lost memory in new HDD

[jjkneisl]

:eek: I am currently running XP Pro SP2, on a Pentium 4 System at 3.2 MHz, 2GB RAM, and I just installed a new 400GB HDD, It's jumpered to Slave, and works, but the Computer management on my computer only recognizes it at 157GB, So I did a Quick Format on it again, and it went down to 147GB available. Where did 253 GB Go???:confused: And How do I get it back, I have no problems doing anything to this drive as nothing is stored on it, for a day or so untill I need the storage and would love to clean up my other Hard Drive. Also, along the same line, I have an external HDD, It is a USB HDD, works great, 180 GB, while I was in Computer Management I did a Partition as I wanted to make sure I had Protected what I had to not get lost, Now all on that disk is safe, but unreachable?? Now it only reads as a 15 GB and that was all that was available before, so I know my 165 GB is there somewhere, how do I fix that?
I am new to this, so If you need more information, just ask, I Thank you in advance for your replies.

[Hagar]

It would be helpful if you can post a picture of your Disk Management. Make it with the USB drive connected.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_management.htm

[jjkneisl]

Hopefully these are readable for you. New volume R is my new hard drive, my USB is iomega F, I did rename it from New Volume F since the partition. Thanks for your help.

[Hagar]

Are those pictures readable to you? If not, they will not be for anybody else either. I can only see some 'icons' of 69x52 pixels.
It also appears to be taken with a camera? Here is a guide for screen capture. http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/general/ht/winscreenshot.htm

[jjkneisl]

http://mynewhome.org/john_j_kneisl_051.htm http://mynewhome.org/john_j_kneisl_051.htm

is a url to the pictures. every time that I try It says I am using way to big of a file, every time I shrink the size, it becomes un readable.

Hopefully you can read it this way. Thanks again.

[jjkneisl]

yes, I did take them with a camera :) The last pic on the link is a prt Scr. Thanks for that Info, I had never used that b4

[mjc]

Have you read the link on screenshots?

While large enough to read, those pics still are not quite clear enough to read easily.

[Hagar]

OK, I can read those pictures now.
Disk 2 (R) is found to be 149.05 GB, supposed to be 400 GB. There is no explanation I know of other than a defective disk.

Disk 1 (F) iomega, 31.49 GB Dynamic partition. Many disks has a jumper to limit the size to 32 GB, but that does not happen by itself on an external drive.
Having a Dynamic partition on an external disk is not ideal I guess, but it cannot explain the size difference.

Maybe Paul has some comments?

[mjc]

About the only thing I can think of (other than hardware problems) is that SP2 is not properly installed...but the sizes you've listed don't match the possible size limits of non-SP2 XP. Was this a version of XP with SP2 already applied or did you have to install SP2?

Another question...does the BIOS properly report the size of the drive?

[jjkneisl]

SP2 was installed as soon as it came out. Like I mentioned, when I hooked up the 180GB external, it knew it right away, and worked flawlessly until i partitioned. BTW, any idea how to find that information that we know is there?
Should I try the internall HDD on another computer?

[Paul Komski]

I do have some comments because (a) things don't square up and (b) the difference between GigaBytes and GibiBytes needs to be fully comprehended to avoid any confusion. The same partition may appear to have a different size when viewed from two different perspectives - when both differing values are ACTUALLY CORRECT. The conversion factor is 1.024^3 =1.073

Device Manager shows three hard drives: Two WDs (200 = C and 160 USB = R) and One Samsung (400).

Only two of these show normally in Disk Management.
200 GB = 186.31 * 1.073 (So this is the normal C Drive)
160 GB = 149.05 * 1.073 (So this is the normal R Drive; the external USB)

The 400 Samsung that shows in Device Mangement does not seem to appear at all in Disk Management - unless this is somehow being crazily reported as an Iomega and a Dynamic Disk at that.

We have been told that for the 400 "my computer only recognizes it at 157GB, So I did a Quick Format on it again, and it went down to 147GB available". Now that is strange because 157 = 147 * 1.073 so I would suspect that is the "same value" being read as Giga or Gibi bytes and there had been no change in the reported size. However neither a 147 nor a 157 sized drive is shown in the various screenshots.

If, as appears, the 400 appears in Device Manager but not in Disk Manager then most likely it is faulty or wrongly jumpered. A bad PCB could easily cause this.

This doesn't appear to be a 48bit LBA problem because (unless it has DDO on it) the 200gig drive has its size correctly displayed.

Try to simplify things to clarify what is going on. If the Card Reader is not internal remove it. Remove both the 400 and the USB external and then temporarily swap the 400 (jumpered as master) for the 160 in the enclosure and see how it then gets reported, when reattached in the enclosure.

Is there actually an Iomega Drive on this PC?

Finally when you say "It is a USB HDD, works great, 180 GB" this really confuses the issue since there is neither any sign of 180 anywhere or of the 15 it was supposed to have converted to.

It's only be simplifing things that I can get my head round things and then add back devices one by one.

[jjkneisl]

I think I did gain some ground and clearified one thing up, In thinking I had simplified something, I truely confused myself. My Computer must have recognized my new hard drive as F? I was so used to my USB Hard Drive as F, I named it Iomega afterwords and confusing myself (and I think all of you) after that point.
http://mynewhome.org/john_j_kneisl_052.htmhttp://mynewhome.org/john_j_kneisl_052.htm
this is what my screen looked like after I unplugged the USB Hard Drive (the real Iomega) and the Card Reader

after that Tried what paul mentioned (setting up the new Hard Drive as the Master) and got "Reboot and select proper.... So now I have it jumpered as a cable select and have this now
http://mynewhome.org/john_j_kneisl_053.htm

I am not touching anything untill you have a suggestion as to avoid any confusion :)

[Paul Komski]

Suggest you call it Samsung and not Iomega.

Since you have nothing of importance on the 400 - suggest you convert it back to a Basic and not a Dynamic Disk (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044) and then repartition/reformat. THIS DOES ASSUME THAT YOU DO THIS TO THE 400 and not to your 160 (the drive originally in the external enclosure).

BTW WinXP tends to remember drive letters for fixed drives but is much more giddy about re-assigning letters to external drives and that makes them switch around a lot. If you want a good chance that an external will retain its drive letter give it a letter way up the alphabet like X or Y so that nothing else is likelty to want to grab that letter.

And yes I can see that referring to drives by drive lettering gets confusing. The Linux system is unequivocal but with windows either refer to drives by name or size or some other ID other than a drive letter.

[jjkneisl]

I Thank you so much! I now have 372.61GB available to me on my new hard drive. Your math works, I am happy.

I plugged in my Iomega HDD, It is labeled "new volume (R)" I had all but 30 GB Left on this and I did a quick format of it (when I thought it was my new hard drive) Is there any way for me to retrieve that painlessly, or would it be quicker for me to play all the tapes back into it (50 hrs or so), should I consider this stuff gone, and I know somewhere on that disk is another 30 GB blank, how do I find that?
http://mynewhome.org/john_j_kneisl_054.htm

Thanks again, I will smile with or without the 150 GB that I might have lost, at least it's all working.