hdd (2.5 to 3.5) with odd capacity

[dan]

Hi all,
i'm trying to attach my 2.5" P-ATA hdd (from my dell) into my house pc
(3.5" P-ATA). I bought one of those adapters from 2.5" to 3.5" (look
here to get an idea
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/2365/adattatoreuj6.png) but something
strange happens. When turning on the pc the 2.5hdd is not correctly
recognized. Actually, sometimes the BIOS (award bios with gigabyte 848P
motherboard) sees it as a 16MB hdd, some other times it doesn't see it
at all. I tried to boot windows XP from the pc's hdd, and then try to
analize the hdd with some tool and they say the 2.5 hdd is more than 500
thousand GB :|
The hdd i'm talking about is a Fujitsu MHV2040AH 40 GB, with ATA
password enabled. I thought the problem could be because of the ATA
password, so I tried with an unlocked 2.5" hdd (a Hitachi DX23BA-10, 10
GB) and i do get the same error. So I tried on a older computer, and I
get the same strange happenings?

Anyone of you already got the 500 thousand GB odd capacity? Do you know
why that happens? My opinion, after my trials, is that the problem is in
the 2.5"->3.5" adapter. Any guess?

Thank you for your help
Danilo

 

[paulmd]

Hi all,
i'm trying to attach my 2.5" P-ATA hdd (from my dell) into my house pc
(3.5" P-ATA). I bought one of those adapters from 2.5" to 3.5" (look
here to get an idea
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/2365/adattatoreuj6.png) but something
strange happens. When turning on the pc the 2.5hdd is not correctly
recognized. Actually, sometimes the BIOS (award bios with gigabyte 848P
motherboard) sees it as a 16MB hdd, some other times it doesn't see it
at all. I tried to boot windows XP from the pc's hdd, and then try to
analize the hdd with some tool and they say the 2.5 hdd is more than 500
thousand GB :|
The hdd i'm talking about is a Fujitsu MHV2040AH 40 GB, with ATA
password enabled. I thought the problem could be because of the ATA
password, so I tried with an unlocked 2.5" hdd (a Hitachi DX23BA-10, 10
GB) and i do get the same error. So I tried on a older computer, and I
get the same strange happenings?

Anyone of you already got the 500 thousand GB odd capacity? Do you know
why that happens? My opinion, after my trials, is that the problem is in
the 2.5"->3.5" adapter. Any guess?

I think you're right. I'd try a different brand adapter.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Try an external USB adapter. The one I like best is this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330072511273

The internal IDE adapter should work, and these things are passive so
it's almost hard for them to be defective, but not impossible.

 

[Rod Speed]

Hi all,
i'm trying to attach my 2.5" P-ATA hdd (from my dell) into my house pc
(3.5" P-ATA). I bought one of those adapters from 2.5" to 3.5" (look
here to get an idea
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/2365/adattatoreuj6.png) but
something strange happens. When turning on the pc the 2.5hdd is not
correctly recognized. Actually, sometimes the BIOS (award bios with
gigabyte 848P motherboard) sees it as a 16MB hdd, some other times it
doesn't see it at all. I tried to boot windows XP from the pc's hdd,
and then try to analize the hdd with some tool and they say the 2.5
hdd is more than 500 thousand GB :|

The hdd i'm talking about is a Fujitsu MHV2040AH 40 GB, with ATA
password enabled. I thought the problem could be because of the ATA
password, so I tried with an unlocked 2.5" hdd (a Hitachi DX23BA-10,
10 GB) and i do get the same error. So I tried on a older computer,
and I get the same strange happenings?

You sure you are putting the 2.5" connector onto the correct pins
on the drives ? Quite a few laptop drives have the drive jumper
pins in a line with the pins the ribbon cable goes onto with no
obvious distinction between the jumper pins and the cable pins.

If its not that, what have you done with the jumper on the laptop
drive, and what drive type entry do you have in the bios ? The
drive type entry should be AUTO and you can get into one hell
of a mess if you use explicit CHS values etc.

Anyone of you already got the 500 thousand GB odd capacity? Do you know why that happens?

The bios should be asking the drive how big it is. If there is a problem
with getting that data back from the drive, it can get some bizaree results.

My opinion, after my trials, is that the problem is in the 2.5"->3.5" adapter. Any guess?

Yes, thats quite possible. It may well have a dry joint etc if you are using it properly.