detection of correct sized hard drive

[post]

Hi

A new hard drive, Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB, is being detected by
my bios (motherboard Elitegroup K7S5A, but only with appr. 32GB. Same
thing in windows drive administration - only 32GB.

Is it absoluttely necessary that the bios detects it properly or can I
"fix" this problem in windows (XP Pro, sp2)?

I have tried all sorts of both auto detect and user set up in the bios
but I am not able to change the size of the hard drive.

Any help is appreciated.

Kristian

 

[Nathan McNulty]

That motherboard is not that old, so it should see drives over 32 GB. I
would recommend updating the BIOS because Windows will not detect the
drive size as larger than the BIOS detects it unless you use a Dynamic
Drive Overlay which can get pretty complicated.

Now if you formatted the drive FAT32 with Windows XP, that is the
largest you can make a partition as FAT32 (with Windows XP) and I would
hihgly recommend deleting that partition and formatting the whole thing
as NTFS. That may be where your space has gone, but that doesn't
explain why the BIOS only sees 32 GB.

 

[Art]

That motherboard is not that old, so it should see drives over 32 GB. I
would recommend updating the BIOS because Windows will not detect the
drive size as larger than the BIOS detects it unless you use a Dynamic
Drive Overlay which can get pretty complicated.

Now if you formatted the drive FAT32 with Windows XP, that is the largest
you can make a partition as FAT32 (with Windows XP) and I would hihgly
recommend deleting that partition and formatting the whole thing as NTFS.
That may be where your space has gone, but that doesn't explain why the
BIOS only sees 32 GB.

Kristian:
Assuming your Hitachi HDD is a Parallel-ATA model, it's possible that the
jumper position has been incorrectly set to limit the drive capacity to 32
GB. So check your jumper setting to see if this is the problem.

Art

 

[Jerry]

Check the Hitachi website for software to setup hard drives. (Unless you got
a CD with the the drive that has the software on it.)

 

[post]

Hi - again - it took a while to flash my bios as I needed a new floppy
drive. Well, it is done with the manufacturers newest bios installed
and all guidelines observed. There is sadly no change in the outcome -
my new hd is only recognized as a 32GB hd.

My drives (both primary and slave) are partitioned as ntfs.

Any other suggestion is appreciated.
Kristian

 

[post]

Hi Art

I would like to try it out - but which jumper settings are you
referring to. I guess it is on the motherboard but it is not obvious
to me which exact jumper to change. The only jumpers referred to in
the mainboard's manual is audio, usb, cmos, keyboard nad various LED
light things

 

[Art]

Kristian:
See http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/d7k250/d7k250jum.htm
for information on jumper settings for your Hitachi hard drive. You'll see
references to a jumper clip which limits the drive capacity down to 32 GB.
We're talking about the jumper setting on your hard drive. It has nothing to
do with your motherboard's jumper settings in this case.
Art

 

[Andy]

Hi Art

I would like to try it out - but which jumper settings are you
referring to.
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/d7k250/d7k250jum.htm

I guess it is on the motherboard but it is not obvious
to me which exact jumper to change. The only jumpers referred to in
the mainboard's manual is audio, usb, cmos, keyboard nad various LED
light things

 

[post]

Hi - thanks very for your help. Changing the jumper solved my problem.