maxtor 250g hd will not partition correctly

[AAman]

dell 400sc, xp pro- sp2, intel driver for large drives, bios updated on dell mobo,
using a maxtor/promise pci/133tx card with latest bios that I got with a different maxtor drive

ok, have to use the maxtor cd to format it- if I only have one 233g partition, boots up fine,
can access it in my computer. If more than one partition, windows hangs at a black screen after the flash screen.

disk manager and powerquest 8 cannot access the drive (it shows in device manager, and
is there in my computer), they just keep trying forever until I get an error or give up.

if I try formatting it in xp with disk manager and powerquest 8, they only see 137g, never recognize the rest, even though I'm using xp/sp2 and intel driver

I have used a drive over 137g on this card and in this system before

tried it in my external usb2 case, shows up in the usb icon in the tray but not in my computer or device manager

I am so frustrated.

oh- have tried as slave and master, it is the only drive on the ribbon

 

[Xennon]

It may be a hardware problem. if you can get hold of a linux cd try using that to format the drive. It has an exelent disk tool at setup, you can also use the Ultimate Boot CD.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Xennon
It may be a hardware problem. if you can get hold of a linux cd try using that to format the drive. It has an exelent disk tool at setup, you can also use the Ultimate Boot CD.

or oh- have tried as slave and master, it is the only drive on the ribbon

set drive as CS(Cable Select)..Maxtor's factory default setting ..

 

[AAman]

already tried as cable select as well, thanks

The drive formats FINE with the maxtor boot cd- just can't do more than one partition or xp won't boot, and as described above, cannot access it in xp to do anything with it

 

[akira34]

First off, ditch the maxtor software when formatting the drive. Allow Windows to do that with it's own built in tools. I've found that the software that ships with drives for formatting and such simply BLOWS. You're far better off using what's already built into the OS than the third party apps.

Once you've partitioned and formatted the drive from within windows, see how it works out. Is this drive the only one in the computer or a secondary drive? If it's secondary, put it on the slave connection of the ribbon.

 

[AAman]

ummm, thanks akira, please read the original post- xp only recognizes 137g if I format it there, or doesn't recognize it at all if it isn't already partitioned with the maxtor software- I have to delete the 233g partition to then add the 137g in xp

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: AAman
ummm, thanks akira, please read the original post- xp only recognizes 137g if I format it there, or doesn't recognize it at all if it isn't already partitioned with the maxtor software- I have to delete the 233g partition to then add the 137g in xp

Is that with the PCI controller card or the onboard IDE controller? Either way, I'd contact maxtor and yell at them... Of course, I wouldn't get a maxtor drive even if it was free. Is your copy of xp pro (sp2) legit or 'borrowed'?? You could also contact dull about the issue to see if they know of a fix for it...

Personnally, I don't bother with more than one partition unless I don't have a small[ish] hard drive to boot a server with. ANY desktop system gets single partition drives/volumes. My own rig has just two volumes, one per RAID array. That eliminates ANY potential space issues that could crop up. There's already been a few times where I've exceeded 50% drive usage on the booting array. If I had partitioned up the array, that would have caused more headaches than the partitioning might have fixed/resolved/prevented.

If you're looking to install multiple operating systems on a computer (such as windows, linux, etc.) then you're much better off getting a mobile rack and installing one OS per drive (in the carrage for the rack). That way, you can let the flavors of linux partition up the drive as it wants and not worry about it buggering up the other operating systems or your computer in general.

 

[AAman]

my xp pro is direct from MS 🙂

I have already contacted Maxtor support before posting here, and have been in contact since,
with no luck. The dell 400sc won't run raid unfortunately that feature on the mobo was not
activated. I need at least 2 large partitions to work with (this drive will replace the other 2 on the
pci card)

 

[akira34]

Why do you 'need' 2 large partitions??

 

[xbassman]

You need Service Pack 1 or higher to create partitions larger than 137GB.
Just create your fitst Partition, install windows. Update to SP2 then add your second partition with disk mgr.