Formatting

[S-Gray]

Right i cant remember if i posted anything about my Hard Drive problem but here goes..

First my Spec..

Athlon 1800+ Processor
256mb 2100 DDR Memory
Abit KG7 Raid Motherboard
Soundblaster 5.1 Live
Geforce3 Ti200
40gb IBM Deskstar IC35L040AVVA07-0

When i first built this Computer, i had shitloads of Problems, including a Problem where 10gb of my 40gb Hard Drive was "Missing", as in, no matter what i did i couldnt get this extra 10gb.

Now its important because i notice that ive got about 6gb left on this 30gb Drive, so the extra 10gb wouldnt go amiss.

I did FDisk, Format, Disk manager, tried them all but i still couldnt get the extra space.

Anyone got any Suggestions on how to get it back?

Im thinking of making a "Diary" of all the times i do important stuff to my Computer, so when somethin goes wrong, i can check in the Diary and see if i had a Fix for it....

 

[Miles_Binck]

normally when you format any hard disk a small amount of space will be taken for miscellaneous 'stuff', the normal amount for a 40GB drive is anything between 2 - 5GB.

if you are missing 10GB off the disk then I would hazard a guess that there might be a problem with the Drive try using the IBM Drive Fitness Test software to check for any errors.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

Make sure it's setup right in the BIOS? If you've got it in the wrong mode (cylinders, heads whatever) you end up with the wrong size.

 

[S-Gray]

heh that sounds scary, plus ive never seen nor done it before... i guess if i tried and did it wrong it could damage my Hard Drive

 

[Xavier]

just make sure the harddisc is set to be autodetected and that you have the jumpers set on the back correctly - i.e. the '16 heads' configuration on the jumper diagram - there IS a jumper config on IBM's to clip your storage to 32Gb.

 

[S-Gray]

Right heh Urgent

I downloaded, and tested my Harddrive using that IBM Fitness Test, and both Test' Passed, it also stated it was a 38gb Hard Drive.

I go into the BIOS, and it says its a 41gb Harddrive (Same as it says on the Antistatic Bag it was bought in)

I added up all the Partitions on my Computer and it only shows 24gb .. so wheres the extra 17gb or so got too?

Need to know ASAP because i wanna get it over and done by 5pm tomorrow (A deadline)

please!

 

[Wilier]

re-install CS, that should do it.















erm............

 

[Yaka]

you tried using partition magic mate?

 

[Insane]

Xavier basically covered the guist of it, im just gonna provide something extra

Run through your bios and auto-detect your drives again, just to be safe. it might also be easier to unplug any other hard drive or cdrom/dvd/cdrw from the machine for a bit just in case theres a conflict on the IDE channel (highly unlikey, but worth chancing just in case) then boot into windows and see if theres a change in space.

as for the jumpers, here is a nice link for you to check and confirm that its all configured right. its the direct link to the web page all about your hard disk itself, its not much help but it does detail about the jumper configurations.

the following image (courtesy of IBM) details the general jumper settings

note the top one, the jumper on your drive SHOULD be set like that.

make sure no jumpers cross pins B & D together as that limits the drive to 33.8gb. (that might be the problem)

if all else fails, either flash the bios in a last-ditch attempt, or send the drive back for a replacement.

 

[Skyler]

Sounds like youve got the 32gb limiter jumper setting on

 

[S-Gray]

I was very confused when i formatted my COmputer/FDisk'ed.

In the BIOS, etc as i said it showed up as 40gb, but when i used Disk Manager it only allowed me to 8gb, so i sacked that idea

I then went the hard way round and used FDisk to set it up 2* 20gb Partitions...