• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

This is a tough one! 80GB laptop drive partitions as 40GB

beatle

beatle

Diamond Member
A friend gave me a laptop hard drive to check out. It only allows you to make 40GB (or smaller) partitions. I've run Hitachi's advanced drive fitness test and the drive checks out with no errors. I've low-level formatted the drive. Hitachi's utility shows that it is an 80GB drive, but it does not have partitioning utilities. I've tried formatting it in Windows, formatting with XFDISK and Ranish Partition Manager. All of these only allow for a 40GB formatted capacity. I can't see the other 40GB. This drive has been in my Dell 700m laptop and my friend's Dell M140. My 700m has a 100GB drive that works fine, so I think I can rule out bios issues.

The label indicates that it is an 80GB drive and my friend said that he once had it formatted at full 80GB capacity, but it's been a while since he's used it. The model # on the sticker is: IC25N080ATMR04-0 which does not match anything on Hitachi's site. Did one of the platters just virtually disappear?
 
I could be wrong since it's been awhile. But are you using the FAT32 Fdisk? and formatting it with FAT32? If so, then you are limited to 32GB. But if you are already using XP then zero it again and this time use the XP CD to partition and format it. Make sure you use the NTFS system. If you want to use FAT32 then during partition, make 3 partitions of less than 32GB each.
 
See my first post about which utilities I used. I'm not using M$'s fdisk for FAT32. FAT32 partitions can be theoretically up to 8TB, but XP only lets you format up to 32GB. I can format it in NTFS XP to be only 40GB. I don't have PM.

There is one bank of jumpers that determine whether the drive is device 0, 1 or cable select.
 
Could this be limited somehow in the drive's firmware? It's almost guaranteed to be an OEM drive, as there is a sticker with a different (likely OEM) part number on the drive but it also lists the capacity as 80GB. The fact that the model # does not appear on Hitachi's site has me wondering if there's something not quite right here.

My friend had it at full 80GB when it was in his IBM laptop which he no longer has. Could there be a relationship between the drive and the laptop to where it limits itself to 40GB when not put in a specific model of laptop? That sounds pretty creepy/lame, but that's all I can gather.
 
Have you tried using IBM/Hitachi's "FeatureTool" utility, to check and reset the firmware "soft LBA clip" settings? It is possible to shrink the number of available LBA sectors to something lower than the physical maximum, persistently, using firmware, which I think is what has happened in your case. That utility should allow you to reset the size of the drive back to the max physical LBA count.

Note that doing so, may render what is currently on the drive unreadable. You will have to re-partition/re-format to get the rest of the space back usable anyways though.
 
Larry wins! I took for granted that the ultimate boot CD would have every manufacturer's utility. Even after I ran the FeatureTool, the drive's current capacity was still listed at 80GB. I rewrote it and rebooted, then I checked it with Ranish partition manager. Sure enough, there was now 80GB worth of space on the drive.
 
Well, correction. My friend put the 80GB drive back in his M140 and it exhibited the same behavior. This drive was an OEM IBM drive. Apparently new Dells and IBM hardware have some kind of problem working together. My 700m had no problems, however. Anyone have any idea what kind of recourse we have now?
 
Some bioses are llimited to 32GB drives or so (see if the BIOS recognizes it as full size), you may be able to make the rest an extended partition. Try updating the lappy's BIOS just in case. The version of Windows may also have a hand in it. Google on- BIOS hard drive limitations -and you'll find articles on BIOS and Window's limitations.

.bh.


 
I wasn't complete in my diagnosis originally. It's more than a capacity problem (that's fixed). When he tries to access the hard drive from Windows setup it'll abort the installation with a PCI.SYS error and make mention to remove any recently added hard drives. Booting from the hard drive itself also poses a problem. I asked him to update his BIOS tonight so we'll see what happens.
 
I've seen drives display the wrong physical size a few times before. In each case I ended up replacing the drive because I could not get it to display correctly no matter what I did, or it was unstable when I used it, even at the lower size.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top