Maxtor 200gb HDD won't show capacity over 128gb

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It's for your motherboard, right..? If it is an update, you should install
it.. You need to verify that it is not the same version or revision # already
installed, check the properties for the promise controller and see.. Download
the manual for your board too.. It is always better to update from the OEM
site for your motherboard drivers or BIOS updates, chipset drivers, etc..
So, yes it should work for you..
j;-j
 
Moonlight Graham said:
Anna, well i know that at least SP1 was installed when i installed the HD
because my copy of Win XP comes with SP1. Should i try reinstalling
Windows
again just to see if it might fix the problem? It wouldn't be that big of
a
deal since i have all my stuff backed up on another partition.

And no, there is no other unallocated space in Disk Management. In the
bottom window of DM that shows all your drives and partitions it says in
the
"Disk 1" grey square that the total is 128gb, and then beside it where it
shows any partitions etc. it says 128gb all unallocated and there's no
other
partitions or unallocated space anywhere for sure.
Click to expand...

(In other postings Moonlight says...)
In 'Device Manager' when i click on my 'Promise Ultra IDE controller' it
says the driver version is 5.1.2600.1106. What am i to make of this?

Found this on Asus.com, would this be a good controller driver for my
motherboard?: "Promise Controller UltraATA Driver REV:2.00.0.29
Support 48bit LBA HDD" ?

In 'Device Manager' its says i have a Promise Ultra IDE controller, so would
this Ultra ATA driver work for me?


Moonlight:
In a previous posting you indicated that you had updated the BIOS so that
the motherboard would support large-capacity disks, right? And you verified
this by confirming that the BIOS does indeed recognize the full capacity of
your 200 GB HD (roughly 186 GB), right?

Based on all the info you've provided to date, I'm at a loss to determine
why this problem has arisen. Perhaps the best course for you to pursue at
this time is, as you suggest, to undertake a fresh install of XP since
you're not concerned with data loss. Naturally, during the course of the
installation of the OS, you'll delete the present partition and (hopefully)
allow the system to then recognize the full capacity of the drive - 186 GB
(approx).

Other than that I'm really at a loss to recommend any other action at this
time.
Anna
 
Anna, thanks for your help. I tried everything else the people on here
suggested and none of the drivers etc. seemed to fix the problem so i'm going
to try & install Win XP and see if that works.
 
Moonlight Graham said:
Anna, thanks for your help. I tried everything else the people on here
suggested and none of the drivers etc. seemed to fix the problem so i'm
going
to try & install Win XP and see if that works.
Click to expand...


Moonlight:
Good. Give it a shot. Since you seem to have exhausted all other options,
it's worth a try. I honestly can't give you any rational (sensible?) reason
why this fresh install should work (other than there was some kind of weird
glitch in the original install of the OS that prevented the system from
detecting the full capacity of the HD) since I've never encountered this
precise situation, but I don't know what else to suggest at this point.

If, in the meantime, I can come up with another approach that I think is
workable I'll pass it on. But do keep us informed of your progress (of lack
of!).
Anna
 
Hi Anna, i reformatted my C: drive and reinstalled Win XP plus SP2 & all
updates but Windows still sees my 200gb HD as only 128gb. I checked Disk
Management after every step of updates to see. I even installed all the
drivers etc. that people on here & on Maxtor.com suggested but nothing. My
BIOS still sees the HD as 189gb. VERY frustrating!!!! Don't know what to do
now. I might have to try and bring back the HD to the store. Maybe i'll
call Maxtor 1 more time to see if they can help. Thanks for your and
everyone else's help!
 
=?Utf-8?B?TW9vbmxpZ2h0IEdyYWhhbQ==?=
Hi Anna, i reformatted my C: drive and reinstalled Win XP plus SP2 &
all updates but Windows still sees my 200gb HD as only 128gb. I
checked Disk Management after every step of updates to see. I even
installed all the drivers etc. that people on here & on Maxtor.com
suggested but nothing. My BIOS still sees the HD as 189gb. VERY
frustrating!!!! Don't know what to do now. I might have to try and
bring back the HD to the store. Maybe i'll call Maxtor 1 more time to
see if they can help. Thanks for your and everyone else's help!
Click to expand...
Some versions of Microsoft Windows do not support hard drives greater
than 137 GB at all, other versions do but it may be necessary to update
the operating system with the latest Service Pack and a parameter may
need to be defined and set properly in the Windows registry. There's also
an issue with the BIOS where it may be necessary to install a BIOS
upgrade for your system in order for the system to work properly with the
new hard drive. In many cases the average user may find that installing
their new large hard drive is not as simple as just plugging it in and it
just works.

Excerpt from:
http://www.48bitlba.com/
Google will set you free!
 
Check the drive with the OEM's diagnostic tool, see if the disk is error free.
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...e/DiamondMax Family/Diagnostics&downloadID=22
Did you use the Maxblast 3-4 disk to format or create partitions, can you
see the entire disk or unallocated space with the Maxblast disk manager
utility..?
I assume you used the new IDE data cable that came with the drive, right..?
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
Use the free Everest diagnostic tool to ID your new Maxtor,do a quick report
to a txt file, cut & paste to your post any pertinent Windows Storage, ATA,
info..
You may even have a faulty drive that needs to be returned..?
j;-j
 
Moonlight Graham said:
Hi Anna, i reformatted my C: drive and reinstalled Win XP plus SP2 & all
updates but Windows still sees my 200gb HD as only 128gb. I checked Disk
Management after every step of updates to see. I even installed all the
drivers etc. that people on here & on Maxtor.com suggested but nothing.
My
BIOS still sees the HD as 189gb. VERY frustrating!!!! Don't know what to
do
now. I might have to try and bring back the HD to the store. Maybe i'll
call Maxtor 1 more time to see if they can help. Thanks for your and
everyone else's help!
Click to expand...


Moonlight:
Really puzzling. There's got to be a reason why this is happening. Hard to
believe the issue lies with the HD.

I don't have your previous postings handy, but did you ever indicate that
you had installed Maxtor's drive overlay program on that drive to presumably
provide large-capacity disk support? Those drive overlay programs (Maxtor's
among them) create more problems than they solve and in virtually every case
they should not be used in an XP environment containing reasonably modern
components (motherboard & HD). If you did install a drive overlay program
prior to installing the XP OS it may be useful to "zero out" the drive and
then proceeding with the XP install. (Quite frequently merely reformatting
the HD does not completely remove the drive overlay program from the drive).
If you do want to "zero out" the drive and don't know how, let me know.

I know you must be getting very weary at this point and can't blame you for
wanting to return the HD, although as I said, it's hard to imagine the HD
itself is the problem.

There could be another workaround for this but I've been loathe to suggest
it since there doesn't seem to be any rational reason why the system is not
recognizing the full capacity of that 200 GB HD under the present
circumstances.

But I'll mention it and see what you think...

Hopefully you have a Win9x/Me Startup floppy disk which, in effect, is a DOS
bootup disk. If you don't have one or any other DOS boot disk I believe you
can obtain one from http://www.bootdisk.com.

Using the FDISK & FORMAT commands on a DOS bootup floppy disk, partition and
format the drive to its full capacity. (You would first have to use the
FDISK command to delete the present NTFS-formatted partition). The HD will
be formatted FAT32. Install XP on the drive, indicating during the
installation process that you want the OS to format the partition NTFS. It
would be interesting to see if the system now recognizes the full-capacity
of the HD. I'm not sure you would want to go this route but thought I'd
mention it as an outside possibility even though I have to admit I'm not too
thrilled with it myself.
Anna
 
If your motherboard has the Promise IDE ATA-100/RAID 0/1 chip, try
connecting the drive to its connector, configure the interface as
ATA100, and install the Promise Controller UltraATA Driver
REV:2.00.0.29 Support 48bit LBA HDD driver.
 
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