.

I wonder if this WD Utility may be the problem? I have several of those CD's and I tried a couple of them. Same result.

Lee

[BC_Programmer]

This is even stranger than I thought. The drive is partitioned for 32 MB, not GB. I removed the jumper ran the WD Hard Disk utility and it still comes back to a 32 MB drive when completed.

I wonder if this WD Utility may be the problem? I have several of those CD's and I tried a couple of them. Same result.

Lee

Don't bother with the utility.

either slave it to a working PC or attempt ot perform a windows install, and delete all the existing partitions; then try to create a new one.

[leeburge]

It's gotta be a harware issue. I used FDisk to remove the partition and tried both jumpering the drive as a slave to my main drive and also setting it back as a Master and using an XP Install disk and both come back with a 32 MB drive.

I think this drive is a lost cause....

Lee

[SmittySr]

Are you using NTFS. FAT32 may only recognize 32GB.

[patio]

It's 32MG...

[leeburge]

I'm using NTFS. The cylinders and heads got reset somehow and that appears to be why nothing "traditional" works. I got the drive specs from Western Digital. To get back to 250 GB I need:

Cylinders = 30400
Heads = 254
Sectors = 63

The drive currently shows

Cylinders = 4111
Heads 255
Sectors = 63

Gotta be some way to reset those. Maybe a hammer?  HaHaHa

Lee

[BC_Programmer]

you are certain you removed the reduction jumper?


most BIOS's (haven't had to do this in ages, so not sure if it's still true) allow you to enter the parameter's manually via a "USER" setting.

[leeburge]

I haven't been able to locate any jumper other than the normal Master/Slave/CS jumper. This is a standard 10 pin configuration.  The drive specs from WD for this drive don't refer to that jumper so I'm not sure.

Lee

[BC_Programmer]

there should only be one jumper in teh master/slave/CS (or zero). if there are two, Cylinder reduction is set.


Of course cylinder reduction reduces the drive space to 32GB, not MB.

[leeburge]

I found some software at HDDGURU.COM called HDD Capacity Restore Tool. It's a small program and requires that the drive to restore must be alone and not contain the Operating System. I was able to jumper this mutant drive as a Secondary Master and the software correctly read the drive to be a 250 GB but only configured as a 32 GB drive.

After I ran this freeware program (if you can believe that nowadays) it correctly reads the drive as a 250 GB drive now but only with that particular software. Everything else still reads it as a 32 GB drive (I installed XP again just to make sure) and it still says it's a 32 GB drive as well. Guess we can determine why that software is Freeware huh?

I probably should just be happy that I have a good solid 32 GB drive that performs perfectly or ship it back to Western Digital and ask them what to do?

Lee



   

[leeburge]

I stand corrected. The little Freeware program did work! When I attempted to re-install XP for the 3rd time the missing unallocated space appeared and I was able to format the drive back to the full 250 GB.

I also put in a couple more of my spare drives (just out of curosity) and found one other factory set 30 GB which turned out to be an 80 GB drive so this has tuned into quite a boon.

I'm impressed with HDDGURU.COM. And thanks to everyone who replied to my plea for help!

Lee