HD installation problem (ggrrr)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ralphie
  • Start date Start date
R

Ralphie

I just had my XP PC upgraded a bit. A friend of mine put in a new ASUS
motherboard and new RAM. They're fine. But I also wanted a new HD. I already
have a 20gb and a 40gb drive. The new one is a Maxtor 160gb with 8mg cache.
Problem is that it won't install properly. In computer management, I did the
partition, then formatted. Everything fine. It took a bit, but then it said
"format complete.". I marked it as active, and it showed as Health (active).
I went to Explore, and there it was, beneath my other two drives. I copied
something into it, no problem Everything was good.

Then I unplugged it, took it home and turned it on. The new drive still
showed on Explorer, but when I tried to access it I was told it was
unformatted. Huh!? I went back to disc management and it still showed as
"healthy (active). but when I right click and check properties it says "0
Bytes, 0 files) RAW". I did a quick format, and then it was fine. Sort of. I
transferred a folder to the drive and it was copied without problem. But
then when I clicked on the new drive "F", I got nothing. Properties showed O
bites, O files. I tried to transfer 1 file from the folder I had already
copied and it asked me if I wanted to replace an identical file already on F
(the usual notice that there's already one there with the same size, type
and start date and did I want to overwrite it). I said yes, and it copied,
but then clicking on F still shows nothing. But it knows those files are
there. It won't show me them.

I went back to disc management, removed the partition, put it in again, and
tried to format again. It said "formatting" for over an hour and a half.
And unlike the first time I did it I didn't get "1%...2%...3%..." It just
said "formatting". I eventually gave up and cancelled formatting. Now it
says "healthy" but properties still says 0 bytes for free space, 0 bytes for
used space, 0 bytes available, and "RAW". So I did a quick format, or tried
to, but it ended with the message "the format did not complete succesfully".
But it still says "healthy".

One other thing. The size of the HD is listed as 128gb. Now I know size
isn't exact, but isn't 128gb a helluva lot less than 160gb Maxtor says it
is?
 
You need support for 48bit addressing and SP1 and you need
NTFS to setup the 160 GB drive.


--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.


| I just had my XP PC upgraded a bit. A friend of mine put
in a new ASUS
| motherboard and new RAM. They're fine. But I also wanted a
new HD. I already
| have a 20gb and a 40gb drive. The new one is a Maxtor
160gb with 8mg cache.
| Problem is that it won't install properly. In computer
management, I did the
| partition, then formatted. Everything fine. It took a bit,
but then it said
| "format complete.". I marked it as active, and it showed
as Health (active).
| I went to Explore, and there it was, beneath my other two
drives. I copied
| something into it, no problem Everything was good.
|
| Then I unplugged it, took it home and turned it on. The
new drive still
| showed on Explorer, but when I tried to access it I was
told it was
| unformatted. Huh!? I went back to disc management and it
still showed as
| "healthy (active). but when I right click and check
properties it says "0
| Bytes, 0 files) RAW". I did a quick format, and then it
was fine. Sort of. I
| transferred a folder to the drive and it was copied
without problem. But
| then when I clicked on the new drive "F", I got nothing.
Properties showed O
| bites, O files. I tried to transfer 1 file from the folder
I had already
| copied and it asked me if I wanted to replace an identical
file already on F
| (the usual notice that there's already one there with the
same size, type
| and start date and did I want to overwrite it). I said
yes, and it copied,
| but then clicking on F still shows nothing. But it knows
those files are
| there. It won't show me them.
|
| I went back to disc management, removed the partition, put
it in again, and
| tried to format again. It said "formatting" for over an
hour and a half.
| And unlike the first time I did it I didn't get
"1%...2%...3%..." It just
| said "formatting". I eventually gave up and cancelled
formatting. Now it
| says "healthy" but properties still says 0 bytes for free
space, 0 bytes for
| used space, 0 bytes available, and "RAW". So I did a
quick format, or tried
| to, but it ended with the message "the format did not
complete succesfully".
| But it still says "healthy".
|
| One other thing. The size of the HD is listed as 128gb.
Now I know size
| isn't exact, but isn't 128gb a helluva lot less than 160gb
Maxtor says it
| is?
|
|
|
|
 
Thanks but - I'm not an expert. What exactly does this mean? What should I
do that I didn't do first time around?
 
The newer, larger driver (160G or greater) require the computer's BIOS to
support 48-bit LBA addressing. BIOS needs to be able to see the full size
of the large hard drives. Check with the motherboard manufacturer's web
site for more info.

Windows XP needs a special patch to allow the use of the full capacity. The
patch is deliver as part of Windows XP Service Pack 1, which you can
download free. However, you need to have SP1 availble during the time you
create the partition, and format, when you install XP from scratch. To do
this, people have been making their own XP CDs which they add the SP1 to the
install process. This is known as "slipstreaming".
 
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