Hard Drive not really 15 gigs?

[yoink]

I am very frustrated. I bought a 15 gig. Maxtor DiamondMax HD, but my BIOS and windows both recognize it as being approx. 2 gigs? What is wrong? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Yoink

[Maddman]

what vintage is your computer. it might need a bios upgrade to make full use of that drive

[yoink]

I put it together two weeks ago. I have an EpoX 8KHA +. I do however have an older version of win 98. But my BIOS detects only 2 gigs, so its not just a windows thing, i think.

[flounder43]

Reset your Cmos, and then go into the BIOS and see what it detects.

If still no luck, use the Maxblast floppy to boot, and see what it says. That is a good place to start.

[yoink]

i tried both... the bios still detects a 2 gig hd. maxblast says basically that it should be 15 but it isn't set to that now....tell me something i don't know... any other suggestions?

[h20link]

i bought a used 6gb hard drive like a month ago and had the same problem.......it turned out the HD was partitioned and once we fdisked it the whol 6 gigs showed up.........you might try that.

[yoink]

Maaaaybe I will....maybe i will.

[Teacher_Doug]

could it be that you're using FAT 16 on the older version of win98. That system only recognises (I think) the first 2 gig. You have to update to win 98 SE and use FAT 32


good luck
:)

[yoink]

No, I checked w/ Drive Converter and it said C: is already FAT32.

[yoink]

bump?

[yoink]

oh by the way, my drive software Powermax Diag said that my motherboard doesn't support large drives or something. This makes no sense since i have a bios from 2001. Also I am sure its not due to multiple partitions b/c i checked with fdisk. Any ideas?

[cjlax5]

you have to enable large drive support, its somewhere in the bios, read the manual

[It_The_Cow]

I'd try reformmating it again anyways

[yoink]

well the problem is, the drive is automatically being detected, and the choice to enable large drive support, i think, is on the auto option. Anyway i have a brand new 8kha+ that has a bios dated in 2001. Aren't large drives supported by mobos made after about '97?

[yoink]

Well I have reformatted and windows tells me it can't read the last clusters or something so it can't install. Also the BIOS detects a hdd that is approx. 2 gigs, so the partition theory is out the window, right?

[turd]

let me see, "tell u something you dont know"? wow that could be wide open,

have u tried downloading the latest maxiblast and trying to install the EZ -bios? i would think if u used the maxi utilities to partition and check this drive and put down EZ bios your problems would go away
http://www.maxtor.com/Maxtorhome.htm

[exhaust18]

Forget about that h/d and exchange it or if you don't have a warranty just get another brand.

[cjlax5]

Originally posted by exhaust18
Forget about that h/d and exchange it or if you don't have a warranty just get another brand.

ya, if all the other stuff u tried isnt working...no more ideas here

[VashTheStampede]

*Drool*

http://www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,s%253D1038%2526a%253D21464%2526app%253D1%25 26ap%253D2,00.asp

160GB...

*Drool*

~Vash~

[yoink]

Well we aren't all made out of money! Otherwise I would buy a decent hd in a second.

[Wa11y]

Originally posted by yoink
Well we aren't all made out of money! Otherwise I would buy a decent hd in a second.

Using a Win98 boot disk, boot into DOS and run the command FDISK. It's possible it's only got a 2GB formatted partition, and the other 13 are unformatted. Don't think that would make a difference to the BIOS, but one can never be sure.

I too have an 8KHA+, but I'm using whatever BIOS is the default on the board I bough, one of the late 2000 BIOSes. But I've not heard of problems with the BIOS detecting a large hard drive. I have a 45GB and 40GB drive on my mobo, and it detects both correctly. Perhaps you can use the BIOS settings to force it to 15GB?

[yoink]

ok, I checked, and i have the latest bios, 11/2/01. it says something like this:

IDE Primary Master -- Choices : None, Auto, Manual

Access Mode -- Choices : CHS, Large, LBA, Auto

.....and it seems with every combo of these choices, it still says 2112 MB capacity! I can't figure it out!

[turd]

did u check it with the maxiblast utility?

[Patchmaster]

This is a shot in the dark, but the last ATA/100 Maxtor drive I bought came from the factory in UDMA Mode 5 which was not compatible with my controller. I had to use the Maxblast utility to switch the drive to Mode 4 (if memory serves) before the controller would ID it properly. You also need to have an 80-wire connecter cable if you're using ATA/66 or ATA/100. You should set the BIOS to "auto" and "LBA". Also be sure the master/slave jumper setting is correct.

If you have room in the computer, it might be simpler to buy a secondary IDE controller. I've had good luck with Promise controllers. I'm sure they have an inexpensive one that will handle your drive without difficulty.

Here's some stuff from the Maxtor web site that probably will be of no assistance:

There are Five Major BIOS limitations:

Systems with BIOS dated prior to July 1994(504 MB Limitation).
Typically these BIOS will have a 504 megabyte (1,024 cylinder) limitation. Prior to this date, most manufacturers' BIOS did not provide the Logical Block Address (LBA) feature needed for proper translation. Some BIOS had LBA mode in the setup, but the feature did not work properly.


Systems with BIOS dated after July of 1994 (2.048 GB Limitation).
Typically, these BIOS provide support for hard drives with capacities larger than 504 megabytes. However, depending on the manufacturer's release date and version number, different limitations may be encountered. The major limitation that surfaces is the 4,093-4,096 cylinder limitation. This barrier is derived from the fact that some BIOS manufacturers implemented Logical Block Addressing (LBA) translation in their BIOS with a 4,093 - 4,096 cylinder limitation. System hangs would occur when the cylinder limitation threshold is exceeded. A system hang is defined when the operating system hangs during initial loading, either from floppy diskette or existing hard drives. If these symptoms of system hang occur or there are questions whether the system BIOS will support the drive, contact the system or motherboard manufacturer for assistance.


4.2 GB Limitation.
The maximum parameters at the 4.2 GB barrier are 8,190 cylinders, 16 heads and 63 sectors for a capacity of 4.2 GB. A system hang is defined when the operating system stops responding during initial loading, either from floppy diskette or existing hard drives. This can be caused by the BIOS reporting the number of heads to the operating system as 256 (100h). The register size DOS/Windows 95 uses for the head count has a capacity of two hex digits. This is equivalent to decimal values 255. If these symptoms of system hang occur or there are questions whether the system BIOS will support the drive, contact the system or motherboard manufacturer for assistance.


8.4 GB limitation.
The maximum parameters at the 8.4 GB barrier are 16,383 cylinders, 16 heads and 63 sectors for a capacity of 8.455 GB. To go beyond this boundary, a new extended INT 13 function is needed from the BIOS as a support feature for the drives. The BIOS listed below are all "CORE" BIOS that will support drives larger than 8.4 GB. Even though a BIOS is dated correctly or is the current version, it may not be able to support extended interrupt 13 because of modification done to the "CORE" of the BIOS from the motherboard manufacturer.


32 GB limitation.
This condition is caused by the Award BIOS inability to address hard drives greater than 32GB. Award has been made aware of this issue and has fixed their "core" BIOS as of 6/99. They are passing this information along to the motherboard manufacturers' that use their BIOS. Updates for the BIOS should be available soon from individual motherboard manufacturers' to correct this problem. The following are options to overcome this hang condition:
Please contact your motherboard manufacturer, not Award, for a BIOS update.
If your motherboard manufacturer does not have an update available, purchase the Maxtor Ultra ATA 100 adapter as an alternative solution. Maxtor Ultra ATA 100 "Where to Buy"

Install the Capacity limitation jumper (J46) and use the Maxblast Plus installation software to complete the installation. Please refer to hard drive Installation Instructions for location of this jumper or refer below for an illustration of jumper locations. If your system still hangs after installing the J46 jumper, please run the file JUMPON.EXE.

Click on picture to enlarge

(There was a picture here on the web site.)




Note: If the BIOS is believed to fall within the following guidelines but does not support the drive, contact the system or motherboard manufacturer for a potential upgrade to their product.

American Megatrends INC. (AMI): BIOS versions with a date of January 1, 1998 or newer.
Award: BIOS versions dated November 1997 or newer.
Phoenix: Version 4 Revision 6 or newer.
Note: Maxtor hard drives have a Cylinder Limitation Jumper to assist in the resolution of BIOS limitation issues. When this jumper is installed the MaxBlast Software must be used to complete the installation of the hard drive. Some Operating Systems will NOT function properly when the Capacity Limitation Jumper is applied (e.g., Windows NT, Linux, etc.).

[yoink]

Thanks for all the help everybody, it turns out the most simple advice did it. I checked my jumpers and they were on wrong. Boy am I red in the face! :( Anyway I would have guessed that the hdd would not have been recognized at all. All is well now, and I have all 15 gb at my disposal. You all have been a great resource. Keep up the good work!

Yoink

[ThePunkGeek]

is it windows 95a?