External WD 160 Gig HDD...somethings not right

Hi all,

I just went out and bought a WD 7200 rpm 160 gig external hdd and it is only showing 111 gigs. It says it was formatted in FAT 32 not NTFS could this be the cause?
Thanks,

 

Most external drives are formatted for FAT32. I usually reformat for NTFS for use with XP/2000. This shouldn't be your cause though. Check for any hidden partition etc on the drive.

 

Paul,

How would I check for a hidden partition?

 

There may be a hidden partition of unalocated space. Usually this is around 8MB in size and on most disks, and is required. I'm thinking that this "unallocated" space may be significantly greater than 8MB. When partitioning a disk after booting fron the windows install disk this unallocated space is mentioned. A repartition of the drive may reclaim the full amount of space? Minus the 8MB.

Of course this all assumes that you really do have a 160GB drive in the external enclosure? Stranger things have occurred.

 

Paul,

my appologies for giving you bad info it is a 120 GB HDD and I am reformatting it to NTFS anyways to insure it is clean. What should the allocation unit size be tho? I dont know why I was thinking 160.

Regards,

 

I know quite a lot of computers have a "BIOS limitation" at 128Gb (the computer's BIOS cannot "see" drives over 128Gb). If so, the options are:
Live with the current size (the drive may have a jumper to limit it's "size "). Then use the full size when you get an updated computer/motherboard.
Try a BIOS upgrade.
Use a Dynamic Drive Overlay (not recommended if you plan to change the drive configuration...could cause big problems).

Matt
Edit: firedancer you just posted before me...anyway...this may relate to to someone with a 160gb drive or larger ...

 

Hi,

When I look at the properties it says 92.3 mb used and I havent put anything on it yet hmmm

 

Glad it's looking a bit better FireDancer.

Tick that Show hidden files and folders box. This may show where a bit of space has gone, probably in some system type files automatically put on the drive. Not sure that it should be as much as 93.3. Although it's less than 0.1% used, so shouldn't be a concern.