HD size limitation?

[skorch]

ok try one thing for me. stick the winxp disk in. then:

3. At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.
4. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.
5. If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press ESC.


what does it show?

No existing XP is detected, only shows C: partition1 FAT32 6001 MB and unpartitioned space at 26247 MB.

[skorch]

So I'm guessing even if I go out and get PM8, that might not fix the problem?
Anyone know if Newegg would be willing to exchange the drive for a new one?

[ViRaL1]

I don't know if anyone else asked but, where did you get the drive?

[stiltman]

I would just install XP
Install the WD tools
Try to fix it
Can't fix it, toss it or use it as a spare drive

[skorch]

I don't know if anyone else asked but, where did you get the drive?

Newegg.

stiltman, yeah I agree, this is becoming too much of a hassle.

[glockjs]

has the drive ever showed full capacity?

when you first used the drive what system did you use to set it up?

[glockjs]

if you set it up in the old system...pop in the the latest fdisk then type

fdisk /mbr


exit, pop in the winxp disc and restart see what xp setup shows the drive as

[skorch]

Glock,
see thats the thing, it was never really used, to the best of my recollection.
I set it up alone on the second ide cable in the old machine. Then when I tried to boot Win98se would hang before finishing bootup, so I downloaded Data Lifeguard for DOS but accidently installed on the boot drive. I figured it was the last straw and I had to finally buy a new system to avoid the aggrevation. I suppose I could have installed Data Lifeguard on this drive afterward I just can't completely recall, I was frustrated by the whole thing.

[glockjs]

try the fdisk /mbr

BUT MAKE SURE ITS THE ONLY DRIVE ON THE MACHINE AT THE TIME

[skorch]

Is that something that could render the drive useless? And when you say only drive you mean hard drive right? On the new machine?

[glockjs]

yeah the hard drive. they try to say it can...but its one of those things kinda like flashin firmware if the power goes out or something like that happens yeah you might be screwed. but ive done it a few times and havnt had a prob

[glockjs]

what i really think at this point is that the hardware limitations of the old machine is what caused this mess. could have even been software. but basically the drive thinks it is a 32gb drive and needs to be reset to where it thinks its new....wish they just made a damn button on the side of the damn thing

[tekkieman]

I still think it is worth manually inputtng the drive parameters in bios. The parameters from the WD site are on the second page of this thread.

Repeated here:

set the drive to User and enter 1023 for Cylinders, 16 for Heads, 63 for Sectors, and disable LBA mode. Your BIOS may have more settings than Cylinders, Heads, and Sectors; if so, simply enter 0 for them.

[gmatov]

Skorch,

It may be too late, but, way back in the beginning of this thread you said you installed Data Lifeguard, and it screwed up the machine.

This drive was installed on the secondary IDE. I think at that point is where you made a 32 out of it.

Again, if EZ Drive is installed on the other machine, re-install this drive, see what it says about it, then uninstall EZ Drive. That is an option on the floppy.

Go through the drives detected by the program, and select the 80. Un-install from it. Or "Remove EZ Drive", been a long time.

I'm not positive, but think EZDrive may be written as a protected file that can't be deleted by any other program. Possibly even writing to the controller chip. I don't know if it's an EPROM or no. Possible.

When you start the machine, have you been to the BIOS setup? Does it detect the drive? I think on your old machine, with the hang at boot, you forgot to go into BIOS and detect the drive, so hung, so went the EZ Drive route. If the BIOS doesn't get the opportunity to analyze the drive, it can't tell what the parameters are. If it tries on boot, it can easily hang, sometimes so bad you have to do a reset.

My reccommendation, back to the 98 machine, run the DLG floppy, remove EZ Drive from this drive, fdisk and format.

I think you'll find a full 75 or so GBs again.

Cheers,

George

[skorch]

Well if I did install EZdrive on the old system it's gone now, I had to reinstall Win98 on that PC. I'm just going to use this drive as is for now and eventually add a bigger one for storage. No more DDO software though, hehe.

I'm glad I have somewhere to come for help.

[glockjs]

how long ago did you buy the drive? if it's still under warranty just send it back to western digital. they'll fix it. if your done messin with it thats probably your best route

[gmatov]

I don't think you can get rid of EZDrive by re-installing Windows. It's a DOS program, not a Windows program.

Do as you like. If you should try, remember, you have to boot with the DLG floppy to un-install it.

Otherwise, good luck with your next storage drive.

160 GB Seagate at CompUSA right now, 60 bucks after 50 or 60 buck rebate. Or 80 out the door at Sams for a WD, or 130 for a 250 WD at Sams, no rebates.

He's right, though, at least 1 year warranty if it came in a box. Deals off if you bought it OEM at a show, they like to give you 30 days.

Go online and enter the serial number. They'll tell you if it's under warrantee, give you an RMA number if it is, and you can call them and arrange to cross ship, give a credit card number, they'll mail the new, charge for it if they don't get the old one in 30 days.

Done it many times.

Cheers,

George