RCPilot

Champion
I am having the same problem as Flyboy.
I Gig Atholon T-Bird
Asus AV7
256 SD 133 Ram
Viper Vid. Card 770
Sound Blaster Live
Windows ME

I built the system with 2 old (10 gig) hard drives & got the system stable. Bought a new WD 30 gig, ata 100, 7200 RPM Sat. & haven't been able to install it with the whole disk in tact. I end up with a 2.1 gig partiton & a 28 gig partition. I can only work in the 2.1 gig partition. I can not get to the 28 gig partitoin. I've tried fdisk. I can fdisk eiter partitoin. I can format each partition, but I can not get rid of the partiton. WD support post told me to run Diagonos in the ez install program that came with the hard drive, & run SET ZEROS option, but when I try to get there it comes up for 2 secs. & then dissapheres. I can not run this program. Also it moves my drive letters to the right by 1 as well.

If I load up everything OS & all it fills up the 2 gig partiton & thats it, I'm done. System will run, I just don't have any disk to work with.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Steve
 

Flyboy

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
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18,980
Sounds like your problem is a little different than mine. I have spoken with MANY people regarding my problem and most agree that it sounds like a faulty hardrive. I was able to use the entire 30.0Gb space it just dies a couple of days later. Seems like the File Allocation Table (FAT) becomes corrupted or something. I didn't use FDISK, I used the EZ installation program that came with the drive. You may want to give that a shot, although I really can't see why FDISK wouldn't work.

It kinda sounds like your not using LBA (Large Block Addressing) because your only capable of reaching the 2.1gb barrier. Try doing a fresh format and partition using the EZ installation disk. Make sure you follow the instructions carefully and opt for LBA. If you don't, I believe your stuck with the 2.1Gb (or 8 Gb?) barrier. You could also check in the BIOS and see if you have LBA selected. I had a friend at school suggest that I do this (select LBA instead of AUTO in BIOS). I'm sorry my reply is so incoherent. Let me know if I can help.

Good Luck!
 
G

Guest

Guest
No LBA does not fix a 2.1G or we would need another type of addressing for drives over 8G (because that is another barrier which LBA does actually take care of), which none are used (if invented at all) at this time besides LBA. But yes make sure you are using LBA mode. Bioses have been using this for quite some time now.. it should be standard addressing for all drives. (I guess bioses still over CHS, etc for drives that do not support LBA and for OS's that do not support it, whew talk about dark ages).

At first I thought this was a simple FAT16 problem.. as 2.1G per parition would be the limiting factor for FAT16. But then you do have another entire 28G partition. But you say you can't remove these partitions with fdisk. This is "odd" drive behavior if you are trying to do it properlly (I'm not saying are not.. I'm just not there so I don't know). If you want to post back explaining the steps you take to use fdisk and any error messages you get. Might help.

But WD is asking you to run basically the closest thing you can get to a low level format on an IDE drive. And you are not able to do this with the manufacturer's utility. So this is where I would call back and start with Western Digi.

If you do get the drive taken care of to where you can remove and set partitions, use fdisk on a bootable floppy and enable FAT32 (large drive support). There should be no reason why a current version of fdisk should have any problems with a drive of 30G using LBA.




***Hey I run Intel... but let's get real***
 

RCPilot

Champion
Chord, you hit the nail right on the head!! I went home last night & called WD's support line. I gave him my Hard Drive Model & Ser. numbers & the first thing he said was the EZinstall included with my drive was no good. He said to go to the web & down load the latest software off the web site & I'd be fine. I told him that I would have to replace my old hard drives to do that. He said don't do that, I'll walk you through it. So all I did with his help was used my ME boot disk to do the whole thing. I will explian it as it might help Flyboy as well, He's running darn near the same thing I am, & just might have the same problem going on his brothers system, just a thought.
When the boot disk came up with the options, select option 2, (Start Windows without CD ROM Support). Once there you can partition the whole thing to FAT 32. Then I shut down the computer, with the Disk left in the drive. When it comes up again, format the new drive from the prompt (fromat c:\). Once that finishes, load Windows & your there!!! My drives stayed lettered exactly right & I have the full use of the hard drive. I'll tell you what, this thing is fast!!! I even like ME because of the Drivers that are in it. Cut down me install time by 2/3rds compared to the W98 install I was using when I first put the thing together.
I will go & down load the new EZinstall from the web, but I will probably use the Windows Boot Disk the next time I install a hard drive.
Hope that this imformation is helpful & I really appriciate the feed back & help.

Gaming is where it's at!!!!

Steve