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  1. Member
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    Hi,

    now can anyone tell me whats up with that
    I bought this drive Barracuda 7200.9 250GB, model ST3250824A.
    I had this sixth sense feeling that I should test it before use, so I went and started testing.
    First I tried to scan with Spin Rite, which failed due to internal error. Than I run Scandisk which detected 2 errors that couldn't be fixed. Next I run it with GWSCAN with Extended Test with final code 0000, but when I tried to write zeros to drive it showed an error 0585. So, next I did was fdisk, partition and format to FAT32; all that went smoothly. Just to make sure at the end I went through Scandisk again and this time it didn't show any errors. So I set it as a slave hook it up my booting drive with Windows and I discovered that the drive shrinked from 250 to 127GB. Now did I miss something or what? I bough this drive brand new in Circuit City, so what is going on?
    moved to another forum, nobody likes me here...
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  2. I don't think that FAT32 can handle large hard drives. I believe that it won't report anything over 125 or something like that. Try formatting in NTFS...
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    Try right-click on MY COMPUTER, select MANAGE option, go to DISK MANAGEMENT. Windows may recognise the full disk parameters (you'll see unused space at the end of the new driver after the FAT32 drive letter you've just created) where the BIOS on the motherboard (used for disk management/formatting at boot time for DOS) may be restricted to 128GB ... a friend of mine has the EXACT issue when he tried adding a bigger disk to his machine. A BIOS update might help, or partition the unused space from inside Windows (right-click on the unused area, then CREATE PARTITION or CREATE VOLUME. Follow the wizard) and live with 2 drive letters! If you don't need boot time access (not your system disk), delete the partition you've already created, and let Windows make it one big disk.

    Trev
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  4. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    I suggest you download the official SEAGATE software from the SEAGATE WEBSITE and use that software to format the HDD using the NTFS file system.

    Here is a link for you:
    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seagate_desktop/

    You will want to download both DiscWizard and SeaTools.

    Good Luck !!!

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman

    P.S.
    This software comes free with the retail versions of SEAGATE hard disk drives BUT you can download it for free. There is no cost associated with using this software.
    "The eyes are the first thing that you have to destroy ... because they have seen too many bad things" - Lucio Fulci
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    Originally Posted by FulciLives
    I suggest you download the official SEAGATE software from the SEAGATE WEBSITE and use that software to format the HDD using the NTFS file system.

    Here is a link for you:
    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seagate_desktop/

    You will want to download both DiscWizard and SeaTools.

    Good Luck !!!

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman

    P.S.
    This software comes free with the retail versions of SEAGATE hard disk drives BUT you can download it for free. There is no cost associated with using this software.
    I don't have a Windows on this drive, so I need something that I can copy on a CD to make it bootable. I don't want to install an operating system on this drive.
    moved to another forum, nobody likes me here...
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    I decided to use XP Pro CD to convert to NTFS, but that didn't change anything. My drive remains 127GB
    moved to another forum, nobody likes me here...
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    I think I know what happened. I done some research and find out that my computer has a block on 128GB, which was standard procedure for machines 5+ years old. I can still use this drive as an external drive, only now I need to find the way to restore the 250GB.
    moved to another forum, nobody likes me here...
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  8. You could break it into a couple of partitions so that you get the full use out of it. You can either use diskpart or a third party solution such as Partition Magic.
    Believing yourself to be secure only takes one cracker to dispel your belief.
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  9. The maximum partition size for fat32 is indeed 128GB (127.53 to be exact). As long as the current partition is active, the drive will always format to this size regardless of the method used (NTFS, fat32). Delete the current partition and reinitialize it as an NTSF partition and you should be fine.
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  10. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jantxn
    The maximum partition size for fat32 is indeed 128GB (127.53 to be exact). As long as the current partition is active, the drive will always format to this size regardless of the method used (NTFS, fat32). Delete the current partition and reinitialize it as an NTSF partition and you should be fine.
    Maybe for the FAT32 that existed circa Windows '95. Not so present day. I have a couple of Seagate 200G. drives that are formatted as single-partition FAT-32. They are externals, used mainly for storage. I think these could be much larger than this under FAT-32, just as easily, but I don't recall what the exact limits are.

    This usually turns out to be a BIOS issue, though, and this will be a limitation of the existing rev. of your computer's BIOS. Update the BIOS, and the issue should go away. We even saw this with USB enclosures. A couple years ago, we began seeing them with "Approved for drives > 127G." mentioned prominently on the box. And that's irrespective of the file system(s) you happened to be using . . . as long as they weren't something as antiquated as the FAT-16 of DOS..
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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  11. Originally Posted by fLYtRap
    I think I know what happened. I done some research and find out that my computer has a block on 128GB, which was standard procedure for machines 5+ years old. I can still use this drive as an external drive, only now I need to find the way to restore the 250GB.
    Yeah the 128GB limit is because your computer doesn't support 48bit Logical Block Addressing(LBA). You can buy an add-on IDE PCI card to overcome this limitation.

    http://www.48bitlba.com/
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  12. Renegade gll99's Avatar
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    When that problem happened a while back, I went with the multi partition solution. That way I kept a smaller fat32 partition for system files and a couple of larger NTFS for video capture and editing etc...

    To each is own but it saved me chasing after mobo updates and any risk of corrupting the bios.

    I didn't try the complete deleting of all partitions and restarting as a single NTFS but then again it wasn't what I wanted so it may be best for you if it works as suggested.
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  13. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Seeker47
    Originally Posted by jantxn
    The maximum partition size for fat32 is indeed 128GB (127.53 to be exact). As long as the current partition is active, the drive will always format to this size regardless of the method used (NTFS, fat32). Delete the current partition and reinitialize it as an NTSF partition and you should be fine.
    I have a couple of Seagate 200G. drives that are formatted as single-partition FAT-32. They are externals, used mainly for storage. I think these could be much larger than this under FAT-32, just as easily, but I don't recall what the exact limits are.
    This comes up from time to time, so might as well bookmark it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT-32
    Hit PgDn twice. Max Vol. Limits at bottom right. A lot more than 127G.

    Why is this significant ? There is the general impression that NTFS is so much more durable and secure, vs. FAT-32. Well, I know someone who lost a couple of NTFS partitions, which were in the 100 - 160G size range. They just disappeared, off of a larger, multi-partition drive. (The other partitions were not affected, and the drive itself was apparently o.k.) She hired a consultant, who was unable to access or recover these either. Very mysterious, and a lot of important work down the drain. So, nothing is 100 %, and good backups are essential, no matter what you are using. Apart from some big disaster like the one I mentioned, it is easier to get at what's on a FAT-32 partition. I store large amounts of video stuff on them, and so far it has been rock solid for me.
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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  14. Member
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    New drives come with instructions and utilities to transfer content of old OS drives to the new one. The size limitation was fixed in WinXP SP2 and in Win2k SP4, and there's even a workaround for Win98 users at http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=36f7a5caf2e3be693e7b6b9f878d5371&showtopic=78592. There's still a 32 GB limit for partition size with FAT32 for Win2k and Win98 at least but not for NTFS which means you'd simply need to create multiple partitions if using FAT32. Does WinXP allow FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB? Win2k and Win98 give error message that partition can't be formatted in FAT32 because it is too large.

    I too experienced the apparent inexplicable partition loss referenced by Seeker47, except it was FAT32 partitions in my instance, which happened many times over several months which is why I keep backups of everything that can't be replaced. Finally the partition loss problem was solved by BIOS update which was suggested by someone on another forum.
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  15. Member
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    Originally Posted by FulciLives
    I suggest you download the official SEAGATE software from the SEAGATE WEBSITE and use that software to format the HDD using the NTFS file system.

    Here is a link for you:
    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seagate_desktop/

    You will want to download both DiscWizard and SeaTools.

    Good Luck !!!

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman

    P.S.
    This software comes free with the retail versions of SEAGATE hard disk drives BUT you can download it for free. There is no cost associated with using this software.
    I am using this DiscWizard right now to see what will happened. I am running 2 passes, one for wiping out the drive and the other for writing zeros. That should fix I think, but it may not since windows only saw 128GB no matter what I did. It did estimate 7 hours process, so I'll get back with results later on.
    moved to another forum, nobody likes me here...
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    Now 1 more thing I didn't mention earlier is that this is actually an external USB2 drive which I took apart to make it an internal drive
    Anyways even though that my computer only "see" 128GB as this drive was connected through the USB2 it was recognize as 250GB, so whats up with that.
    I was thinking to put it back in its external case and try to do something through USB.
    Is it possible to format a drive through USB connection?
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  17. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by bevills1
    Does WinXP allow FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB? Win2k and Win98 give error message that partition can't be formatted in FAT32 because it is too large.
    Sure thing. As I noted earlier, I use 200G FAT-32 single partition storage drives, under either W2K - SP4 or XP (SP1, and later on SP2). My computer BIOS is three years old, but also supports this. Offhand, I can't tell you whether or not the tools inside Windows (like Disk Manager) will cooperate with setting up a FAT-32 like this, because I prefer to use outside tools: Seagate Disc Wizard, or the shareware DFSEE, or Acronis Disk Director (one of the best). Use one of those, and if your BIOS has no built-in limitation you should not have a problem.

    The company that made Partition Magic was bought out by Symantec, and I think that product may no longer be sufficiently up to date or supported.

    As to the point fLYtRap notes about having the drive in the USB enclosure vs. in the computer itself, I'm not sure. Perhaps the firmware of the enclosure does support > than 127G size, while the older BIOS in his computer does not, and in this circumstance the external USB device governs ? Just speculating here . . . .
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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  18. Originally Posted by Seeker47
    The company that made Partition Magic was bought out by Symantec, and I think that product may no longer be sufficiently up to date or supported.
    Version 8 is supported and sold by Symantec.

    partition magic
    Believing yourself to be secure only takes one cracker to dispel your belief.
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  19. Member buttzilla's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by fLYtRap
    I decided to use XP Pro CD to convert to NTFS, but that didn't change anything. My drive remains 127GB
    Yes it only converted the 127gb partition to ntfs. You need to repartition the whole drive over to ntfs. Delete the current partition and start over.
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  20. Member
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    I tried using the Seagate disk wizard also which showed partition 1 color as long as 32 GB wasn't exceeded, but it automatically changed to another color and automatically switched to NTFS when 32 GB was exceeded. Seagate must have supplied Seeker47 with a more advanced disk wizard than they did me.

    Anyway I wonder if the disk wizard might solve the problem the OP has. He'll still need SP2 for Windows to recognize larger drives, and using the Seagate disk wizard to transfer old drive contents to new drive is probably easiest way to do that.
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  21. Member
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    Originally Posted by FulciLives
    I suggest you download the official SEAGATE software from the SEAGATE WEBSITE and use that software to format the HDD using the NTFS file system.

    Here is a link for you:
    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seagate_desktop/

    You will want to download both DiscWizard and SeaTools.

    Good Luck !!!

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman

    P.S.
    This software comes free with the retail versions of SEAGATE hard disk drives BUT you can download it for free. There is no cost associated with using this software.
    Thanks to all for help especially FukciLives that directed me to DiscWizard which is my new best tool
    moved to another forum, nobody likes me here...
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  22. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by bevills1
    Seagate must have supplied Seeker47 with a more advanced disk wizard than they did me.
    Probably not. I installed it, but have barely ever used it -- mostly to check on some things rather than to transform the drive in any way. I used to use Partition Magic, but left it for other tools. For most users, I would recommend Acronis Disk Director, which runs around 50 bucks unless you happen to catch it on sale. It is GUI-based and fairly accessible to users who are not all that technical . . . though you will have more facility with it if you have some background with hard drives and file systems. Otherwise, I mainly use DFSEE, which is shareware (available trial period before purchase, with full functionality), but is not really GUI and its design will likely have more appeal to users who are more technically inclined.

    Originally Posted by bevills1
    Anyway I wonder if the disk wizard might solve the problem the OP has. He'll still need SP2 for Windows to recognize larger drives,.
    FWIW, I did not seem to have that problem with XP SP-1 or W2K SP-4. Which seems to take us back to the BIOS question.

    Originally Posted by fLYtRap
    Is it possible to format a drive through USB connection?
    This might depend on which tool you are using for the format. I have done this a couple times using DFSEE, but for FAT-32 partitions. There are program updates every few weeks, but I don't know offhand if NTFS formatting has been added yet. It had not been, the last time I needed this (several months back), so I used Acronis for that.
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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  23. Member
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    It may have been SP1 that fixed the drive space limit instead of SP2, but the utility that comes with new drives would transfer contents of old OS drive which would be OP's easiest solution if those instructions are followed. The OP states in his 6/17 post that the disk wizard is his "new best tool" but doesn't say if it resolved the problem. My guess is it did fix the problem, and the OP should post that to let everyone know if it's resolved.
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