Installation troubles with Samsung HD103SJ

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Hey All-

Its been a little while since I've installed a new drive (well more than a little while--last time was IDE )

I am trying to install a Samsung HD103SJ as a secondary on my girlfriend's Windows 7 system. Trouble is, when I look at the drive properties, it says that only 32MB are available.

I checked the bios--everything seems fine on auto-detect. I have also gone through disk management, but cant find all the extra unallocated space. Only 32mb comes up as visible. Am I forgetting something really stupid? Or do I need to do something else?

Many Thanks.

 

[Athadeus]

In the lower section of disk management, what is it listing as the total disk capacity in the little box on the left?

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

just 32MB if I am reading it right...

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

Hmm I'd have to check but I'm pretty sure I'm using that family of drive (it's 103SJ or 103LJ iirc) with no issues.

The first thing I'd try is right click that block/chart of F: and delete the partition. It'll warn you that all data will be lost; click ok. Then reboot to the BIOS and make sure it is detected there correctly on an SATA channel. There is usually some option to get further details in BIOS. On my board you just press enter on the channel that displays the HDD. For example my setup looks something like this:

00 OCZV2312
01 HD753LJ
02 HD753LJ
03 HD103SI
04 HD204UI
05 HD753LJ

I use the arrow keys to highlight the correct channel and press enter. Then it shows some more details such as the drives full name and serial number, SMART data, and the capacity. Ensure this capacity reads correctly (if not it could be firmware related).

If it does, reboot into windows, go back to that drive manager, and a drive should be listed with 931GB of unused space. Right click and format/create partition. Enter the max allowed value; should be 931GB listed as bytes (so 1,000,202,039,296) and choose quick format and NTFS file system.

If anything doesn't go as expected or you need further help post back with your full system specs and I can get more technical.

 

[stahlhart]

That's bizarre -- I've got the full ~931Gb here on that same model (firmware 1AJ10001) with no issues. But yeah, what Blitz said. Nice drive though.

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Oy Vey. So Im still having troubles. I tried using Samsungs drive utility, and after a 5 hour disk check and format, I decided to put in into another machine to see how things are going. For reasons unknown (its the only disk in the machine) I have two partitions: one is like 800 gigs, one is like 140 gigs. Then, disk management shows two more unpartitioned spaces of like 200 and 300 gigs respectively. Of course if we count it up, thats well in excess of the 1TB of space on the drive (again, the only drive in that machine) Please keep in mind that I did nothing to set up any of these partitions of unpartitioned space. I know this is likely unique to me and my drive, but has anyone ever heard of something like this?

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

Sure, if the MBR or GUID is messed up I've seen some weird shit. Did you try what I suggested? What were the results?