maxtor har drive problem

[junkies_yard]

hi, im new to pcs and hardware, i just bought a maxtor diamond 9 plus 160 gb hdd and set it as slave along with my western digital 40 gb hdd.

the problem is when i install windows on maxtor it only does ntfs when i want fat32 and it only reads 127 gb whereas my 40 gb is read as 37.5 gb, plas help me with problem.
both are ide and i tried maxtor with master with correct jumper settings and still same 127gb...

[Xaotic]

Welcome to the Forums!

You do need to use NTFS on partitions over 32GB with 2000 or XP. It's not set up to allow formatting in FAT32 due to cluster sizes.

37.5GB is about right for a 40GB HDD. Manufacturers specify 1GB as 1000MB, rather than 1024MB in binary and you lose a bit to the master file table(MFT) as well.

The 127GB limit can be is an OS limitation. You can enable big LBA in the registry, Service Pack 1 in XP supports it, or you can slipstream the SP1 into your XP disk. There may be other ways as well. I'd post longer, but I'm late for an appointment.

Welcome again!

[CrashOveride]

I'm pretty sure you need a software/BIOS fix to use the whole capacity of drives over a certain size on some motherboard. There should be somthing on the Maxtor site about it. Anyways it might be helpful to know what motherbaord you have...

Oh, and...
Welcome To The Forums!:D

EDIT:
Darn, he beat me... Oh well.. He is right neeways:p

Getting SP1 (from microsoft) should fix it, you will just have to reformat it or get some software like PartitionMagic to resize the partition.

Well, in any event this (https://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/olh_adp.php?p_faqid=960&&p_sid=zumhWpbh&p_lva=) is what Maxtor has to say about the issue.

[junkies_yard]

thanks for the welcome ill try out the service pack and the enabler

one other question if you dont mind please; i bought a new psu antec 550watts but i put it in the case upside down, i was wondering if this will effects its performance or the pc? i cant be bothered to do it right way cause i will have to take off all the wires again......headach:(


btw
my specs are as follows:

mobo:asus p4pe
psu:550
proc:pentium 4 2.4gh
memory:3x2gb
geforce 4 ti 4400
160gb hdd and 40gb hdd

[junkies_yard]

one other question if you dont mind please; i bought a new psu antec 550watts but i put it in the case upside down, i was wondering if this will effects its performance or the pc? i cant be bothered to do it right way cause i will have to take off all the wires again......headache

i was also wondering if its normal for a 550 watt psu to be hotter than my older 350watt? because it does get very hot and im worried.

how do i go about changing an ntfs hdd to fat32 because windows xp cd does not let you do that... i tried formatting but nothing same thing...

please reply

[SavageBasher]

May I ask why you want to convert it to fat32? ntfs is faster, more secure, and wastes less space on the drive..

[CrashOveride]

I don't think you can change it and keep your data and I think it said you had to use NTFS with that size HDD, and NTFS is generally better anyways.

About the PSU, if the fan is blocked by the case (usualy one points down if there is a second fan, now it would be pointing up) and it can't suck any air in it could cause instability and mess up your PSU if it got too hot but I doubt it would. Just make sure it doesn't overheat or anything, it shouldn't heat up your case too much.

[neo_18]

you lose about 7% on any drive when you format it. so the 160gig formated sould be about 148.8gigs formated. hope that helps :)