Second hard drive not showing full capacity [after removing Vista]

I hope this isn't a double post as I can't believe this problem hasn't been addressed before in some thread, however I cannot find a relevant thread using the search features of the forum.

Background to the problem. I originally had Windows XP Pro (SP2) installed on partition C of a 300GB Maxtor hard drive that also had D, E, F partitions as well. Formatted the C partition and installed Vista. Looked nice, a few bugs, but overall the compatibility with my peripherals just wasn't there and wasn't going to be for some time as each manufacturer said they didn't plan to release Vista drivers until the product was final released. Long story short, I ALMOST made the boneheaded error of trying to reinstall XP Pro over Vista, had stuck in the setup disc, let it boot up and caught myself before starting the install...too late, idiot that I am apparently had already botched up the partition tables. Luckily, I have a backed up hard drive (120 GB Maxtor) and I am now operating off of this. There is very little on the 300 GB hard drive that wasn't backed up and I will worry about data recovery later as it is not a critical issue and likely not going to work as I have written 0's to the hard drive and done a full format in an effort to fix the problem. (albeit the format and writing of 0's was while showing only 38.1 GB capacity)

Now for the problem. I have both hard drives installed in the system on the same IDE cable, both are jumpered to CS mode at the moment as having the 120 GB (backup drive) set as master and the 300 GB HD set as slave had no effect on the issue. The issue is that the 300 GB HD is only showing up as 38.1 GB formatted as NTFS. Using the drive integrity test utility by Maxtor the drive reports as 300 GB and is OK with no errors, but no matter what I change in my BIOS, nor the jumper settings, I cannot get more than the 38.1 GB out of this drive. Partition Magic 7.0 and Acronis True Image both report the same 38.1 GB capacity.

Internet searches and the such have given me about 100 different things to try, and to be honest I would trust forums such as this before I try something on some webpage. I have used the microsift registry large disk enabler tool but it had no effect.

Other than help on the obvious problem I would also like to know if there is a limitation to hard drive capacity within Windows XP (i.e. is 120 + 300 =420 GB too much?). Do I have to have RAID set up in order for this to work?

System info as follows.

Motherboard: Asus P4P800-E Deluxe (updated to latest Bios available from website)
Processor: P4 3.2 GHz
Memory : 2 GB
Hard drives: 120 GB Maxtor and 300 GB Maxtor
Operating system: XP Pro SP2 with all latest updates
Antivirus: NAV 2005 updated to latest (disabled for troubleshooting and still no effect)

Thank you anyone who contributes to solving this problem.

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,
(BTW, double posting is when you submit your thread to two forums, like the WinXP forum and the Hardware forum at the same time. It makes it very difficult for people answering in two separate threads. You can search the BBS for previous similar questions, but problems can always be slightly different. If it is a common question someone will point you to previous threads. A search may find the solution immediately.)

You don't say what software you used to do the zero format. Maxtor's latest utilities available from their website are a CD image (.iso) that you burn to a disk. I have not used them yet. From the last time I used them, the zero format (low-level format) was in the PowerMax utility. I suggest you use that. You will then need to use Maxblast to partition and format the disk. *Avoid installing EZbios*.

You could try getting MaxBlast to overwrite the MBR. This may save you doing the zero format again.

Don't be afraid to use any of the Maxtor utilities apart from EZbios. At this stage you have a blank drive and don't need to worry about losing data. If you make a mistake it is easy to try again.
Edit: having said that, I would recommend that you remove the 120Gb drive from the system, so that the wrong drive does not get wiped by mistake.

Matt

 

I agree, try another zerofill. Have a go with www.killdisk.com and see if it recognises the full size of the drive. If it only sees 38gigs then you have a deeper problem than anything written to the hard drive. Try connecting the drive as the sole master and use the master jumper setting as opposed to the CS setting. Also try another ribbon cable if you have one.

If the problem persists then perhaps it’s a similar problem to this recent thread.
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=55485

 

Thank you for the suggestions though none have worked.

The link to the other thread McTavish posted is very VERY similar to my problem. I just didn't attribute my losing the use of the rest of the HD to vista but it sure does sound like it could be a culprit now. I will continue to experiment further and, should I find a solution, will post it in the appropriate thread.