61GB in bad sectors (ref: 200GB drive reads as 128)

[S]

Sorry for the long post.

My problem is that I have corrupted data (61132684 KB in bad sectors) on my
200GB WD hard drive. That's right - 61GB!
Not too happy with that because I had a difficult time partitioning and
installing xp on the drive and had to settle for a single partition. Each
effort to make multiple partitions resulted in less than 186GB of total
avail. space.
So, I installed with a Windows XP Pro with SP1a CD on the single partition
(186GB).
My Intel 845 motherboard already had the latest BIOS (48-bit LBA support
confirmed).
Things went fine as far as I could tell.
I've had no problems with the correct space being reported or bad sectors
for the last month or so. I just happend to take a look at available space
last night and was shocked to see only 85.4GB left! Well, I only have
40.8GB (44,387 Files, 2,234 Folders) of data on my C:\ so obviously
something is wrong somewhere.
186-40.8 != 85.4

Running chkdsk found this:

"C:\Documents and Settings\Scott>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is XP Professional.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

195350368 KB total disk space.
44652732 KB in 43976 files.
16268 KB in 2255 indexes.
61,132,684 KB in bad sectors.
140072 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
89408612 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
48837592 total allocation units on disk.
22352153 allocation units available on disk."

I ran "chkdsk /f" (required a reboot) but the bad sectors have stayed.
Nothing has changed with "chkdsk /r" either.

WD's Data Lifeguard Quick Test results:
Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD2000BB-00DAA3
Serial Number: WD-WMACK1926431
Firmware Number: 571.B357
Drive Type: IDE
Port Number: 0, Primary/Master
Capacity: 134.22 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 18:31:51, September 14, 2004

After lots of googlin' I finally found MKBA-303013.

I checked my registry and
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters\" did
NOT have the "EnableBigLba" key AT ALL!

That was one thing I didn't do and I don't know how if this is responsible
for the problem.

I also don't know if adding this key will solve the problem (I am backing up
all my data now so I will give it a shot).

The reason I'm bugging you is I want to know if I can EVER get XP to
recognize the whole 200GB drive and (if it comes down to another fresh
install)
HOW DO I INSTALL XP PROPERLY to do that.
There's no time PRE-installation to edit the registry. SP1, I would think,
should have set this key but it didn't.

Is there something I'm missing or am I hosed?
Is the Data Lifeguard Quick Test telling me anything (except the incorrect
capacity) ?


Thanks in advance!

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?uyBtcnRlZSCr?=]

Is the HDD on a controller card. My Promise card supports drives to 128 GB. If I try to partition over that total amount the additional partitions are not recognized and other partitions get deleted.

--
Just my 2¢ worth,
Jeff
__________in response to__________
| Sorry for the long post.
|
| My problem is that I have corrupted data (61132684 KB in bad sectors) on my
| 200GB WD hard drive. That's right - 61GB!
| Not too happy with that because I had a difficult time partitioning and
| installing xp on the drive and had to settle for a single partition. Each
| effort to make multiple partitions resulted in less than 186GB of total
| avail. space.
| So, I installed with a Windows XP Pro with SP1a CD on the single partition
| (186GB).
| My Intel 845 motherboard already had the latest BIOS (48-bit LBA support
| confirmed).
| Things went fine as far as I could tell.
| I've had no problems with the correct space being reported or bad sectors
| for the last month or so. I just happend to take a look at available space
| last night and was shocked to see only 85.4GB left! Well, I only have
| 40.8GB (44,387 Files, 2,234 Folders) of data on my C:\ so obviously
| something is wrong somewhere.
| 186-40.8 != 85.4
|
| Running chkdsk found this:
|
| "C:\Documents and Settings\Scott>chkdsk
| The type of the file system is NTFS.
| Volume label is XP Professional.
|
| WARNING! F parameter not specified.
| Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.
|
| CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
| File verification completed.
| CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
| Index verification completed.
| CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
| Security descriptor verification completed.
| Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
| Windows found problems with the file system.
| Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.
|
| 195350368 KB total disk space.
| 44652732 KB in 43976 files.
| 16268 KB in 2255 indexes.
| 61,132,684 KB in bad sectors.
| 140072 KB in use by the system.
| 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
| 89408612 KB available on disk.
|
| 4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
| 48837592 total allocation units on disk.
| 22352153 allocation units available on disk."
|
| I ran "chkdsk /f" (required a reboot) but the bad sectors have stayed.
| Nothing has changed with "chkdsk /r" either.
|
| WD's Data Lifeguard Quick Test results:
| Test Option: QUICK TEST
| Model Number: WDC WD2000BB-00DAA3
| Serial Number: WD-WMACK1926431
| Firmware Number: 571.B357
| Drive Type: IDE
| Port Number: 0, Primary/Master
| Capacity: 134.22 GB
| SMART Status: PASS
| Test Result: PASS
| Test Time: 18:31:51, September 14, 2004
|
| After lots of googlin' I finally found MKBA-303013.
|
| I checked my registry and
| "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters\" did
| NOT have the "EnableBigLba" key AT ALL!
|
| That was one thing I didn't do and I don't know how if this is responsible
| for the problem.
|
| I also don't know if adding this key will solve the problem (I am backing up
| all my data now so I will give it a shot).
|
| The reason I'm bugging you is I want to know if I can EVER get XP to
| recognize the whole 200GB drive and (if it comes down to another fresh
| install)
| HOW DO I INSTALL XP PROPERLY to do that.
| There's no time PRE-installation to edit the registry. SP1, I would think,
| should have set this key but it didn't.
|
| Is there something I'm missing or am I hosed?
| Is the Data Lifeguard Quick Test telling me anything (except the incorrect
| capacity) ?
|
|
| Thanks in advance!
|
|

 

[Ron Martell]

Sorry for the long post.

My problem is that I have corrupted data (61132684 KB in bad sectors) on my
200GB WD hard drive. That's right - 61GB!
Not too happy with that because I had a difficult time partitioning and
installing xp on the drive and had to settle for a single partition. Each
effort to make multiple partitions resulted in less than 186GB of total
avail. space.
So, I installed with a Windows XP Pro with SP1a CD on the single partition
(186GB).
My Intel 845 motherboard already had the latest BIOS (48-bit LBA support
confirmed).
Things went fine as far as I could tell.
I've had no problems with the correct space being reported or bad sectors
for the last month or so. I just happend to take a look at available space
last night and was shocked to see only 85.4GB left! Well, I only have
40.8GB (44,387 Files, 2,234 Folders) of data on my C:\ so obviously
something is wrong somewhere.
186-40.8 != 85.4

Running chkdsk found this:

"C:\Documents and Settings\Scott>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is XP Professional.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

195350368 KB total disk space.
44652732 KB in 43976 files.
16268 KB in 2255 indexes.
61,132,684 KB in bad sectors.
140072 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
89408612 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
48837592 total allocation units on disk.
22352153 allocation units available on disk."

I ran "chkdsk /f" (required a reboot) but the bad sectors have stayed.
Nothing has changed with "chkdsk /r" either.

WD's Data Lifeguard Quick Test results:
Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD2000BB-00DAA3
Serial Number: WD-WMACK1926431
Firmware Number: 571.B357
Drive Type: IDE
Port Number: 0, Primary/Master
Capacity: 134.22 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 18:31:51, September 14, 2004

After lots of googlin' I finally found MKBA-303013.

I checked my registry and
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters\" did
NOT have the "EnableBigLba" key AT ALL!

That was one thing I didn't do and I don't know how if this is responsible
for the problem.

I also don't know if adding this key will solve the problem (I am backing up
all my data now so I will give it a shot).

The reason I'm bugging you is I want to know if I can EVER get XP to
recognize the whole 200GB drive and (if it comes down to another fresh
install)
HOW DO I INSTALL XP PROPERLY to do that.
There's no time PRE-installation to edit the registry. SP1, I would think,
should have set this key but it didn't.

Is there something I'm missing or am I hosed?
Is the Data Lifeguard Quick Test telling me anything (except the incorrect
capacity) ?


Thanks in advance!

A drive with 30% of its capacity in bad sectors is almost certainly
doomed and could fail completely at any moment. I am surprised that
it passes even the WD Data Lifeguard Quick Test. What does the
complete test tell you?

I would be checking with WD regarding possible warranty status for
this drive and getting a replacement a.s.a.p.

As for the capacity question, this is the old confusion between binary
and decimal measures for computer data.

Computers have always used binary measures for capacity.
Kilobyte = 1,024 bytes (2^10)
Megabyte = 1,048,576 bytes (2^20)
Gigabtye = 1,073,741,824 bytes (2^30)

However the hard drive manufacturers have decided to use decimal
values for reportion the capacity of their drives and so to them a
gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes

Windows reports the drive capacity in binary gigabytes.

186 binary gigabytes x 1,073,741,824 = 199,715,979,264 bytes which
Western Digital would round up to 200 billion and call the drive a 200
gigabyte model.

Similarly with your chkdsk report:

195350368 KB x 1024 = 200,038,776,832 bytes, bang on with the 200 gb
value by Western Digital.


But with 61 gb of bad sectors (unless you got the drive for free) I
would be looking to replace it as soon as possible.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[S]

Shocked am I to quick responses.
Many thanks.
Firstly I have no issues with how drive size is calculated. The problem I
see is 61 GB in bad sectors.
Normally I would be cryin in my beer, but the drive is working exceptionally
well. Data is backed up safe on another volume so I can sleep ... except I
want full use of the entire.

Never mind if I can fill it up or not.

Here:

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD2000BB-00DAA3
Serial Number: WD-WMACK1926431
Firmware Number: 571.B357
Drive Type: IDE
Port Number: 0, Primary/Master
Capacity: 134.22 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 22:49:16, September 14, 2004


that test from WD's Data Lifeguard does not help me. I'm gonna try booting
up their floppy version and see what I see.
Until then, any ideas or suggestions on installing xp pro with sp1 on this
200GB drive that are new and informative?
(Linux freaks are hereby notified that SuSE 9.1 is waiting in the wings so
shut up).

 

[Jerry]

When I bought my WD 120Gb drives I had to boot from the floppy DataLifeguard
created to partition and format the drives, then install software.

 

[Guest]

mrtee,

Which Promise card do you have?

Mine is an Ultra100TX2 with an WDC 160GB 100ATA harddrive formatted to a
single partition. Of course in WinXP is shows up as 149 GB which is correct
using the binary calcs.

r.

 

[namniar]

P.S. Used Data Lifeguard CD to set up drive.

r.


mrtee,

Which Promise card do you have?

Mine is an Ultra100TX2 with an WDC 160GB 100ATA harddrive formatted to a
single partition. Of course in WinXP is shows up as 149 GB which is correct
using the binary calcs.

r.

 

[Jetro]

Reinstall from scratch. Without "EnableBigLBA" Windows can manage 2^28-1
sector (logical block) only and chkdsk results prove it:

(195,350,368 - 61,132,684)*1,024 = 137,438,952,960 = (2^28-1)*512

I remember similar effect on my first BIOS with LBA support. The BIOS had
tendency to re-detect HDDs in Normal mode and everything beyond 504 MB (it
was huge disk!) appeared as bad clusters.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?B?uyBtcnRlZSCr?=]

Same card, from 2001. XP isn't even listed in the instructions or on the box. I will not use an overlay.

--
Just my 2¢ worth,
Jeff
__________in response to__________
| P.S. Used Data Lifeguard CD to set up drive.
|
| r.
|
|
| | mrtee,
|
| Which Promise card do you have?
|
| Mine is an Ultra100TX2 with an WDC 160GB 100ATA harddrive formatted to a
| single partition. Of course in WinXP is shows up as 149 GB which is correct
| using the binary calcs.
|
| r.

 

[namniar]

mrtee,

Pardon my ignorance - "I will not use an overlay." I'm just not familiar
with the term or what you meant.

For me the native WinXP driver did not support >137 GB. The latest Promise
/ WD drivers for this card do. F.Y.I. - Neither the box nor the
documentation that came with my card (purchased separately from the drive)
listed WinXP. However the supplied Promise driver disk had the XP as well
as Server 2003 drivers on it. If your interested the driver / firmware
sites are below. The firmware shipped with my card is v2.20.0.15 which is
the latest and the XP driver shipped with the card is v2.0.0.43

If you got the Promise card shipped with your WD drive...

Download Site:
http://support.wdc.com/download/

WinXP Driver:
http://support.wdc.com/download/promise/UltraTX2driver.zip

Firmware (BIOS) Update:
Contact WDC as it is MIA on their website although is supposed to be posted
(see Tech support answer below).

If you purchased the card separately ....

Web / Download Site:
http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?productId=11&familyId=3
http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=11&category=All&os=100

WinXP Driver (latest on website is v2.0.0.42 for some reason):
http://www.promise.com/support/file/driver/1_Ultra 133_100 tx2 driver_b42.zip

Firmware (BIOS) Update (v 2.20.0.15):
http://www.promise.com/support/file/bios/ultra100 tx2 b220015.zip

r.

Just in case your interested,

Following comments from WDC tech support:

Question:
I added HDD and PCI controller card to P4 MSI 845E Max-L (MS-6566E)
mainboard c/w PCI 2.2v 32-bit Master PCI bus slot. First boot after
controller card and HDD installed WinXP SP2 recognised the Promise card and
loaded the native drivers. This did not allow Data Lifeguard (autorun from
within WinXP not DOS boot option) to recognise more than 137 GB on the
drive. I loaded the WinXP drivers that came on the floppy disk shipped with
the Promise card and retried Data Lifeguard utility from within WinXP. It
allowed the drive to be formatted with a single partition of approx. 149 GB
(160 GB by WDC calc's). This is great.
My question is, should I continue to use the ultra.sys driver shipped with
the Promise card (ver 2.0.0.43 2/10/2003), or should I use the WinXP driver
on your website for the Promise card (ver 2.0.0210.36 25/06/2002)?
Also, on the Promise website it lists a link for a BIOS update for the
controller card when using the Promise card with a WDC HDD. The link does
not work properly as doesn't the link on the WDC site labelled "Promise
Ultra TX2 BIOS Upgrade". The BIOS firmware in the card as shipped to me is
v2.20.0.15 which appears to be the latest update from Promise. Is this WDC's
recommended firmware for compatibility?
In closing you may wish to include in your documentation that the Windows
native driver (included in SP1 or SP2?!?) for the Promise card will not
allow access to >137 GB. And that a driver update is required.
Thank you, Wes

Answer:
Response: (Ken Leaders) 09/07/2004 11:56 AM
Sorry, for one reason or another people in charge of the download page have
not posted the BIOS update after a modification of the page. I have notified
them of this issue and they will try to repost the download.
The correct driver version is 2.0.0210.36, only if the card shipped with one
of our drives. If you purchased the card after the fact, you will want to
use the latest driver that Promise has posted on their website.

********************************************************************

Same card, from 2001. XP isn't even listed in the instructions or on the
box. I will not use an overlay.

--
Just my 2¢ worth,
Jeff
__________in response to__________
| P.S. Used Data Lifeguard CD to set up drive.
|
| r.
|
|
| | mrtee,
|
| Which Promise card do you have?
|
| Mine is an Ultra100TX2 with an WDC 160GB 100ATA harddrive formatted to a
| single partition. Of course in WinXP is shows up as 149 GB which is
correct
| using the binary calcs.
|
| r.

 

[Quaoar]

Reinstall from scratch. Without "EnableBigLBA" Windows can manage
2^28-1 sector (logical block) only and chkdsk results prove it:

(195,350,368 - 61,132,684)*1,024 = 137,438,952,960 = (2^28-1)*512

I remember similar effect on my first BIOS with LBA support. The BIOS
had tendency to re-detect HDDs in Normal mode and everything beyond
504 MB (it was huge disk!) appeared as bad clusters.

....those were the days! Even 504MB was big!

Q

 

[Vanguardx]

Is the HDD on a controller card. My Promise card supports drives to
128 GB. If I try to partition over that total amount the additional
partitions are not recognized and other partitions get deleted.

If you have an old Promise Ultra66/100 controller card, there was a
flash update (see http://snipurl.com/93q5) that would upgrade it from
28-bit addressing (2^28 sectors * 512 bytes/sector = 137,438,953,472
bytes = 128GB) to 48-bit addressing (2^48 sectors * 2^9 bytes/sector =
2^57 bytes = 2^17 terabytes). NTFS supports up to 2^64 bytes, or 16
exabytes, but due to limitations in hardware, limitations in the size of
partition entries in the partition table, and along with restrictions in
NTFS as it is currently implemented, the max partition size is 2TB (see
http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm).

As I recall, you also had to switch to using the Ultra100TX2 driver for
the Ultra66/100 card after flashing it. I suspect the latest driver
probably runs as a "package" installer to detect which included driver
is most appropriate for the detected card. Similarly, in Windows XP,
you need to install SP-1, or later, to get its addressing support to
match the enlarged addressing width of the drive controller.

No overlay manager (that usurps the first 460 bytes of the MBR for the
bootstrap program) is needed if you flash the Promise card so it gets
updated to support 48-bit addressing, use their latest driver, and
install SP-1 at a minimum in Windows XP.

 

[Jetro]

Yeee, yeee...Those days BG has made (in)famous remark about 640 KB RAM.