2TB HDD reading as 100 MB

razspaz_10

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Mar 30, 2014
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I am running a Z68XP-UD3 mobo with 8 mg ram, 120 SSD with 2 60 gig SSD in sata 3that I have just installed to put some games on, I have a 2 TB HDD that has just started to read as a 100mb as my E drive. Before putting in the two 60 gig SSD this drive was registering the correct size. The 60's are working fine by themselves. What have I done wrong. Thanks
 
Solution
Did you by any chance use a cloning software to copy data from the 2TB? Sometimes this copies the identification number and causes weird bugs.

Even if you didn't, Try going into Disk Management and see if you can spot your drive their. If it does show up try and reformat it.

Another solution might be to update all of the software on all of your drives and possibly even your bios, although this can be difficult if it is your first time and a backup is recommended.

Brennen1350

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Sep 9, 2013
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"What have I done wrong"
This should be the name of every tech support website ever.

One thing to note is that sometimes Windows OS's make small 100mb partitions on drives for boot loading purposes and also for transferring purposes. It could be possible that your 2 TB is not being recognized at all and this is just one of Windows little devils. Taking out your 2 TB and seeing if the drive is still their would be an accurate test.

I would also check to see if the hard drive is being registered by your bios, and if it is whether or not it is also saying 100 MB. To do this you need to go into your bios and look around until you find your hard drives. I would give more accurate instructions but bios's are sadly not standardized in the slightest.

Otherwise you ran into a Logical Block Addressing bug from your hard drive switching or some other voodoo magic, although this bug normally sets the size to 32 MB and I've never seen it set to a 100 MB version which is why I suggested the other check first.

If it is a LBA bug then I have to warn you that all the fixes I know of could possibly lose all data if not implemented correctly.

One quick fix is to go into your bios settings, find your hard drive and change it's settings to LBA. Not to sure where this is in GIGABYTE BIOS's so it may take some digging.

Another option is to go into "diskpart" and manually change it to it's native size using the diskpart command prompt. Be warned though this will delete everything off of the drive.

type "list disk" (without the quotes)
"select disk x" (where x is the disk with 100mb on it.)
"clean"
"create primary partition"
"format fs=ntfs quick"
"select partition 1"
"assign"


There is also multiple software applications designed to fix this (I haven't used any so I won't provide links) and you may also be able to get by with the generic Hard drive repair tools that Western Digital and Samsung both produce that usually come with your HDD.

Personally when I had this problem the BIOS setting trick fixed it for me so I don't know of any software of the top of my head.
 

razspaz_10

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Mar 30, 2014
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Cheers, the 2TB shows up in my computer when connected via USB but not when connected straight to MOBO. All data was lost in the HDD, oh well that's what discs are for. LOL The 100mb was a partition from one SSD, that's fixed now for the 2TB. Could it be cable or power connection?
 

razspaz_10

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Mar 30, 2014
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When my two 60 gig SSD's are connected my 2 TB isn't picked up, however my system wants to set up RAID with my 120 SSD and 2 TB HDD. If I don't do that I go to the loading OS and that's as far is it goes. When I remove my two 60's my 2TB is picked up and works just fine.??
 

Brennen1350

Honorable
Sep 9, 2013
18
0
10,520
Did you by any chance use a cloning software to copy data from the 2TB? Sometimes this copies the identification number and causes weird bugs.

Even if you didn't, Try going into Disk Management and see if you can spot your drive their. If it does show up try and reformat it.

Another solution might be to update all of the software on all of your drives and possibly even your bios, although this can be difficult if it is your first time and a backup is recommended.
 
Solution