Hard Drive Problems

[DizKiller]

I just obtained a 250 GB Seagate 16MB Buffer 7200 RPM Hard Drive and i am having trouble utilizing all of the 250 GB that the hard drive has to offer. I think that i know what the problem is but you take a look and offer any advice that you can. Here is what i have done so far:

I have a Promise ULTRA100 IDE Controller Card that has 4 drives on it:
1x 80 GB
2x 160 GB (1 showing 128GB and the other showing 149GB)
1x 250 GB (The one that i am having problems with.

I flashed the BIOS on the controller card to the newest BIOS that the have to offer from the Promise web site. (Says this at the site: - Supports 48-bit LBA for drives larger than 137 GB) -- : http://www.promise.com/support/down...os&os=100&go=GO

I also updated the drivers for windows:
http://www.promise.com/support/down...iver&os=0&go=GO

And i am still having the same problem. Only showing 128GB

Here are the spects of my computer:

Dell OptiPlex GX280

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 With SP2

2.8 GHz P4 W/ HT
1 GB Ram
2x Sony DVD-RAM -- DVD+/- RW -- CDRW (On Onboard IDE)
1x 40 GB SATA Hard Drive (Operating Sysyem)
1 IDE Controller Card W/ The 4 Drives Listed Below on it:
1x 80 GB HD
2x 160 GB HD
1x 250 GB Hard Drive (The one i am having trouble with)

All Drives (Except SATA Drive) are set to Cable Select.
(Need any more info tell me.)

Now here is another quirk that puzzles me:
Remember that i told you that i had 2x 160GB had drives (one showing 128GB and one showing 149GB?)
Now if the limit is 128 then why is one of the Drives showing 128 and the other 149? They are on the same Controller Card...... HMMMM

Well, any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yo man, just www.google.com it.

 

[muckshifter]

Quite simply, you do not have the correct drivers for the 'controller' for windows.

I have no idea if XP Media Center will offer any 'update' via Windows Update Site, use the custom button if you try it.

I do know that WD (western digital) HDs, greater than 137GB, need a windows 'driver' to use a promise controller, especially if this is a TX2 card ... you don't list what make drives you're using.


oh, welcome to the forums.




Repeat postings in the "News Group" forums will just get you ignored, they don't like it ... however, they have nothing to do with this forum.

 

[DizKiller]

OK I found out what the problem was!!!! What i did was uninstalled the "windows" driver and installed the promise drivers that they provided for me. Also i flashed the BIOS on the controller card to the newest one that supported hard drives bidder than 137 GB. That solved my problem. I went to the computer management and then to storage devices, ect.... and it had a unallocated portion of my hard drive, i made it a dynamic hard drive, mounted it, then i made it a basic disk and all of the 232GB was there. (I also done that to the 160 that was showing 128 GB. **NOTE** Before you make a basic hard drive into a dynamic hard drive, transfer all of the files to another hard drive, you will loose all of the data if you dont.) So thanks for all of your guys help and shot out to |O_o| DizKiller |o_O|

 

[muckshifter]

There you go ... another happy customer.