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XP Reinstall but now no d drive [250Gb seen as 128Gb - WE sees it as unformatted]

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by Yo Antknee, 2007/05/26.

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  1. 2007/05/26
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    My Dell 8200 was a mess so I decided a format & reinstall of XP on my 80 maxtor C-drive would be best. I backed up ALL of my data & photos to my Seagate 250 D-drive and did the reinstall. Now, explorer sees the D-drive but tells me it needs to be formatted. Computer management screen shows D-rive as 128 Gb healthy and active with 104 Gb unallocated. I have gone through this reinstall process before but do not remember how to get the computer to know that my 250 is formatted and available. Help!:confused:
     
    Yo Antknee,
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  2. 2007/05/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    PeteC,
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  4. 2007/05/27
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    XP Reinstall but now no d drive

    Actually, after reinstall of Os the first thing I did was run Windows update. The odd thing is that the pc sees the drive in disk management in two pieces.
    Windows explorer also sees the drive but tells me it needs formatting which I know is not correct.
     
    Yo Antknee,
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  5. 2007/05/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Were you offered SP 2? If you right click My Computer icon . Properties does it show SP 2?

    Is LBA enabled in BIOS for that drive?

    The values you quote fall nicely into the 137 Gb limit - 137 Gb formatted = ~128 Gb
     
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  6. 2007/05/27
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    XP Reinstall but now no d drive

    I have SP2 installed. My BIOS setup for that drive is Auto and 250Gb (the two line items on the BIOS screen). On the Microsoft site it mentions editing the registry but I did not do this the last time the problem came up. Are there other options?
     
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  7. 2007/05/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    As this is a straightforward re-install of XP rather than a rebuild I guess there is no chance of the drive being jumpered incorrectly or using the wrong cable.

    A further thought - you did install the motherboard chipset drivers?
     
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  8. 2007/05/27
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    XP Reinstall but now no d drive

    Furthermore, my registry indicates that LBA is enabled.
    The registry line at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters\ shows EnableBigLba Reg_Dword 0x00000001 (1). I believe the (1) is the code to enable.
     
    Yo Antknee,
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  9. 2007/05/27
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    XP Reinstall but now no d drive

    Never did motherboard chipset drivers on this machine. Also, jumpers were working fine.
     
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  10. 2007/05/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Any particular reason why not? They are required for optimum performance.
     
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  11. 2007/05/27
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    XP Reinstall but now no d drive

    Never thought about it. It's a good idea but from past experience I know it's not the solution to the problem at hand.
     
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  12. 2007/05/27
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Well, I'm fresh out of ideas at present - wait for one of the other hardware guys to chip in.
     
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  13. 2007/05/27
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    XP Reinstall but now no d drive

    Thanks a heap, Pete! I may have to wait until Tuesday when the Seagate tech support people are back.:D
     
    Yo Antknee,
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  14. 2007/05/27
    TopFarmer

    TopFarmer Well-Known Member

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    Once in a while XP install will mess up the Volume Boot Record of a 2 hdd and request to format the partition.
    Normally the hdd/partition will still be reported as the correct size so your problem could be different. I would not rule out chip set drivers as the problem.

    To fix a bad VBR , it can replace the primary with the back up one.
    Can try TESTDISK -www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html (free)
    Partition Table Doctor-http://www.ptdd.com/ ($$$) have never used
     
    TopFarmer,
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  15. 2007/05/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    To check that I have got it right:

    You have two hard disks, both reused from the previous installation.

    Each had a single partition in the previous installation, C: = 80 GB and D: = 250 GB.

    You have reinstalled XP RTM (no SP) to C: and after that, D: shows up as 128 GB with 104 GB unallocated.

    Am I right in assuming that the CD used for reinstallation did not have SP1 or SP2 integrated but SP2 was installed separately?

    Am I right in assuming that the second hard disk was connected during the reinstallation?

    If so, you have fallen into a hole which is difficult to get out of. When the new installation boots up the first time, it does not support hard disks over 137 GB and rewrites the partition information to the size it can handle. I would recommend disconnecting the second hard disk until you have found out if an utility exists that can recover the previous partition information.

    To avoid this scenario, either disconnect the second hard disk during the reinstallation and do not reconnect it until SP2 is installed, or integrate SP2 into the install CD by slipstreaming it. (If the hard disk onto which the installation goes is larger than 137 GB, SP2 must be integrated.)

    Finally, which file system? NTFS or FAT32?

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  16. 2007/05/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I have not used any partition recovery utilities but a quick googling gave a good place to start your search. I would recommend waiting for input from someone who has experince doing this!

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  17. 2007/05/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    This is what Seagate has to say on the Windows 137 GB Capacity Barrier. What has happened in your case is described on page 6, WARNING ... and the first situation described.

    When you reformated and reinstalled XP RTM with the second hard disk connected, what you did was to "move" the second hard disk from a 48-bit compliant system to one that is not. The document does not give any solution but maybe you can find a utility that does.

    A friend of mine did this by having mobile racks in two computers, WinXP on one and Win2K on the other. He was going to transfer files between the two and moved the hard disk from one computer (rack) to the other computer (rack). I don't remember in which "direction" the hard disk was moved or the service pack levels on the respective operating system but he lost all his data because one system didn't support 48-bit LBA. His data was not important or irreplacable so he just reformated, after having updated the offending computer.

    Christer
     
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  18. 2007/05/28
    Yo Antknee

    Yo Antknee Inactive Thread Starter

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    Christer,
    The 250 was partitioned to 200 and 50. Same as last time I did this.
     
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  19. 2007/05/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I don't think it makes a difference. The first partition has been reduced to 137/128 MB and the rest of the space unallocated.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  20. 2007/05/28
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Were my assumptions in post #14 correct?

    Christer
     
    Christer,
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  21. 2007/05/28
    Patch61

    Patch61 Inactive

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    This exact thing happened to me recently. I used a data recovery pogram to restore my files. The drawback is that you need enough empty space on a different HD to accomodate the recovered files. I used Get Data Back NTFS from http://www.runtime.org/.

    They have both FAT and NTFS flavors, be sure you choose the right one (most likely NTFS).

    Now I know to not have any HDs hooked up during a new Windows installation, other than the one I want to use as the Primary Windows drive. I would then update Windows fully before connecting other drives.

    Good Luck!

    -Patch
     
    Patch61,
    #20
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