My "40 Gb" Harddrive says stop at 30 Gb [solved]

[Prodigy^]

i've got a pretty new Maxtor 'DiamondMax+' drive, 40 GB, which says it's full when it gets to around 30-32 GB.....eh? the store i got it from is 100% reliable and credible (and they don't even produce 30 gb drives), so i was wondering if it's either a manufacturing mistake, or something I need to fix? i've got near 100.000 files total on my HDD i figure, could that be it? or should I defrag perhaps?

thanks in advance

 

[Celstar]

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=136

 

[Jeff H]

Celstar's link goes part of the way in explaining why that 40GB drive doesn't show as 40BG. But, a 40GB drive isn't going to format out to 30 or 32; more likely 38. So, another explanation of why that drive is only showing as a 30 or 32GB is tied to either your system or a jumper on the hard drive. This page does a good job of explaining the limitations in hard drive size and what was done to overcome those limitations. Here's an excerpt from the explanation:

The LBA system was first applied to computer systems with BIOS dates after July 1994. However, this did not solve the whole problem. Some BIOS manufacturers set cylinder limitations in the BIOS which limited drive size to just over 2 gigabytes. This matched the Windows 95 16-bit file allocation table (FAT 16) limit of 2 gigabytes per partition. With the advent of FAT32, the BIOS limit was raised to 8.4 gigabytes. Further extensions of the INT13h interface allowed the BIOS limit to be increased to 32 gigabytes.

In general, computer systems with a BIOS dated 1998 or later can work with drives up to 32 gigabytes (GB) in size. The 32GB barrier is due to the inability of the BIOS to address an LBA that is larger than 66,060,287. Only in the most recent computer systems has the BIOS been upgraded to work with drives larger than 32GB. In addition, in some computers, a 64GB barrier is still to be overcome. So, the primary limit to the size of the hard drive your computer can use is the LBA limit of your system's BIOS.

So, depending on the date/age of your BIOS and your OS you're likely seeing that 40GB drive size out at 32GB. Then after formatting that 32GB drive you're likely seeing 30GB of usable space. There's also likely a jumper on the drive that limits capacity to 32GB, to address BIOS limitations, and that would be worth checking out.

 

[Prodigy^]

appreciate the quick replies, guess i'll ask my comp dealer if he knows about the jumper stuff....unless i can find it myself

 

[NesuD]

couple of questions.
What operating system and what file system are you using?
If you are using windows xp and formatted the drive with the fat32 file system rather than NTFS then it would only format 32 gigs. XP has a 32gig limitation on fat32 partitions. Pretty stupid but thats microsoft. Anyhow that one possibility.

 

[Prodigy^]

win98se, fat32

where do I format with NTFS? I'm considering going win xp pro, and i've been using fdisk and format (the good ole dos progs) to format my hdd so far. should i use something else? and can I do it with win98se?

thanks

 

[Mavrick007]

What mobo do you have? Some older boards would not recognize any drives over 8gigs, while others it would be at 32gigs.
It might be your bios that you have on your mobo. If it's an older mobo and hasn't been flashed, you might have to reformat and flash the bios to correctly recognize your drive.

 

[Prodigy^]

VIA KT266, athlon 1.4ghz

btw i got a file from microsoft that supposedly fixes support for drives >32 Gb. installed it but i haven't tested if it works yet though (takes ages to copy files)

 

[EeyoreX]

Windows 98SE will not format or recognize NTFS partitions.
The problem may also be your BIOS. Does it recognize a 40GB drive or 32GB?
If it is your BIOS, you could get a relatively inexpensive ATA100 or ATA133 PCI card and install the hard drive to that, and just be sure to format two partitions of less than 32GB if you plan on staying with Win9x.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Make sure you've scandisked the hard disk recently. If the FAT gets corrupt, the amount of free space could be misreported. Run scandisk and see if anything changes.

 

[Insidious]

I'm not getting all the talk about Windows98se and drives of >32GB not being recognized.....

While I run WindowsXP now, my machines were previously Windows98se with WD400BB drives, correctly

recognized and formatted (one partition) to that size... (37.xxGB) I made no mods and installed no fixes to make this happen?

Was this just my BIOS allowing this? (If so, why all the talk of Windows98se limitations?)

I am not in any way trying to be facitious or sarcastic.... I am really curious and would like to know why I

never had a problem.

edit: Was it because I installed the drive on the Highpoint Controller IDE connector instead of the regular IDE connector?

 

[Prodigy^]

bios, dos and windows all report it at 40 gigs, no prob there.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: Prodigy^
bios, dos and windows all report it at 40 gigs, no prob there.

Do a scandisk and defrag, that probably solve your problem, just make sure to free up some space before defragging.

Originally posted by: NesuD^
If you are using windows xp and formatted the drive with the fat32 file system rather than NTFS then it would only format 32 gigs. XP has a 32gig limitation on fat32 partitions. Pretty stupid but thats microsoft. Anyhow that one possibility.

I don't think that's true. I'm using a drive right now that is 55 gigs, FAT32 on WinXP. I don't like formatting it NTFS since I could get the files only in Windows then. With FAT, I could backup my files if Windows decide to crap out on me.

 

[Prodigy^]

solved it ran scandisk and you're right, it reported the size incorrectly....now i have 3 gigs left oh well at least I know what was wrong. there were like 600 megs in lost files

thanks all

 

[EeyoreX]

I don't think that's true. I'm using a drive right now that is 55 gigs, FAT32 on WinXP. I don't like formatting it NTFS since I could get the files only in Windows then. With FAT, I could backup my files if Windows decide to crap out on me.

Windows XP uses a slightly different/updated version of FAT32 I think that allows for the larger single partition sizes. i am pretty sure that Win9x OSes can not format a drive abouve 32GB with FAT32...

\Dan

 

[bozo1]

Windows XP uses a slightly different/updated version of FAT32 I think that allows for the larger single partition sizes. i am pretty sure that Win9x OSes can not format a drive abouve 32GB with FAT32

Actually, you are backwards. XP will not format a partition larger that 32Gig with Fat32. It's their way of 'suggesting' that you use NTFS. Win9x OS's can format larger than 32Gigs. XP will use a Fat32 partition larger than 32, but you have to use Win9x or a 3rd party program to format it.

 

[Mem]

Quote

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows XP uses a slightly different/updated version of FAT32 I think that allows for the larger single partition sizes. i am pretty sure that Win9x OSes can not format a drive abouve 32GB with FAT32
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually, you are backwards. XP will not format a partition larger that 32Gig with Fat32. It's their way of 'suggesting' that you use NTFS. Win9x OS's can format larger than 32Gigs. XP will use a Fat32 partition larger than 32, but you have to use Win9x or a 3rd party program to format it.

bozo1 is correct,another way round it`s to have more then one partition of 32GB or smaller in FAT32 using XP for larger drives,I would recommend going with NTFS since it`s XP native file system and security and stability are more robust in general.

 

[Mem]

where do I format with NTFS? I'm considering going win xp pro, and i've been using fdisk and format (the good ole dos progs) to format my hdd so far. should i use something else? and can I do it with win98se?

To use NTFS you need 2K or WinXP,it`s easy to do in XP , since your board is pretty new there`s no problem in booting from CD-drive , just boot from CD drive (with XP CD in drive)and follow instructions .

If you had say XP installed already in FAT32 and wanted to go NTFS you could just use go to the command prompt
open it and type
convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs
ie typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format.

It does not take long (took me about 2 mins to convert)and you don`t lose no data.

 

[NesuD]

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: Prodigy^
bios, dos and windows all report it at 40 gigs, no prob there.

Do a scandisk and defrag, that probably solve your problem, just make sure to free up some space before defragging.

Originally posted by: NesuD^
If you are using windows xp and formatted the drive with the fat32 file system rather than NTFS then it would only format 32 gigs. XP has a 32gig limitation on fat32 partitions. Pretty stupid but thats microsoft. Anyhow that one possibility.

I don't think that's true. I'm using a drive right now that is 55 gigs, FAT32 on WinXP. I don't like formatting it NTFS since I could get the files only in Windows then. With FAT, I could backup my files if Windows decide to crap out on me.

Sorry pal! It is most definately true. If you format a drive for the fat 32 file system using the winxp setup it will give you 4 choices for format.
fat 32 format
fat 32 quick format
ntfs format
ntfs quick format
formatting a drive using either of those fat 32 options is subject to a 32 gig limitation. you obviously formatted your 55 gig drive with something other than the winxp setup. Probably formatted it with one of the win 9x format utilities. XP will see a fat 32 partition larger than 32 gig with no problem it simply cannot create a fat 32 partition larger than 32 gig with it's own formatting utility.

From Anandtech FAQ's

You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Win2K/XP. The Win2K/XP FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create one using the Format tool. This behaviour is by design. Microsoft recommends using NTFS for partitions greater than 32GB.

Link to Andy Hui's Fat32vsNTFS FAQ

 

[Prodigy^]

some people said that you cannot read NTFS in dos....can i just fdisk+format my drive in dos, then install win xp? i like dos