Confused Hard Drive

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Hi All
I have a confused hard drive (or it is me?). It is a 40GB Maxtor drive which was in good condition until I tried to format it using Windows. Apparently, it tried to format as an 80GB drive and it is now useless and when I try to format it again, it thinks it is an 80GB drive. Is there any way that I can retrieve this situation? (Yes I know new hard drives are dirt cheap, but all the same......).
Cheers Peter

[toryglen-boy (Duncan)]

Originally Posted by pjphilli

Hi All
I have a confused hard drive (or it is me?). It is a 40GB Maxtor drive which was in good condition until I tried to format it using Windows. Apparently, it tried to format as an 80GB drive and it is now useless and when I try to format it again, it thinks it is an 80GB drive. Is there any way that I can retrieve this situation? (Yes I know new hard drives are dirt cheap, but all the same......).
Cheers Peter

this doesnt quite add up.

Modern day O/S's are very good with drives, and it shouldnt get confused over something like this. What type of partition did you try to give it? FAT or NTFS? maybe run FDISK on it from a command prompt, and see the actual state of the drive re. partitions etc. Unless there was a problem with the integrated controller etc. Windows wouldnt try to format it at 80Gb if it was a 40Gb size .. it makes no sense.

can you give us more info?

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Are you sure it's a 40Gb ? OS's don't usually misreport the size. Check in the bios and see what it says. The drive could well be faulty, 40Gb's are getting a bit long in the tooth now. Another possibility is it was previously formatted as a compressed drive.
Easiest way is to use a program like Partition Magic. You'll need to delete the partition and then recreate and format it. First thing is check what size the BIOS is reporting for the drive. If its the correct size and Partition Magic or similar is'nt available you can do it using the Windows install disk.
Disconnect any other HDD on the machine to save confusion, set the Maxtor as a master and boot from the Windows CD. Accept the defaults until you get too the page where it asks "Use existing partion" etc. Delete the partition, recreate it as NTFS or Fat32 whichever you need and let it format. Stop the setup at that stage before it starts to install the OS.
A bit complex but has worked for me several times.

Cheers
Bill

[toryglen-boy (Duncan)]

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

Are you sure it's a 40Gb ? OS's don't usually misreport the size. Check in the bios and see what it says. The drive could well be faulty, 40Gb's are getting a bit long in the tooth now. Another possibility is it was previously formatted as a compressed drive.
Easiest way is to use a program like Partition Magic. You'll need to delete the partition and then recreate and format it. First thing is check what size the BIOS is reporting for the drive. If its the correct size and Partition Magic or similar is'nt available you can do it using the Windows install disk.
Disconnect any other HDD on the machine to save confusion, set the Maxtor as a master and boot from the Windows CD. Accept the defaults until you get too the page where it asks "Use existing partion" etc. Delete the partition, recreate it as NTFS or Fat32 whichever you need and let it format. Stop the setup at that stage before it starts to install the OS.
A bit complex but has worked for me several times.

Cheers
Bill

good advice from Bill ....

But be aware if you use FAT32 it has a file size limit of 2Gb

[rogerco (Roger)]

Are you sure that your motherboard bios is recognising the drive correctly. Go into bios at startup and get the MB to re detect the hard drive. If its a really old system you may have to feed in the spec yourself but I doubt it.

As others have said are you sure it is a 40 and not an 80 that was partitioned for say a dual boot operating system and windows didn't recognise one of the partitions but is recognising the whole drive when you format it.

Roger

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Thanks Guys for all these tips. It is definitely a 40GB drive as it has this on the front label. I will try all the tricks you have mentioned and if I cannot get it going - well it is not much of a loss! Cheers Peter

[scarper (Mart)]

Originally Posted by toryglen-boy

good advice from Bill ....

But be aware if you use FAT32 it has a file size limit of 2Gb

not one to argue but its actually 4gig file size limit.

[luka]

Download gparted live cd and boot from it.
It is free, linux based and can do all kind of tricks with partitions and file systems.

[DaveGee (Dave Gault)]

Originally Posted by scarper

not one to argue but its actually 4gig file size limit.

if you use FAT32 Formatter...
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...at32format.htm
you can format whatever size disk you want in FAT32eze. I've done 80Gb for a DVR.

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Hi All
I had another go at my 40GB drive using FDISK from an old Millenium boot disk. I often find FDISK is a bit tricky but this time I managed to delete the primary partition and then repartition which then allowed me to format the drive as a 40GB (yes, well I am retired). Now what do I want to put on it.......? Cheers Peter