hitachi deskstar 250GB only reading 96GB?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by fishfool59, Oct 19, 2006.

  1. fishfool59

    fishfool59 Private E-2

    I bought a hitachi deskstar 250GB HD to use as a slave backup drive. I installed it and it is only showing up as 96 GB. What is the deal?
     
  2. malware killer

    malware killer Private First Class

    Which OS are you using? What program did you use to partition and format the drive (such as FDISK, or a third-party program)? How old is your system? If the BIOS is outdated, it might not recognize the entire harddrive...

    Post your answers, and we'll work forward from there...
     
  3. sl00py99

    sl00py99 Private First Class

    :eek: Hi. My guess is that you will need to format and fdisk the drive, enabling large disk support. Also, if there is an existing ntfs/linux partition on the drive, and you are trying to look at the drive with 9x/Me, you probably won't see the entire drive. I have always gotten good results using a Windows Me bootdisk. You can download a little self-extracting file (bootme.exe, I think) from several places on the 'net, pop a blank floppy into your A: drive and run it. This should create the bootdisk for you. If you can't find bootme.exe anywhere else, e-mail me and I will reply with the file as an attachment.
     
  4. malware killer

    malware killer Private First Class

    Hi sl00py99,

    If this is an NTFS-based OS (Win2k, WinNT4, or WinXP), then "large disk support" doesn't apply here; it is ONLY used by FDISK to partition and format drives with FAT32, which is why I asked which OS is being used. Let's not jump the gun with suggestions to use FDISK (which again, is ONLY used for FAT32 operating systems) on the drive until we know what we're dealing with here...
     
  5. fishfool59

    fishfool59 Private E-2

    I am running XP home, I don't remember how it was originaly formated and may even be in FAT32. Is there any way to reformat it so that I can have all 250GB (I know not ALL 250 will show up) in one partition. There are a few files on the drive right now but nothing I plan on keeping. My first thought would be to use the bootable XP CD but if I do that will I be able to format a slave drive or just the 20 GB master that the current OS sits on?
     
  6. fishfool59

    fishfool59 Private E-2

    XP Home, no idea, maybe a bootable 2000 or XP CD, about 2 years, I don't think that it is the bios, its a soyo board and there were 100+GB drives back then, even if they cost $1000.
     
  7. ~Pyrate~

    ~Pyrate~ MajorGeek

    The easiest way would be to simply goto start>run>type diskmgmt.msc>then format multiple partitions.
     

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