motherboard can't see whole HD (only 32GB)

  • Thread starter Thread starter mirooo
  • Start date Start date
M

mirooo

Hi,
My old system board's BIOS can see up to 32GB on my hard disk. My HD has
40GB capacity so I had to use a jumper to lower the capacity to 32GB. I got
a new board and want to use all 40GB, so if I remove the jumper on the back
of my HD, will I lose the whole partition, and all data on it - or will the
new board simply see 32MB and 8MB unpartitioned space? Did anyone have a
similar problem? How did you go around it? Thanks in advance.
 
Hi,
My old system board's BIOS can see up to 32GB on my hard disk. My HD has
40GB capacity so I had to use a jumper to lower the capacity to 32GB. I got
a new board and want to use all 40GB, so if I remove the jumper on the back
of my HD, will I lose the whole partition, and all data on it - or will the
new board simply see 32MB and 8MB unpartitioned space? Did anyone have a
similar problem? How did you go around it? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Before you pull that drive off the old MB, use Norton
Ghost to make an image of the partition.

I would expect good odds that when you remove that
jumper, you'll scramble whatever was on the disk... but
I've never done one. At least if you've ghost'd the
drive first, you won't have to worry when you pull the
jumper.
 
Toshi1873 said:
Before you pull that drive off the old MB, use Norton
Ghost to make an image of the partition.

I would expect good odds that when you remove that
jumper, you'll scramble whatever was on the disk... but
I've never done one. At least if you've ghost'd the
drive first, you won't have to worry when you pull the
jumper.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't use Ghost - use Drive Image, much more flexible and reliable.
I've used both and fount DI to be the better in all respects.
 
Yes you will lose it all. There are products out there to merge partitions
but they cost $$$ might be cheaper to buy a new hard drive. I like Partition
Magic.
 
**** Top-posting fixed ****
Yes you will lose it all. There are products out there to merge
partitions but they cost $$$ might be cheaper to buy a new hard
drive. I like Partition Magic.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. As usual, it depends. That capacity lowering
jumper may have simply reduced the initial size report. If it
didn't affect the logical disk addressing, everything should
survive. No guarantees.

One problem is that Windoze tends to write over everything.
Without that you could try mounting the drive as an extra
(non-system) on some machine, and seeing if things remain
accessible with or without the jumper. However, if addressing
changes, and the OS scribbles over it, it will destroy everything
in sight.
 
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