At wits end - can't get 200gb HD to read over 137gb 1

[lhousesoccer]

Hi - I'm generally not technically capable with computers, but I usually do OK and it's been enough to get by but I'm beyond my own knowledge now and need help. I just bought a Maxtor 6L200P0 200gb internal harddrive. I have a Gateway P4 (bought in 2002) running Windows XP Home Edition, with Service Pack 2 installed.

My computer is only showing this new drive as 137gb of free space. When I enter the BIOS setup, it too shows my new drive as being 137,447MB. I have searched high and low on the internet for solutions, ran them all, to no avail. This is what I have done.

1. I have tried to use partioning software to break the drive into two 100gb spaces, but I can't because the software says there is only 137gb available to partion !

2. I have followed instructions in Microsoft support article 303013

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013/en-us,

which is supposed to help you increase the capacity of my hard disk to more than the current 137 gigabyte (GB) limit. It says to first check to see if my ATAPI.sys file is version 5.1.2600.1135. It is not. Mine is version 5.1.2600.2180. So it says if it's not, then I must install the hotfix in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 331958. When I downloaded and ran this hotfix, nothing happened and my drive still sits at 137gb.

3. I have downloaded and run a program from the Maxtor webiste called the Maxtor Big Drive Enabler, but when I run it this message comes up "Support is currently enabled for 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) for ATAPI disk drives. You do not need to run this registry update".

4. I have downloaded and ran the Intel Application accelerator, which provides 48-Bit LBA compliant ATA/ATAPI controller drivers (IntelATA.mpd) and replaces the Windows 98/Me, 2000 and XP ATA controller drivers (ESDI_506.PDR). It did not work.

I'm totally at a loss now. Maybe it's not a big deal, since I still have the original 40gb hd, and have now tripled that space with my "137gb" harddrive. But, I bought a 200gb drive, and I just would like to have that space available ! I feel like I'm getting ripped off here !

I really hope someone can tell me in fairly plain english how to fix my problem. There must be a solution - I just can't seem to find it.

Thanks so much.

 

[rvnguy]

try using the maxtor utils maxblast either on a cd that came with the HD or download at:

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...age/DiamondMax Family/Utilities&downloadID=57

Zero the drive out to eliminate all formatting and prepare as a bare metal drive.

Use the utility to enable drive as a additional data volume and select the format option (FAT32 or NTFS) using all avaliable space. This should get you what you are seeking.

You might also check the BIOS version and if there are limitations as to drive size within the BIOS.....an updated BIOS might be available,

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[Freestone]

When I enter the BIOS setup, it too shows my new drive as being 137,447MB

You must get your motherboard's BIOS updated to recognize the full drive capacity before XP will be able to see it too.

XP with SP2 is already capable of supporting the full capacity with no additional patching or other utilities.

See

http://www.48bitlba.com/index.htm

for more information.

 

[lhousesoccer]

Freestone ..... Sorry for sounding stupid, but how do I update my BIOS ? I went to the Gateway website and put in my computer's serial number. This brings up a list of all patches, updates etc available for my computer.

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/mydl.asp?tab=MY&os=Windows XP

There is one BIOS download available for my computer apparently, called 7513332.exe - BIOS Update for the El Paso 2 Motherboard , version PT84510A.15A.0007.P04.

However, the date on this is 12/16/2002. I bought my computer in March of 2002. Would this BIOS update, just 9 months later, be the one I need to enable recognition of the full drive capacity ?

Thanks.

 

[Freestone]

Here is an excerpt from the readme.txt file in the zip file 7513332.exe:

"Added 48-bit LBA support.
Added PARTIES support for 48-bit LBA drives."

So yes, it looks as if this is the update you want. Follow the directions given in the readme.txt file

 

[lhousesoccer]

Hi Freestone :

Thanks for the reply again. I downloaded the BIOS update, and followed the instructions to the "tee" in the readme.txt file. It tells me to download the file, run it (which extracts a number of other files to the C:\cabs\7513332 folder. It then says to copy these 17 files to a pre-formatted IMB 3.5 floppy and restart the computer with the floppy in. The disk should then run an Intel Flash Memory update utility and it says I should then follow the directions in that utility.

Here's the problem :

1) For some reason, when I copied the 17 files to the floppy, only 15 copied. Two of them weren't showing on the disk. These were "autoexec.bat" and "command.exe". I tried to individually copy and paste them to the disk, and they would seem to copy, but when I hit F5 to refresh the disk they would disappear.

2) Anyways, thinking that maybe they were actually there but they were hidden files or something, I restarted the computer anyways with the floppy in. Instead of the update utility program starting, I got a "Non-system disk error".

I'm not sure what to do from here. It won't seem to boot off this disk that I created using the downloaded files, even though I followed the instructions exactly. Hope you can help.

FYI - these are the 17 files extracted from the BIOS update file I downloaded from the Gateway website :

AUTOEXEC.bat (MS-DOS Batch File, 1kb)
BEEP.exe (MS-DOS Application, 1kb)
BIOS.rec (REC file, 65 kb)
COMMAND.exe(MS-DOS Application, 92 kb)
IFLASH.exe (Application, 213 kb)
IO.sys (System File, 218 kb)
MSDOS.sys (System File, 0 kb)
P04-0007.BBO (BBO File, 65 kb)
P04-0007.BI1 (BI1 File, 65 kb)
P04-0007.BI2 (BI2 File, 65 kb)
P04-0007.BI3 (BI3 File, 65 kb)
P04-0007.BI4 (BI4 File, 65 kb)
P04-0007.BI5 (BI5 File, 65 kb)
P04-0007.BIO (BIO File, 65 kb)
P04-0007.SBB (SBB File, 2 kb)
P04-0007.SIG (SIG File, 2 kb)
Readme.txt (Text Document, 6 kb)

As I said, the first and the fourth files don't actually appear on the floppy, even though I copied them there. Any thoughts ?

Thanks so much.

Shawn

 

[cdogg]

Try a different floppy (especially if the last one wasn't new to begin with). Make sure it's completely blank before copying the files over. Turn off the setting to "Hide protected operating system files" in Windows (google search it if you're not sure where that's at). When selecting files with CTRL-A, you can then right-click the selection and choosed "Send To 3 1/2 Floppy (A".

You should verify that the files autoexec.bat and command.exe are on the floppy. They shouldn't "disappear" like you described.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Freestone]

The files are present, but as cdogg mentioned, the setting "Hide protected operating system files" is probably hiding the files on you.

But that isn't the only problem. As you discovered, when copied to a floppy, the floppy is not bootable.

Looking at the download page,

http://support.gateway.com/support/..., version PT84510A.15A.0007.P04&uid=116146168

, there is a note which reads:

"Note: When updating your computer's BIOS, the update process fails if you use a floppy disk formatted in Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows NT®, or Windows XP. Instead, use a new IBM pre-formatted disk. Refer to Readme.txt file for more details."

So basically Gateway is assuming the diskette you are using is a system formatted diskette. I did a little delving into the supplied COMMAND.COM in the zip file and it looks like it is MS-DOS 7.0, which I have found to be "included with Windows95" (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS)

All that doesn't help you. So what you can try is this:

o Go to

http://www.bootdisk.com/

o Download the file Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing
o Create the bootdisk from the above downloaded file
o From the extracted flies from the BIOS update, copy the following 14 files to the diskette:

AUTOEXEC.bat
BEEP.exe
BIOS.rec
IFLASH.exe
P04-0007.BBO
P04-0007.BI1
P04-0007.BI2
P04-0007.BI3
P04-0007.BI4
P04-0007.BI5
P04-0007.BIO
P04-0007.SBB
P04-0007.SIG
Readme.txt

DO NOT COPY:
COMMAND.exe <== especially don't copy this one!!!
IO.sys
MSDOS.sys

I for one hate flashing from diskette. Make very sure the diskette you are using is fully readable and contains no errors once you've created it and copied all the files. I don't know what media integrity checks Gateway makes prior to the flashing process. One way to check the diskette is readable is to open a command prompt and issue the command diskcopy a: a: This will read all sectors on the diskette and will fail if it encounters a read error.

As I said, this should work when you boot with the created diskette. But I have no way to test this. A bad flash can render a motherboard useless. I don't say this to scare you, but just to make you aware of inherent risks when flashing any motherboard's BIOS.

An alternative to all this would be to buy an add-on IDE controller card that provides the 48-bit LBA support you need and abandon your motherboard's IDE adapters.

 

[lhousesoccer]

Freestone .... you're a genius. It worked. I downloaded the BIOS utility from bootdisk.com, formatted the floppy, copied the 14 files onto it and rebooted my computer. From there I followed the BIOS update instructions in the readme file from Gateway and voila ! My 200gb harddrive, that WAS reading 127gb, is now reading 189gb !!! Thank you Thank you Thank you !!! I'm not sure why it's still only 189 instead of 200, but it's better than 127 !

You know, I called Gateway 12 separate times since buying this Maxtor harddrive from them 2 weeks ago, spoke with 12 different "technical support people" and not ONE of them could help me. What a bunch of useless pricks. Thank God for support sites like this and people like you who take their own time to help people they don't even know to figure things out like this.

Thanks so much again. I really appreciate it !

Shawn

 

[rvnguy]

Glad that you got it corrected.....

Thanks for posting back with your solution as this helps others in the community.

The 189GB issue is due to the drive being sized in bytes and there are 200GB in bytes.

But the system uses 1024 Bytes as a unit and so forth.

For GB size this equates to approx 94% of stated byte size

or 200*0.94=188

Hope this helps

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[cdogg]

Shawn,

Glad you made your way into our community here.

As rvnguy pointed out with a rough formula, you lose about 6% due to the following math:

1024 Bytes = 1KB
1024 KB = 1MB
...etc...

1,073,741,824 Bytes = 1GB

The catch is that manufacturers tell you that it's a 200GB drive, but the GB they are talking about is 1,000,000,000 Bytes. From above, we see that's not true.

200,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 = 186.26


At least you can rest knowing that everyone has to put up with that bull, and it's not just you!

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Freestone]

Shawn,

I'm glad that the flash worked for you! I'm always a bit uneasy suggesting a flash that is outside of the manufacturer's supplied fixes/files, but in this case, there was no choice.

I second rvnguy's thank you for reporting back your success. It goes a long way in helping others in the future.

rvnguy and cdogg have explained the 189GB vs. 200GB size difference. It all boils down to advertising. If two companies offer the same drive at the same price, but one offers it saying 189GB and the other 200GB, which one do you think the majority, if not all, will pick?

Dell a.k.a. Freestone ( and yes, that is my first name )