how did a 200GB HDD drop down to 127Gig?

T

timbo59

Member
I was playing around with an older 200Gig HDD I had sitting around and decided to hook it up to my PC via a USB adapter setup that can hook up to either SATA drives or older units. Initially my PC wouldn't recognize the drive, but then I remembered the pin and took it out completely, after which the drive showed up at last. Only problem is that my PC states that it's 127gig, when in actual fact it's a 200gb unit! I mean, I know that an OS system can use some of the resources when you use a HDD as your primary unit, but as this one was connected up as an external unit virtually all of the 200GB should have been available. So where did the remaining 73GB disappear to? I vaguely remember reading somewhere or other than the placement of the pin can have a bearing on size recognition in older versions of Windows like XP, but as I have Windows 7 on board that shouldn't be an issue. Could it be that it's a non-SATA drive?

Also, I don't think it's a case of it being damaged as I never actually got around to using this particular HDD - I bought it a few years back at a time when I was thinking of using it to back up an older computer, but never got around to it before upgrading to my previous PC. So the HDD is essentially new to all intents and purposes.
 
What operating system are you using? Is it the original version of XP with on service pack applied to it?
 
No, as mentioned in the first post, my system OS is Windows 7 (64 bit) and the HD has never seen any action before as it's never been inserted in a computer before.
 
Sorry about. Go into disk management and see if there are other partitions that just need to be formatted. If there is no data on the drive then you can delete the existing partition and then partition the whole drive and format it.
 
Yeah, I wondered if the jumper might make a difference as I'd read before that it can limit the gigs - but I thought that only applied in XP.

For the record, it's a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 - model:6L200PO.

@JHM. It's not connected to the internals - the only connection it has to the PC is via USB.
 
Did you look in disk management like I said before to make sure all the drive was partitioned? With it being only 127gb, this usually means it was installed in a XP system that had no service pack applied to it. XP with no service pack couldn't read drives larger than 127 gb because of the max lba setting. I have google searched for you, just pick some the links on the search and read all about it.

http://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1869&bih=834

Also, if you have no jumpers at all on the drive, it will be configured as slave setting with all drive space allocated. Look at the image below. Any jumpers attached with the clj setting is what limits the drives space.

maxtor_zps9d4292b7.jpg


I can almost bet that the issue is with the partitioning because of the amount of space it says you have.
 
You seem to be suggesting that I link the HDD back into XP (with service packs) to fix this. Only problem is that I don't have XP anymore, as I've changed my PC's to either windows 7 or Ubuntu.

Is there no way I can get rid of this partition through Windows 7? I would have though the more modern OS would have been a no-brainer to sort this out given the large capacity of HDD these days.
 
with the drive plugged into the windows computer go to start and type partition then hit enter. That will bring up disk management which you can use to partition the drive as you see fit.

You can do the same thing in ubuntu by using Gparted (free in the software center). once you install it, go to the main menu and start Gparted, then find your drive and partition as you see fit.
 
timbo59 said:
You seem to be suggesting that I link the HDD back into XP (with service packs) to fix this. Only problem is that I don't have XP anymore, as I've changed my PC's to either windows 7 or Ubuntu.

Is there no way I can get rid of this partition through Windows 7? I would have though the more modern OS would have been a no-brainer to sort this out given the large capacity of HDD these days.
Click to expand...

You aren't understanding what I originally said. You most likely had this drive installed in a system that only had XP with no service packs installed as this is what would cause only 127gb available instead of closer to 200 gb. Basically you just need to delete the existing partition and repartion it.

I never once said that you had to use XP on it. I was only suggesting that XP was on that drive at one time.
 
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