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Voila! 60 gig becomes a 40 gig

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nemome

nemome

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In a previous posting I asked about cloning, and had a good news, bad news experience. This is the bad: The new 60 gig laptop hard drive, which I cloned using Acronis True Image, was formatted as a 40 gig using the automatic process. I was going to try the cloning process again to expand the partition, like the software said it would do (but didn't). However, it never allowed the reallocation.

I looked under disk management on XP in the thoughts of reformatting it as a 60, but it would seem it would only allow a formatting as a 40 gig.

My Question: How do I reformat it as a 60 Gig, and then use True Image to clone it while keeping the expanded partitions?
 
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Partition Magic won't allow me to expand it. It seems to believe the Disk is only a 40 Gig. It will only allow me to re -partition the current 40 (37) gig.
 
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Can you verify that on the hdd it states it's a 60gb drive?

=========================================
“You can actually become a role model for women.” - Jenna Jameson :)
 
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Per the label: Hitach Travelstar 60GB ATA/IDE HTS541060G9AT00

 
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Have you tried booting it through the XP CD? Go through the process as if you were installing it from scratch, you will get to the point that it will ask you to either delete the current partition or not, of course, choose "do not format", and there should be another 20gbs unformatted and unpartitioned, create the extra partition and merge it later. Hopefully that will do it.

Did you purchase this drive online? store? I'm thinking that maybe the label was placed by accident? I'd never encountered this problem where the OS couldn't find the rest of the drive, if anything I know that XP natively formats to 120gb max, then you have to format the rest of the drive and then merge it if you want, maybe someone else can add if they have seen this behavior before. If you find a fix, don't forget to share it as I would like to know as well. =)

=========================================
“You can actually become a role model for women.” - Jenna Jameson :)
 
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What size drive did you clone from? If it was 40GB, reclone again but don't use automatic mode. Acronis True Image should give you an opportunity to resize the newer drive's resulting partition. That is, of course, if the new drive is truly 60GB. I use Acronis True Image and Disk Director exclusively and have never had it give this kind of result.
 
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Thanks folks. To Freestone: Cloned it from a 40GB.That's exactly what I tried to do with True Image, but even in manual mode it only saw the destination drive as a 40GB. I just tried to do it again manually, and it wouldn't allow me to go beyond the 40 GB limit
 
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nemome - I fired up Acronis True Image Clone Drive in automatic mode and saw that it said it would resize the destination drive partition to the larger size for you.

What does BIOS report for drive size?

Go to the drive manufacturer's site ( and download their drive diagnostic tools and see what size of drive they think it is. You could then also zero-filling the drive to wipe out any MBR and partitioing information to see if that brings the drive back up to the full 60GB size.

I am of noobtechie's belief that the drive is mislabelled. This series of Hitachi drive also features a 40GB model.
 
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Freestone: Was it Freistein at one time? I digress...anyway,
I understand regarding True Image. I went through manual mode. On the interface that allows you to adjust the size of the partition, it will not allow me to expand it. The increase arrow is whited out. Unfortunately, that Hitachi diagnostic program seems to be missing a scsioat.dll and will not run.I did view the BIOS and it only sees the HD as a 40GB. No, I never saw 60 GB other than what was on the label, but I hooked it up directly to True Image without attempting any other diagnostic analysis.
 
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No, never Freistein, though I am half-German. Freestone is a throwback to the old BBS days, you know before Al Gore invented the Internet :-) and just sorta stuck since.

I really doubt Acronis changed something on the drive to make it seem to be only 40GB, though I won't say that with 100% sureness. At the moment I have three suggestions:

[ol]
[li]Is it possible that your laptop won't accept anything greater than 40GB? [/li]

[li]Zero-fill the drive to erase any MBR and partitioning information[/li]

[li]If you bought the drive locally, see if you can get an exchange for another 60GB.[/li][/ol]
 
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Fieldstone,

You forgot:

4. Check the drive's serial number at Hitachi, it may be under warranty. Mine was and every time I have sent a drive back to them or others I rec'd a new one no questions asked.

nemome,

Definitely report back with what the BIOS tells us.

wahnula (I got my name from a 1977 VW squareback)
 
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Oh yeah, why would I think it was a real name. Like nemome means I'm Italian or Greek, coincidentally though...anway,

I guess it's possible the laptop won't support anything larger. It is a 2002 model, but I believe XP can natively handle up to 120 GB.

Herrn Freestone: Is Norton Wipe Info sufficient for the zeroing process, or do I just need to remove the partitions?
 
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Is Norton Wipe Info sufficient for the zeroing process, or do I just need to remove the partitions?
Click to expand...

I believe Wipe Info works within Windows to fully overwrite deleted data, not a low-level format like the zero-fill utilities, but I could be wrong. You need to use the link Feldstew (sorry Freestone) referred to to completely zero-fill the disk in DOS or another low-level OS.

Definitely run all the Hitachi diagnostics as well as any others you can get your hands on. I have heard Maxtor will run on all makes, but no firsthand experience.

What is the make/model of the laptop? I have not heard of a 40 GB limit to hardware, there could be a defective platter/head on the drive. Zero fill, then report what the BIOS says.

Tony

 
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This zerofilling sure takes a long time. At this rate, It won't be done until tomorrow at some time.

I think it is a complete zero fill. It also gives you EvidenceEliminator type options. Anyway. It's a Compaq Presario 2100 with AMD Athlon 2800+
 
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What little info I found concerning Wipe Info leads me to agree with Tony, i.e. it clears previously deleted data (a.k.a. a secure erase) and is not equivalent to a zero-fill. I also like Tony's theory of a defective head causing 40GB rather 60GB.

XP with Service Pack 1, in tandem with correct BIOS, can handle drives much larger than 120GB. See and the site in general for tons more information.

I am confused as to what you meant when you said "Hitachi diagnostic program seems to be missing a scsioat.dll". The link I gave should create a bootable diskette or CD, so I am unsure where you are getting the DLL error. If the zero-fill doesn't work, I highly suggest trying to get the diagnostics to run against the drive. You will probably need to get these to run if you plan on exercising warranty return.

Dell (yes, that is my real first name) alias Freestone, Fieldstone, FeldStew and Freistein - sounds like some cheesy law firm :-)
 
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This zerofilling sure takes a long time.
Click to expand...

Yes, it does, but it should wipe away any hidden partitions if they do exist. Might as well let it finish. Watching the screen makes it take twice as long...

Tony
 
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I was trying to run the diagnostic against a USB connection. Read that won't work. So, I'll install the drive in the computer after the zeroing process and run the diagnostics. Cheesy lawfirm: I was walking through Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA when I happen to look up at a window on a building: "Dewey, Cheatham & Howe"-and I thought it was just a 3 Stooges gag. Could I have just used Partition Magic to wipe out the partitions?
 
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