won't detect SATA...

[KuriousJorj]

Hey folks!

Well I've upgraded my system (gigabyte board, AMD64 3000, 1GB DDR, Ati Radeon 3600XT).

Also got a 250GB SATA to use as a storage drive for my video data... I use a regular IDE for my OS (Win2K). (NOTE: from other thread, I DID in fact have to reinstall the OS, though I didn't reformat anything... should have, though, as I had to reinstall everything anyhow)

But I can't detect my SATA drive...

Am currently upgrading the BIOS, just in case.

I'm new to using SATA... Does anyone know what sort of thing might cause this?

thanks!

BJ

 

[KuriousJorj]

Well, I just recieved an identical WD 2500JD SATA drive and it works fine! No problems whatsoever-- this means the 'old' (ie, BRAND NEW) Western Digital drive from Newegg WAS FAULTY!!!

Can you imagine that crap?!? A brand new drive that didn't even work!!! Think of all the hassle I could've saved!

(BTW, the new, working drive is only 230GB, though it's supposed to be 250GB.)

thanks for your help, friends!

 

[caffeinated]

KuriousJorj,

Hard drive manufacturers define 1 gigabyte as exactly 1,000,000,000 bytes. By their definition, a 250BG hard drive is exactly 250,000,000,000 bytes. The true definition of 1 gigabyte is actually 1,073,741,824 bytes:

1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte
1024 kilobytes = 1 megabyte
1024 megabytes = 1 gigabyte

To obtain the true size in gigabytes of a 250BG hard drive you must divide the manufacturer's size in bytes by the number of bytes in a gigabyte:

250,000,000,000/1,073,741,824 = 232.8

As such, the actual reported size in gigabytes will always be smaller than the manufacturer's advertised size.