Formatting harddrive

Nebukadneser · Post by **Nebukadneser** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:12 am

Bought a seconhand Carillon w/ ASUS mobo for my 3 CW cards. Installed 2 new HDs (250GB and 320 GB) and only got 128GB registered on each. Updated MOBO BIOS and got the full size registered according to BIOS information and boot info.

On C: I got the full size of the HD formatted when installing WIN2k, but the D: of 320GB still only has 128GB available. Have tried to re-partition and re-format D: with no changes - still only 128GB. Slave / Master is set up correctly.

Does anybody know how to make the full size available? It shows 320GB in BIOS and upon booting. Should I use fdisk or format procedure in DOS or use the management options in windows 2000?

Any advice appreciated!

Neb

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:03 am

well, I can't tell you how to change it but (just in case you didn't know) the problem with such disks is that they 'wrap around' after 128 GB if they are not properly configured.
They simply start overwriting the content from the oldest records on, so you should be really sure about the disk's (and controller's) capabilities.
I'd rather use this disk in an external USB2 case for backups, as the controller in the box will handle the disk and use a smaller one for audio inside the PC.

cheers, Tom

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:20 am

You need to enable the Large Block Access flag in registry

References:
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1115/
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... us;Q305098

Registry Settings
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters]
Value Name: EnableBigLba
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)

Needless to mention, BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE YOU DO IT!

Herr Voigt · Post by **Herr Voigt** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:41 pm

Don't use fdisk.
Try xfdisk.

Nebukadneser · Post by **Nebukadneser** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:45 pm

Excellent! Thanks for your help!

I added an entry to the registry as suggested, and the remaining part of the drive appeared. Seagates utility program made me able to merge all to one single disk.

Only problem: a 320GB disk is reported as a 298GB disk ...

Neb

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:54 pm

Only problem: a 320GB disk is reported as a 298GB disk ...

You won't see the full 320 allocated for data access, some part of the drive will be used for MFT (master file table).

arela · Post by **arela** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:45 pm

...and there is 2 ways of calculating size, one real and one for sale

You know 1 Kb = 1024 b and so on, but for sale purpose, they round "accidently" down to 1Kb = 1000 byte
Thats why you always get about 97,6% of the HD you pay for