I'm running a Compaq FS3650NL. There are 2 HDD in it: a Maxtor 120 Gb (system) and a Maxtor 160 GB. Both disks are seen in the setup as 33.8 GB and in XP as 31.7 GB. All IDE.
The system is running Windows XP SP2. I tried: low level formatting, the MaxBlast tool, a new controller, I chatted with HP (Compaq) on the issue... You name it, I tried.
Whatever I do, the disks keep themselves to the 33.8 GB limit and it seems impossible to get them back to their original sizes. The disks are connected to the Compaq with Cable select as Compaq requires.
Why do the disks behave like this and what have I missed?

Thanks in advance!

What are the jumper settings on the drives? Have you tried the disks on another PC? Does MHDD display HPA when scanning?

Hi also check your motherboard bios supports drives > 32GB and that you haven't accidentally set capacity limit jumper on one of the drives.

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I think ST is a sub company of Lucas

The capacity limit jumpers are not set. The motherboard BIOs should support the drive as compaq (HP...) stated. But I'll make this more certain. Tomorrow I'll try the other hints....
Thanks so far!

Also check in bios setup, if I remember correctly some compaq bios have a setting to enable bios support for large drives that needs to be enabled.

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I think ST is a sub company of Lucas

Check HPA limit with MHDD, PC3000 or similar.

Set to Max LBA.

Sometime with HP/Compaq restrict LBA, especially if these are replacement drives for ones failed in the field. Rather than be seen to replace with a bigger drive, they restrict the size to the original (say 40GB).

Hope this helps

Found an tried MHDD. I went through it from start to end... nothing helps. the commands are issued all rigth, I ran the nhpa command and everything related with it. The 160 GB disk keeps reporting some 33 GB. No matter what I do: initing, lba's to max....
I'm out of solutions I'm afraid, never seen this before.
The disk is a DiamondMax 20, 160 Gb pata. It reports (MHDD): Type Maxtor STM3160812A. LBA 66,055,244. BIOS: 80H. Supports: LBA48 DLMC LBA MS16 DMA(UDMA5, MWDMA2) Size 32253 MB.
FDISK reports the same....

I'm still open for any ideas.

Aha... reporting 32 GB instead of 160 is some factor 5. The reported LBA is 66,055,244. when I try to NHPA the disc it asks if I want to set it to the native LBA adress y/n. Chosing y... Read NHPA...Reporting Native Maximum LBA adress: 312581807... continue? y/n, chosing Y... working... and then: 'FAIL. Try to repower HDD'.
did that several times, but doesn't help.
With the config command it can't write new params to the disk: 'device error'.

so far so good? The native LBA is some 5 times the reported LBA. But with MHDD I can't put that right. Reason? Tools?
And ofcourse: thanks for giving me a good tool to look at the disk!

Erik

Try drives in another PC & re-check jumpers & cables. Both wouldn't have same problem.BTW what does maxblast say if you try to format your 160GB maxtor. It checks bios drive capacity and offers the option to set patitions when doing the initial format if the PC does not support max LBA of the drive.

When you have two drives with the same problem odds are you only have one problem The PC, cables, or jumper, or as pcimage said you have 2 clipped drives from the manufacturer but Compaq usually re-label them over the original sticker, MHDD bypasses bios so it can probably read full LBA but I don't know if it can bypass the controllers limitation to set the HPA past what it can read. Someone else here with more experience can tell you this. I had a similar problem with a 160GB WD drive on my test PC as it only supported 120GB at the time.

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I think ST is a sub company of Lucas

Thanks for the reply. I'll try the disks in another system. that will take me some time; I'm grounded with an broken achilles heel and can't get upstairs to get another pc. But I'll get it down...
I tried an brand-new modern controller, but that doesn't help. You are right: it looks like two problems but since they have the same result with two different disks it will be one problem somewhere in the system. It had crossed my mind that de original disk (the 120GB) might have been down-sized for commercial reasons, but I couldn't find any evidence of that. In my chat with Compaq it did not show up neither was there a bios update. What puzzles me is that MHDD reports a native lba 5 times higher than what it actually uses and it can't be corrected in the usual way.
Can there be a conflict by using cable select on the drives? The Compaq requires that.
I don't know why Maxblast doesn't do the job. From what I saw the tool is'nt what it used to be (i've seen version 4 and 5) and it doesn't offer anything else than partitioning the drive -to the fine 32 GB. Maybe a factory fresh drive behaves in another way, but that's in the given situation all I could do with Maxblast.
I'll see that I get a second system down somehow and try the disks there.

- to be continued!-
Erik

Another one: is it possible that a virus did something with the BIOS? I read it should be possible that a virus flashes the BIOS.

Erik.

Before you give up see if large disk support is an option in the bios settings & enable it if it is there.

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I think ST is a sub company of Lucas

In the BIOS:
- set the disk to auto and manual (alternate...)
- set the disk access mode to LBA and Large (alternate...)

- NHPA command issued from MHDD... (with cold boot inbetween)

No effect. It looks if there is no BIOS setting at all. The disk works but keeps reporting 32.* GB.

-the BIOS might be rotten? (does this happen?)
-I still have to try it in another system (will do that today...)

Erik.

hi take a look at this http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph06847&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=352371&rule=42094&lang=en it's from Compaq's own support site.

There is a bios update herehttp://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=352371&lang=en

It may be possible the bios is set up to only support 32GB

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I think ST is a sub company of Lucas