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[silversurfer44]

I have an IDE 160 gig harddrive that will only report 128 gigs. This is with either Windows or Linux. I have read about certain BIOS's giving this effect, but that is going back quite awhile. I had this drive as my backup storage and it was reporting the full 160 gigs less a few megs so I know it was OK.
I suppose I just need someone to agree with me that it is more use as a paper weight now. I can't trust it with important data. It is a Seagate something or other, I can't see the label at the moment.

Thank You in advance.

[UncleUB]

Usually you lose about 10% of your total drive capacity due to formatting..

You can pick up a Seagate 500GB 7200rpm on Ebuyer for £30.

http://www.ebuyer.com/252857-seagate-500gb-3-5-barracuda-sata-iii-6gb-s-hard-drive-7200rpm-16mb-cache-st3500413as

Plenty of others to choose from,and for around £30.

[roseway]

It would be interesting to see what the BIOS says its capacity is. It could just be something in the BIOS setup.

But on the other hand, as Phil says, hard disks are so cheap that it isn't worth taking a risk with a dubious drive. If it's for backup, you can get a 2 TB USB2 drive for £55: http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4906663/art/western-digital/wd-elements-desktop-2-tb.html?srcid=369

[silversurfer44]

Thanks for the replies. I am not beyond replacing the drive as I know they are cheap these days. I also know that there is a certain overhead in the formatting but not 32 gig.
At the moment the drive is in an external enclosure and the only machine I would trust putting it in is in use for something else. But fair to say it has been reported at 3 different capacities in three different machines. In the enclosure which is a USB connection it is constantly reported as 128 gigs.
There is a write up about BIOS settings which I will have to look up.

[oldfogy]

Usually you lose about 10% of your total drive capacity due to formatting..

A more accurate figure is more like 13%, but for round figures yes 10% is as good as anything to work on.

Have you "double" checked there are no hidden partitions or marked bad sectors?
(Once a sector is marked bad, then it is no longer counted toward the size of the HDD)

Also, you may want to download the Seagate software to "Low Level Format" or/and check the drive.
A low level format will replace everything on the drive making it is good as when it was new.
One if for checking the drive and the other is the formatting tools.

Seagate DiscWizard
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=DiscWizard&vgnextoid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

&

Seagate SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/seatooldreg

[silversurfer44]

Thank you OF I have been to the site. I have done some work with an old floppy & Compaq computer that I have. I manged to erase the disk so to speak. The software is for a Maxtor drive but it seemed to improve things. I have gained another 20 gigs. As you suggest I think some sectors have been marked as bad at some time. Possibly when it died with my backup data on it.
As for the loss of 10%, I was taught to multiply the stated volume by 0.93 and that would be near enough the usable volume. Don't forget these figures of 10% and 0.93 were about when a 40meg drive was pretty darned big.
Now when you get to 500 gigs and stuff 10% is quite a chunk of the volume don't you think?
I think the main thing here is to not just use things like a hard-drive for a doorstop unless it's really written off.

[oldfogy]

The software is for a Maxtor (Maxtor is now Seagate)
http://www.maxtor.com/home-en-us.html

Make sure you run the SeaTools program again after formatting.

TBH if the quick check passes then in the past I have always found the full check also to pass.

Likewise if the quick check fails I have always found it a waste of time trying to run the full check because at the end of what might be a long time will only tell you to either contact your IT person or format it.

And yes you are right even a 160GB HDD can still serve a useful purpose, IE, just for holding backups!

[exo]

As mentioned earlier, you need to check the capacity as shown in the BIOS.
Offhand, I am not certain how the BIOS will show an external USB drive.............if at all, depends on the motherboard.
Can you fit internally to see how it is reported if necessary.

You have not mentioned your operating system but early versions of XP required 48 bit LBA support.
These may be of interest.
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=202313&NewLang=en

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013

exo

[silversurfer44]

I have only one machine vacant out of three that are working Exo. It is a rather old Compaq desktop, don't as the specs 'cause I can't remember but it's one of those you can stand on to reach the top shelf 
Anyways it reports the drive as approx 6800 megs. Mind you it says that for anything I put in it. The operating system is Linux at the moment but it does change. I did have a Windows system on it once but soon went back to Linux.

Thanks for the update OF I didn't know Maxtor had been swallowed up with Seagate.
The Maxtor software wouldn't format the drive until I had put fat32 on it. Then it would erase the drive and give me the extra gigs back although It wouldn't format it again. I have just put the drive back in the enclosure and I am in the process of formatting to EXT4. I putting it through a bad block test  it's already been checking for about 14 hours. It hasn't thrown a wobbly yet 

All in all I think I will settle for the 137 gigs I have and see how it goes.

[oldfogy]

14 hours?

Obviously depending on the speed of the processor etc, but TBH it sounds as if it has hit and sticking back at the bad part of the drive, which somehow with the test software you managed to clear those problems.

If this is the case, until you run a low level format to return it the factory condition then you will constantly have the problem of corrupt segments.
(A low level format is supposed to be able to repair the bad sectors)

The other thing to try on the Seagate site is to type in the serial or model number of the drive then try to find the software to carry out the format.

Failing that if you use any of the "Hirons" disc's, they usually contain that type of software.
(A normal format will not solve the problem)

[silversurfer44]

I had a look at the Seagate site and noticed they had a download for a floppy. The only problem was the size of the file is 1.5 megs
There is one for a cd but I haven't got any, only dvds and they are no good for a cd reader.
I've now got Windows formating the disk after I erased it again with the Maxtor floppy prog.
As a matter of interest the BIOS reports the drive as 6542.71M
When I ran fdisk from Windows 98 start up disk I found an odd partition. So deleted that an I am in the process of formatting it again. Although Windows seems to be struggling. It keeps saying trying to recover #### allocation unit. Not having worked with Windows at this level for a long time I don't know what I'm looking at so I'll leave it to do its thing.

[oldfogy]

Although Windows seems to be struggling. It keeps saying trying to recover #### allocation unit

If this is the case, until you run a low level format to return it the factory condition then you will constantly have the problem of corrupt segments.

Trying to be as polite as possible, if you can't do the low level format "give it up"
Windows will just re-mark the segments a s being bad and you will be back to square one.

[silversurfer44]

I do understand what you are saying OF, but unless I can magic a CD out of thin air I'm stuck at the moment. The postings that I made were for information for anyone. I don't know if you read my last posting fully, in particular about the download-able floppy program. How does one fit 1.5 megs onto a 1.44 meg floppy disk?
Don't worry about being polite, I can take it. Mind I might give it back though.
Thanks all the same.

It's not all that important, I would just like to get something out of it besides a paper weight.

[oldfogy]

Yes the download might be 1.5 MB but that also takes into account the instructions of how to create the actual floppy disc.
The amount actually transferred onto the floppy is well under 1.5 MB.

Sorry but it's been some time since I created one I have forgotten the actual process.

[silversurfer44]

Thank you O wise one. I had forgotten I was working with Windows tackle. Floppy has been made for me. It would seem I am not capable of un-archiving a file, it has to be done for me. A full disk erase is now underway. I am impressed with the information the program has come with.