HD reported as much larger than it is

[ouberlord]

Hey all,

(HP) Compaq nc6120 running F.14 BIOS

This laptop was flaking out, rebooting at random and then sitting at a
black screen with a single flashing white cursor instead of displaying
the Windows XP loading screen. Given that it's been flaky for a while
(Slow, random reboots, etc) I decided to back up the data and format
the drive, a 60Gb laptop HD.

When I put in the Windows XP Pro disc after the backup I notice that
the HD is being reported as having approx. 1,200Gb capacity (1.2
Terabytes). My bootable PE disc also detects this drive size so it's
gotta be BIOS/Hardware level. At this point the laptop was running the
F.03 BIOS so I updated to the latest which is F.14 which had no effect.

The BIOS doesn't have any method as far as I can find to manually set
the drive geometry, and rather the BIOS is your standard simplistic
garbage that barely has options for boot order and general options,
much less HD detection or HD settings.

Any ideas, or has anyone had this happen to them? I don't have another
laptop HD in stock to test at the present and I'd like to have this
laptop back to the client tomorrow.

 

[Bob I]

It could be that the laptop BIOS is flaky or corrupted.

 

[Trevor Hirst]

Generally thats a bad HDD, i wouldnt blame the BIOS especially if its been
working fine up till now. The BIOS could simply be reporting the size that
the drive is returning to the BIOS. Plus the other signs (random reboots,
failed boot attempts, slow) all point to a bad or failing HDD. I would DL
the HDD manufacturers test utility and give that a go to be sure tho.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Hey all,

(HP) Compaq nc6120 running F.14 BIOS

This laptop was flaking out, rebooting at random and then sitting at a
black screen with a single flashing white cursor instead of displaying
the Windows XP loading screen. Given that it's been flaky for a while
(Slow, random reboots, etc) I decided to back up the data and format
the drive, a 60Gb laptop HD.

When I put in the Windows XP Pro disc after the backup I notice that
the HD is being reported as having approx. 1,200Gb capacity (1.2
Terabytes). My bootable PE disc also detects this drive size so it's
gotta be BIOS/Hardware level. At this point the laptop was running the
F.03 BIOS so I updated to the latest which is F.14 which had no effect.

The BIOS doesn't have any method as far as I can find to manually set
the drive geometry, and rather the BIOS is your standard simplistic
garbage that barely has options for boot order and general options,
much less HD detection or HD settings.

Any ideas, or has anyone had this happen to them? I don't have another
laptop HD in stock to test at the present and I'd like to have this
laptop back to the client tomorrow.

I strongly suspect either the drive or the controller is blown.

The last time that happened to me it was reporting 29mb. Yes, that's
an M. I thought it was the drive, swapped in the one that used to be
in the machine before I upgraded it. Neither drive ever worked
again--it must have been something seriously wrong on the controller.

 

[ouberlord]

As it turns out, the controller was blown or at least I suspect. The
HD, when used with an adapter, functioned just fine in two of my
desktops. I contacted HP support and they requested that the laptop be
sent to them, and since it was still under warranty I didn't disagree.