I just built my latest PC. I have a Seagate Barracude 7200.10 320GB HD and a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 motherboard. For some reason the BIOS only recognizes the capactiy of the HD as 300GB. When I try to format it while setting up Windows XP, it only registers 296GB. I can't figure out if there are BIOS limitations on HD size or if I'm somehow setup wrong. I'm connected using an SATA cable to my motherboard. Thanks in advance to anyone with suggestions or answers!
1Tanker
Splendid
- Apr 28, 2006
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I have the same drive, and my BIOS detects it as a 320GB drive, but Windows only calls it 298GB. That's standard as Windows sees 1kB as 1024B's, but HD manufacturers class 1kB as 1000B's. I'm not sure why your BIOS is seeing it as 300, but that doesn't matter, as long as Windows is seeing it at the correct size...which should be 298. I don't think the absence of 2GB is worth worrying about. GL
Sorry, Windows is actually reporting it as 286GB, not 296GB. I would've considered anything from ~296-300 normal, but ~286 equates to what Windows usually reports "300GB" drives as. I'm not that concerned about 10GB in the grand scheme of things, but it just seems odd that everything seems to think that the drive is 300GB.
Oh yeah, thanks Mobius for your attempt at belittling me. The fact that you take the time to search boards like this for the chance to flex your message board "muscles" says quite a bit about your social skills. It also shows me that your more then likely incapable of stepping up to someone in real life; you live your tough guy dreams vicariously through the internet where no one can hurt you. Simply awesome...
Oh yeah, thanks Mobius for your attempt at belittling me. The fact that you take the time to search boards like this for the chance to flex your message board "muscles" says quite a bit about your social skills. It also shows me that your more then likely incapable of stepping up to someone in real life; you live your tough guy dreams vicariously through the internet where no one can hurt you. Simply awesome...
- Dec 31, 2007
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I don't think you're listening, because you certainly haven't taken time to respond: Seagate actually made some 300GB versions of the 7200.10, and you might have gotten one of these, rather than the 320GB version.
I own one, and if you throw any doubts my way I'll smash you over the head with them.
I own one, and if you throw any doubts my way I'll smash you over the head with them.
Well, assuming you aren't just being extremely sarcastic, I'll go along with the rare 300gb version story. The spec sticker on the drive says 320gb, bios says 300gb, and windows installation says 286gb. DOS will probably say 12. Think I have a legitimate case for a 6.66% refund?
- Dec 31, 2007
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Just make sure what you have isn't in actuality a ST3300820AS rather than a ST3320820AS
And get back to me after you've checked it.
And get back to me after you've checked it.
I'm at work so I can't check it at the moment, but I'll get back to you in the evening. I noticed the various model numbers on Seagate's website, but didn't really think twice about it, since Newegg was selling it as a 320GB.
While on the topic of HDs, this is my first build in years, so it's my first experience with SATA drives. Are there any BIOS defaults that usually need to be changed (for the sake of performance) when dealing with SATA vs. older IDE hard drives? Thanks...
While on the topic of HDs, this is my first build in years, so it's my first experience with SATA drives. Are there any BIOS defaults that usually need to be changed (for the sake of performance) when dealing with SATA vs. older IDE hard drives? Thanks...
SomeJoe7777
Distinguished
- Apr 14, 2006
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I think you're probably correct - you have a relabeled 300GB.
Seagate will probably exchange it for you, but you'll have to pay shipping the old drive back to them, and you'll have to wait for the new drive to arrive - they won't cross-ship unless you pay extra.
Seagate will probably exchange it for you, but you'll have to pay shipping the old drive back to them, and you'll have to wait for the new drive to arrive - they won't cross-ship unless you pay extra.
Doesn't seem worth it to me. Even WinXP recognizes the model number as ST3320620AS...which is a 320GB version, so it's not just the sticker. Freakin weird. Of course, mislabeling it at the hardware level could have led to mislabling it after testing when applying the sticker. Who knows...I'm just happy that my new setup is working on the first attempt with an E4300 overclocked above 3 Ghz...
BustedSony
Distinguished
- Apr 24, 2006
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You can logically never be absolutely certain until:
(1) you try the mystery drive in another computer and see how it's reported..
(2) try a KNOWN 320 gig drive in YOUR system and see how it's reported.
Flakes
Distinguished
- Dec 30, 2005
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im surprised no one has said run a scan disk on the drive and check for damaged bits, if you did a full format at the begining then windows will not recognise the damaged bits, cause they have been marked as unusable by the windows disk management utility.
i have four of these drives and they all report 298GB of space.
i have four of these drives and they all report 298GB of space.
BustedSony
Distinguished
- Apr 24, 2006
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The drive might have been damaged after format, or during shipping even, but that would not affect the size reported by Bios.
I have doubts that it could contain exactly the amount of damaged sectors needed to lower it's usable space to 300GB. I have the most recent version of my motherboard's bios, so I don't think it's an inability to recognize drives of this size. I don't have another system or drive to test out at the moment, so for now, it looks like it will remain a mystery. I will probably only look into it further if I start having problems with it, otherwise I just want to enjoy my new system now...
Well, apparently I'm not crazy. I emailed Seagate about the problem and got the following reply, explaining the "what", the "how", but not the "why". Keep in mind I have yet to try this:
"You are correct about the issue in capacity as a 320GB drive will format
out roughly to 298GB, as a 300GB drive will format out roughly to 279GB.
The drive has been reduced in capacity internally, as the drive does
support an option to reprogram capacity sizes.
Our Seatools for Dos utility has the ability to resize the drive back to
full capacity. You can download it from the following URL.
http://download.seagate.com/seatools/registration.nsf/eula/desktop
Just create the diskette, or burn to a CD then boot the system up to which
ever of the two you create.
Once you boot the system with the disk/CD, you will get a menu which will
include capacity points. Just select the one for 320GB, and the drive will
then be resized.
Since the current partition on the drive is only 279GB, you will get
roughly another 18 to 19GB in useable capacity. You can either create a
second partition for the extra 20GB, or completely erase the current
partition then create a fresh partition for the whole size of the drive.
(Please note that deleting the partition will erase all data on the drive,
so please back up the data before doing this)
If you run into any issues resizing the drive, please call us directly for
directions at 1-800-732-4285."
Is it just me, or does this all seem a bit counterintuitive? I think I'll resize my drive to 20GB and sue Newegg for the other 300...
"You are correct about the issue in capacity as a 320GB drive will format
out roughly to 298GB, as a 300GB drive will format out roughly to 279GB.
The drive has been reduced in capacity internally, as the drive does
support an option to reprogram capacity sizes.
Our Seatools for Dos utility has the ability to resize the drive back to
full capacity. You can download it from the following URL.
http://download.seagate.com/seatools/registration.nsf/eula/desktop
Just create the diskette, or burn to a CD then boot the system up to which
ever of the two you create.
Once you boot the system with the disk/CD, you will get a menu which will
include capacity points. Just select the one for 320GB, and the drive will
then be resized.
Since the current partition on the drive is only 279GB, you will get
roughly another 18 to 19GB in useable capacity. You can either create a
second partition for the extra 20GB, or completely erase the current
partition then create a fresh partition for the whole size of the drive.
(Please note that deleting the partition will erase all data on the drive,
so please back up the data before doing this)
If you run into any issues resizing the drive, please call us directly for
directions at 1-800-732-4285."
Is it just me, or does this all seem a bit counterintuitive? I think I'll resize my drive to 20GB and sue Newegg for the other 300...
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