8 GB Hard drive limit & Error on OS Installtion

[mganesan]

Hi;

Upon encountering a strange problem with my Toshiba Satellite M30X-114 (one year old model-Notebook) I formatted the 40GB Hard drive using external USB enclosure and tried to reinstall the OS(Win XP). Unfortuantely I am unable to see more than 8GB disk space and when I try to install OS, I get error message stating that drive may be defective. I tried with another 100GB and there also same problem. Then I partitioned 40GB to some numbers of 7GB drives(5x7GB) and even then I see only one drive and the OS never gets installed. Do I have a way around. Being a Laptop, I see minimal interfaces in BIOS screen.

Your great help would be appreciated

[123456]

Hmm...Try writing zero's to the drive. I'm not sure of any utilities that does that though, but I know there are a lot out there.

[Rick]

Are you sure that external drive enclosure supports large hard drives ?
What O/S are you using to boot and format with ?

[Paul Komski]

If you are trying to install an OS onto the external you are doomed to failure I would think. You can use these external HDDs from Windows for storage and then Windows (on a one year old laptop) will see the full capacity OK.

Do you have a full WinXP installation CD or are there restore disks or did you by any chance rub out any restore partition on the HDD?

[mganesan]

Well, Thanks for your response. In fact I used as an external drive, just for formatting to make sure that I erased all corrupted files(using other PC loaded with XP) afterwards, I put back the drive in the notebook. I used Win XP CDs that were part of the laptop shipped(restore version, not full version). I hope I answered to your questions. Thanks for your views.

[Paul Komski]

You should have achieved a good result if you had used the WinXP's disk management from within Windows or, indeed, from its installation CD. To erase or write zeros to a drive requires a special utility. A "Quick" Windows format simply deletes all files but doesn't regorganise any of the partition's metadata in the way a full format does.

You don't say which application you used to do the formatting but its possible it had problems with the USB interface and/or any int13 calls.

A good partitioning utility such as BiNG or Partition Magic should have effectively formatted the drive properly. BiNG certainly has the proper USB drivers and can see drives of very large capacities.

The size of a partition is dependent on the partitioning aspect and not the formatting aspect of initialising a hard drive partition.

[mganesan]

Hi; Thanks again for your views; Well, I formatted using partition magic 7 and I have completed removed all files.
I also tried a new hard drive(brand new) yet the PC did not recognize the full capacity of the drive(100GB).
Can you throw further light to my problems.

[mjc]

What capacity did it recognize?

[mganesan]

Just 7.8GB (even after a few formatting using separate PC as a USB Hard drive and then put back as master drive)


Thanks

[Paul Komski]

What is the make and model of the laptop.

[PrntRhd]

Toshiba Satellite M30X-114
From post 1

[Paul Komski]

Thanks PrntRhd - my goof. I had meant to find out more about the USB enclosure if possible.

Does the laptop itself see all the drive in its Disk Management Section; (enter DiskMgmt.msc into the run box)?

If so and there is simply a small partition in it with the remaining space unallocated I would reformat the drive using BiNG (in my sig) from a boot floppy or boot CD and do it from the laptop itself and forget about the USB enclosure. That will take the USB's own firmware out of the equation; firmware that may only be capable (as already indicated) of seeing a small drive.

[mganesan]

Hi Paul;

Can you please say more on entering "DiskMgmt.msc". Iam left with lifeless PC and so from where I can enter this command. Further I would like to inform that once I made five partitions (keeping all less than 8GB) using ext USB upon using Partition Magic and (when reinserted as master drive of notebook) yet the Win XP OS does not see the remaing disk partitions except for the one 7.8GB) where it stops saying that the disk may be corrupted. I know the 40GB is very stable and not corrupted when I see the contents in ext USB enclosure and I see full capacity in the divisions that I made.

[Paul Komski]

(enter DiskMgmt.msc into the run box)The run box is accessed directly from the Start Button - but this assumed of course that you could get into windows in the first place. So the basic problem is to use the reinstallation CD/CDs effectively.

I havent yet been able to find the information from the Toshiba web site of how to go about a restore for your system - maybe you have the information. When you say "yet the Win XP OS does not see the remaing disk partitions" this sounds like you have booted into WinXP but the WinXP OS never runs from restoration CDs.

There are also three basic types of reinstallation CDs. (1) Some manufacturers provide a factory image of the installation which needs to be restored; this reinstates your system (by copying a clone from the CD to the HDD) but doesnt go through a formal installation process. (2) Other manufacturers provide a proprietary Windows Installation CD; this starts a formal Windows installation which begins with (text mode) silver writing on blue screens as files are copied to the hard drive. (3) A special boot CD which initiates restoring a factory image held on a special hidden hard drive partition.

We need to know which of the three sorts applies in your case but it sounds likely to be the first one. Such proprietary restore CDs either need a blank CD (no partitions) or will only do the installation into whatever active partition exists on the drive. If that was a 7.8gig partition then it would look no further during the restore process.

I would also desist from accessing the drive from a USB enclosure; it only complicates things. The drive should be accessible (from the laptop) with BiNG (in my sig) for example running Maintenance Mode from a boot floppy or boot CD as appropriate. Use it to delete all partitions and then try booting to the restore CD.

If there was a restore partition which can no longer be accessed because of all the formatting and all you have is a boot CD (type 3 above) and not a restore CD then you will need to obtain the correct CD(s) from Toshiba.

3 Links from Toshiba:
http://askiris.toshiba.com/ToshibaSupportSite/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=ex&bbid=bb53&url=&dialogID=3158352&stateId=0%200%203156633
http://askiris.toshiba.com/ToshibaSupportSite/dynamickc.do?externalId=108089xml&sliceId=&command=show&forward=nonthreadedKC&kcId=108089xml
http://askiris.toshiba.com/ToshibaSupportSite/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=806477xml&sliceId=&dialogID=3158352&stateId=0%200%203156633
all taken from ...
http://askiris.toshiba.com/ToshibaSupportSite/search.do?languages=&rwTarget=%2FrfPlayerWidget.do&searchMode=GuidedSearch&searchString=recovery+cd&product=SG_TAIS_Satellite_1&document=DT_TAIS&cmd=search&productFamily=&contextType=gs

[mganesan]

Hi, Paul ;

Thank you for your detailed reply. It looks great. I will try this out and report of any issues.

Have a nice day