I have had a PC with Windows 8.1 for the past year or so with a small SSD holding the OS and a large 1TB Seagate HDD for additional storage. It always worked well until recently when I had to (due to unfortunate circumstances) do two clean reinstalls of Windows 8.1 on the SSD. For these reinstalls I did not disconnect my HDD figuring it was in a separate partition and all my data would remain.
Now, after the install, Windows does not recognize the disk as being a proper partition, in disk management it shows up as an uninitialized disk. I've tried running a downloaded TestDisk utility, which tells me the drive is 137GB in size (not the 1TB it's supposed to be). Upon analysis, it gives me a warning saying there might be issues with the LBA48 support, which I should enable. I've looked into LBA48 and it seems to be a common issue to cap out at exactly 137GB. I can't find anything about "enabling" it on Windows 8.1 though... all my research makes it seem like a problem no one has had since 2003.
Upon entering my BIOS (I have a Gigabyte motherboard) I see that the drive is detected as having only 137GB capacity there, too. I tried playing around with what little configuration options I had, but nothing seemed to fix the issue. The fact that even in BIOS the drive has the incorrect capacity makes it seem like it must be a motherboard issue, but I've used this drive with this motherboard for over a year with no problems, accessing the full 1TB of available storage.
I've downloaded SeaTools for their disk analysis, but all of their more intensive tests imply they might automatically try to fix the problem upon diagnosing it, and data might be lost. I would really like to avoid that if possible, there is data on this drive I was planning on keeping past the install.
Let me know if you have any suggestions, or need any more information from me.
Now, after the install, Windows does not recognize the disk as being a proper partition, in disk management it shows up as an uninitialized disk. I've tried running a downloaded TestDisk utility, which tells me the drive is 137GB in size (not the 1TB it's supposed to be). Upon analysis, it gives me a warning saying there might be issues with the LBA48 support, which I should enable. I've looked into LBA48 and it seems to be a common issue to cap out at exactly 137GB. I can't find anything about "enabling" it on Windows 8.1 though... all my research makes it seem like a problem no one has had since 2003.
Upon entering my BIOS (I have a Gigabyte motherboard) I see that the drive is detected as having only 137GB capacity there, too. I tried playing around with what little configuration options I had, but nothing seemed to fix the issue. The fact that even in BIOS the drive has the incorrect capacity makes it seem like it must be a motherboard issue, but I've used this drive with this motherboard for over a year with no problems, accessing the full 1TB of available storage.
I've downloaded SeaTools for their disk analysis, but all of their more intensive tests imply they might automatically try to fix the problem upon diagnosing it, and data might be lost. I would really like to avoid that if possible, there is data on this drive I was planning on keeping past the install.
Let me know if you have any suggestions, or need any more information from me.
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