WD1600BEVT incorrect low level format

[jtcomms]

Hi
I have a WD1600BEVT drive which only reports 111.79gB after low level formatting using the HDGURU LLF Tool. The LBA only reports 23444167 sectors, when the label reports 312581808.

Are there any tools that will allow the drive to reformat to the proper size?

Thanks,
Jim

[pcimage]

Try using MHDD and its "HPA" command to check and reset the drives LBA

[jtcomms]

Thanks, is that a program or an option in another program?

JT

[unknown]

MHDD is the program. NHPA is a command in this program.

[jtcomms]

Thanks for the advice, but when I run the program, it does not find the drive. XP does find it though. I have it connected to the secondary SATA port. The program automatically disables the primary port.


Jim

[Vulcan]

when I run the program, it does not find the drive.

This behaviour is typically due to the SATA controller being in AHCI mode, but not being compatible with MHDD (mentioned in the manual page below).

http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02- ... al.en.html

That situation (if it applies in your case) requires the SATA controller to be temporarily set to IDE / compatibility / legacy mode (whatever your BIOS calls it), before SATA drives can be recognised by MHDD. (Don't forget to put the SATA controller back into its previous mode before booting Windows again, to avoid causing any new issues.)

I'm also curious about why you were running the Low Level Format Tool in the first place - can you explain the background, in case that becomes relevant? Also, how much have you used this disk so far - what is its history?

[jtcomms]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.

The drive was in a laptop that was encountering issues unrelated to the hard drive. It was removed from the laptop with the intention to be used elsewhere. I decided to low level format it using the LLF tool, just to start clean. Normally this LLF program works great on hard drives in the past, but this one was only reporting the reduced size. I tried both directly to the SATA port on the MB, as well as an external USB to SATA adapter; identical results with both methods.

The motherboard (ASUS) is NOT set to ACHI, it is set to IDE/SATA as you recommended. Again, it recognizes fine in XP world, formats fine, and tests fine with the manufacturers utility programs. It just refuses to work as a 160 (or close), only 111 or so.

Jim

[Vulcan]

Thanks for the info.

The drive was in a laptop that was encountering issues unrelated to the hard drive. It was removed from the laptop with the intention to be used elsewhere. I decided to low level format it using the LLF tool, just to start clean.

OK. There would have been other ways to do that (e.g. zerofill using WD DLG tool) but that doesn't help with the current situation now.

Normally this LLF program works great on hard drives in the past, but this one was only reporting the reduced size.

OK and I understood that you were saying the LLF tool is reporting that 111GB drive size. Out of interest, what drive size is reported by the system BIOS, for that WD drive?

The motherboard (ASUS) is NOT set to ACHI, it is set to IDE/SATA as you recommended. Again, it recognizes fine in XP world, formats fine, and tests fine with the manufacturers utility programs. It just refuses to work as a 160 (or close), only 111 or so.

Understood. Oh well, it was worth checking that as a reason why you said MHDD doesn't show that WD drive. Unfortunately, until you can get that drive recognised by a suitable DOS-based utility program (MHDD is commonly used by people here; HDAT2 is an alternative utility that some people use, but I last used it ages ago so I can't give you directions), then I don't see how you can look for, and have a chance of removing, any HPA which has been set. I've never seen a way of checking that from within WinXP, so it doesn't help (for this purpose) that the drive works in WinXP.

One other possibility is that this is really a 120GB drive which has been labeled as a 160GB drive, but it isn't 160GB really. Do you have evidence that would disprove that as a possibility?

[jtcomms]

The label on the drive states LBA should be 312581808, but it only shows LBA 234441648 when I low level format it. The entire model number is a WD Scorpio WD1600BEVT-60ZCTO

It was manufactured in May 2008 P/N 465898-001 CT: 2ADKN00W1W0BAZ



Based on the label, it would appear to be a 160. I doubt if WD mislabeled it, but you never know.