Seagate 1.5TB HD showing as 500GB

LoBatt · Jan 19, 2009

Hello all, sorry if this has been covered, but I have not been able to
turn up a thread on this subject.

I can use some help installing my new Seagate 1.5TB HD as a data
drive. Everything is telling me it is a 500GB drive, including the
bios, a right click, and accessing the Disk Management function from
Computer Management. The last function is where I was intending to
format the drive and mount, but I am concerned that I will only be
formating 1/3 of the drive.

I have updated my bios, and ran Seagate's DiscWizard. DiscWizard told
me that I had to have a Seagate drive installed to utilize the app.
For the record, I have a Seagate drive installed ;D

Sorry for the newb question here but are my concerns correct, or will
the formatting of the drive make the adjustments that I am looking
for?

Sys Specs:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Intel E2180
NVIDIA 8800 GT
C: WD Black Cav 500GB (has my OS)
E: Samsung Spinpoint 400BG (Full of data)
D: Seagate 1.5TB (unpartioned, unformatted, drive in question)

Thanks all,

LoBatt

Rod Speed · Jan 19, 2009

LoBatt said:
Hello all, sorry if this has been covered, but I have
not been able to turn up a thread on this subject.

Its not that easy to search for, but there are plenty that cover it.

I can use some help installing my new Seagate 1.5TB HD
as a data drive. Everything is telling me it is a 500GB drive,

The problem is lack of 48 bit LBA support.

including the bios,

In that case you need to upgrade the bios.

a right click, and accessing the Disk Management
function from Computer Management.

Thats because of the lack of bios support.

The last function is where I was intending to format the drive and mount,
but I am concerned that I will only be formating 1/3 of the drive.

That is correct without fixing the problem.

I have updated my bios,

Did it still show up in the bios as a 512GB drive after doing that ?

and ran Seagate's DiscWizard. DiscWizard told me that
I had to have a Seagate drive installed to utilize the app.
For the record, I have a Seagate drive installed ;D

Sorry for the newb question here but are my concerns correct,
Yes.

or will the formatting of the drive make the adjustments that I am looking for?
Nope.

Sys Specs:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Intel E2180
NVIDIA 8800 GT
C: WD Black Cav 500GB (has my OS)
E: Samsung Spinpoint 400BG (Full of data)
D: Seagate 1.5TB (unpartioned, unformatted, drive in question)

If the drive still shows up as a 512GB drive in the bios, likely you
havent actualy managed to update the bios successfully. Try again.

Andreas Eibach · Jan 19, 2009

LoBatt said:
Hello all, sorry if this has been covered, but I have not been able to
turn up a thread on this subject.

I can use some help installing my new Seagate 1.5TB HD as a data
drive. Everything is telling me it is a 500GB drive, including the
bios, a right click, and accessing the Disk Management function from
Computer Management. The last function is where I was intending to
format the drive and mount, but I am concerned that I will only be
formating 1/3 of the drive.

Although you wrote half a novel about your sys specs and stuff, you forgot
about the most important: the OS!
If you're on Windows 2000, I could help you with 48bit LBA, since I've once
been through this.

XP ought to support this without installing anything extra.

-Andreas

Arno Wagner · Jan 19, 2009

Although you wrote half a novel about your sys specs and stuff, you forgot
about the most important: the OS!
If you're on Windows 2000, I could help you with 48bit LBA, since I've once
been through this.

XP ought to support this without installing anything extra.

XP needs SP1, AFAIK.

Arno

LoBatt · Jan 19, 2009

Although you wrote half a novel about your sys specs and stuff, you forgot
about the most important: the OS!
If you're on Windows 2000, I could help you with 48bit LBA, since I've once
been through this.

XP ought to support this without installing anything extra.

-Andreas

Ahh Sorry about that Adreas. Is XP Pro SP3.

Arno Wagner · Jan 19, 2009

Previously LoBatt said:
On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:25:51 +0100, "Andreas Eibach"

Ahh Sorry about that Adreas. Is XP Pro SP3.

Hmm. XP SP3 has no problem with this size. Maybe you bought
a faked drive? That would be consistent with the Seagate tool
telling you this is not a Seagate drive.

As a bit of background: There is a scam where you buy a large
drive, remove the sticker on top and put it on a small drive.
Then you sell the small drive, e.g. on ebay for the price of
the large one.

The way to detect this is to get ID and manufacturer from
the drive. For example Speedfan will list Model and
Firmware Revision under the SMART tab. Various other
non-vendor tools do too.

Arno

Arno Wagner · Jan 19, 2009

Previously Ian D said:
LoBatt says the BIOS only detects 500GB, so the issue
is before XP starts. The MB has a P35 chipset, so I
can't see it being an LBA 48 bit problem.

I agree, see my other posting.

Arno

Eric Gisin · Jan 19, 2009

LoBatt said:
I can use some help installing my new Seagate 1.5TB HD as a data
drive. Everything is telling me it is a 500GB drive, including the
bios, a right click, and accessing the Disk Management function from
Computer Management. The last function is where I was intending to
format the drive and mount, but I am concerned that I will only be
formating 1/3 of the drive.

Either you have strange setting in BIOS disk config (should be auto),
or something strange in the partition table.
Clear the MBR with mbrwiz or diskpart, and reboot.

LoBatt · Jan 20, 2009

The way to detect this is to get ID and manufacturer from
the drive. For example Speedfan will list Model and
Firmware Revision under the SMART tab. Various other
non-vendor tools do too.

Arno

Hey Arno, Speed fan confirms it is model number ST31500341AS, and when
googled it shows as the correct drive.

Also digging around the Seagate site, they recommend that the firmware
is current and not to be updated.

A little program from them called drivedetect works ok to properly ID
the drive, but DiscWizard still tells me I have no Seagate drive
installed.

Steps taken so far are, another bios flash, and removing the Samsung,
and using the cables from that drive to power the Seagate.

Thanks to all

LoBatt · Jan 20, 2009

Either you have strange setting in BIOS disk config (should be auto),
or something strange in the partition table.
Clear the MBR with mbrwiz or diskpart, and reboot.

Hey Eric,

Dumb question here, but am I to wipe the MBR on the primary boot
drive, or the unformatted Seagate?

BTW, mbrwiz crashes on me when trying to go any further than the first
menu.

Thanks for the reply,

LB

Rod Speed · Jan 20, 2009

Hey Eric,

Dumb question here, but am I to wipe the MBR on
the primary boot drive, or the unformatted Seagate?

The unformatted Seagate. Whats in the MBR can
confuse the bios when it identifys the size of the drive.

JimmyMiller · Jan 20, 2009

BTW, mbrwiz crashes on me when trying to go any further than the first

menu.

I had this same problem, it sounds like you are running mbrwiz by
clicking on the executable. Try running it from a command line
prompt and specifying the options you need.

Arno Wagner · Jan 20, 2009

Previously LoBatt said:
Hey Arno, Speed fan confirms it is model number ST31500341AS, and when
googled it shows as the correct drive.

Ok, so we can rule out the scam.

Also digging around the Seagate site, they recommend that the firmware
is current and not to be updated.

A little program from them called drivedetect works ok to properly ID
the drive, but DiscWizard still tells me I have no Seagate drive
installed.

Very strange indeed.

Steps taken so far are, another bios flash, and removing the Samsung,
and using the cables from that drive to power the Seagate.

Can you test in a different computer? Maybe it is a subtle
incompatibility...

Arno

Eric Gisin · Jan 22, 2009

From Command Prompt:

mbrwiz /list

.... [make you identify the new #]

mbrwiz /disk=# /wipe=mbr

[reboot or "rescan" in disk mgr]

LoBatt · Jan 22, 2009

I had this same problem, it sounds like you are running mbrwiz by
clicking on the executable. Try running it from a command line
prompt and specifying the options you need.

Thanks for the tip Jimmy. Was able to launch diskpart from cmd and
use the "clean all" function. But to no avail. Still showing up as
500MB.

I was, however, able to run Seagate Discwizard sucessfully, but that
did not help either.

Am running SeaTools on it now, to see if it will turn up any errors
before I send it back.

Rod Speed · Jan 22, 2009

LoBatt said:
On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:07:03 -0800 (PST), JimmyMiller

Thanks for the tip Jimmy. Was able to launch diskpart from cmd and
use the "clean all" function. But to no avail. Still showing up as 500MB.

Its better to wipe the first physical sector on the drive by writing zeros thru it.

I was, however, able to run Seagate Discwizard sucessfully, but that did not help either.

Am running SeaTools on it now, to see if it will turn up any errors before I send it back.

Maybe its just another symptom of what a steaming turd those drives currently are.

Franc Zabkar · Jan 22, 2009

Thanks for the tip Jimmy. Was able to launch diskpart from cmd and
use the "clean all" function. But to no avail. Still showing up as
500MB.

I was, however, able to run Seagate Discwizard sucessfully, but that
did not help either.

Am running SeaTools on it now, to see if it will turn up any errors
before I send it back.

What is the origin of the drive? Is it an OEM version, eg HP, Dell,
etc?

Could it be that its visible capacity is intentionally limited by
means of the HPA?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Protected_Area

Some OEMs may do this to prevent a customer from receiving a
replacement drive that is larger than what he paid for. Of course
500GB drives are still current in the marketplace, so shipping a 1.5GB
in place of a 500GB seems highly unlikely.

According to Wikipedia, Seagate's Discwizard should be able to detect
the presence of a HPA.

- Franc Zabkar

Franc Zabkar · Jan 22, 2009

Ok, so we can rule out the scam.

It could be that the 512 bytes of Identify Drive data are stored in a
serial EEPROM rather than with the main body of firmware, in which
case it wouldn't be hard to fake. In fact I've hacked this data area
in my old Ricoh MP-6200A 2x CD burner (I enabled DMA mode).

I'd go to Seagate's warranty URL and check the S/N of the drive
against Seagate's database:

http://support.seagate.com/customer/warranty_validation.jsp

- Franc Zabkar

Arno Wagner · Jan 22, 2009

Previously Franc Zabkar said:
On 20 Jan 2009 19:21:34 GMT, Arno Wagner <[email protected]> put finger
to keyboard and composed:

It could be that the 512 bytes of Identify Drive data are stored in a
serial EEPROM rather than with the main body of firmware, in which
case it wouldn't be hard to fake. In fact I've hacked this data area
in my old Ricoh MP-6200A 2x CD burner (I enabled DMA mode).

I'd go to Seagate's warranty URL and check the S/N of the drive
against Seagate's database:

http://support.seagate.com/customer/warranty_validation.jsp

Hmm. Of course it is possible that the scam has evolved. However
manipulatin the drive firmware requires some intelligence and
then the perpetrator could also realize that a 500GB drive
will have a very high chance of raising suspicion when
sold as 1.5TB.

Still, criminals are stupid in surprising ways. If the
S/N was also copied over, your check will not help, but
it may show some inconsitencies.

Arno

Franc Zabkar · Jan 22, 2009

Hmm. Of course it is possible that the scam has evolved. However
manipulatin the drive firmware requires some intelligence and
then the perpetrator could also realize that a 500GB drive
will have a very high chance of raising suspicion when
sold as 1.5TB.

Still, criminals are stupid in surprising ways. If the
S/N was also copied over, your check will not help, but
it may show some inconsitencies.

Arno

I believe there may be a way to update the Identify Drive data with a
simple RS232 test fixture.

See the HDD DIY command in this HDD data recovery software:
http://www.salvationdata.com/data-recovery-freewares/seagate-rapair.htm

Otherwise you could access the serial EEPROM directly by connecting a
jig to its I2C pins while holding the PCB's reset signal low. This
keeps the HDD's uP quiet and allows an external uP to control the I2C
bus.

Here is a free PC software tool for reading and writing I2C devices
in-circuit:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060511013214/sterr.narod.ru/progs/iicuni.rar

- Franc Zabkar

Seagate 1.5TB HD showing as 500GB

LoBatt

Rod Speed

Andreas Eibach

Arno Wagner

LoBatt

Arno Wagner

Arno Wagner

Eric Gisin

LoBatt

LoBatt

Rod Speed

JimmyMiller

Arno Wagner

Eric Gisin

LoBatt

Rod Speed

Franc Zabkar

Franc Zabkar

Arno Wagner

Franc Zabkar