Was that other machine a Dell?

Were you cloning the drive?

If so, then the following articles may help:

Understanding the Dell MediaDirect Partition:
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm

HPA Problems When Upgrading Hard Disk:
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/hpa-issues.htm

See "How To Repair A Truncated Disk" at the bottom of the previous link.

HDAT2 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):
http://www.hdat2.com/hdat2_faq.html

See Dell and HPA FAQs at above link.

Explanation of Host Protected Area:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area

I don't think I've ever seen a desktop with mediadirect on it, certainly not on anything old enough to have a DM9

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

I was thinking that the OP may have cloned the DM9 drive on an older Dell PC with a much smaller drive, in which case the clone would have had its capacity truncated to match the original drive.

Right I appreciate the thought... only one jumper though.



No but I have used gparted, the partition editor in Ubuntu, and it shows as about 32. I've also used various boot discs specifically for disc management, mhdd disc tools, seatools for dos, disc wizard boot disc, and the drive either shows up as 32 or doesn't show up at all.

mmm no we "upgraded." The computer after the one with this drive had a larger drive.

Partition, sure. Drive, no.

Getting to the point, it does sound like an HPA thing. Either that or a firmware fault. If it is HPA it should be easy to fix with MHDD or the HDD capacity restore tool. If not then it would need pro help and therefore not be worth it.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Crap replied to this but the links I quoted from you mean I couldn't post it.

If so, then the following articles may help:

I will check out the articles thank you.

I'll read about HPA things in those links you provided. Is this something I can solve with a USB connection? Thanks

HDDScan might? Don't remember. Ultimately it also depends on the USB<->PATA controller.

Looking at the website, it looks like no. Your best bet is definitely going to be to just connect the drive directly and boot from an MHDD disc or something.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

It is not a partitioning issue. The drive is actually truncated.

The reason is that Dell uses a custom MBR which calls additional code in LBA 3. The code in LBA 3 cuts the drive and creates a hidden Media Direct partition in the HPA. It is only after the first reboot that the cloned LBA 3 code is executed.

To prevent the drive from being cut, one could either zero out LBA 3, or replace LBA 0 with a standard MBR.

All this is explained in the links I quoted. In fact this problem is now a FAQ in the Seagate forums.

So to achieve this he would have had to clone a laptop drive from a relatively new dell laptop onto his maxtor, and then attempt to boot from it. Which is not what he described, and would be completely pointless as it wouldn't even begin to boot on his desktop. And he isn't even trying to boot to it, as it is attached through USB.

I know that is a real issue that happens, but in this case it doesn't sound relevant at all.

Furthermore, all of this discussion is completely pointless until the poster connects the drive to a machine that he is able to use MHDD etc on to see if it has an HPA, which would then be trivial to deactivate.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Thanks for all the help. As soon as I manage to connect this without a USB I'll get back to you all...
One more question though, since this is a blank drive it would need to be connected as a slave? I couldn't just remove the hard drive from any desk top and pop this one in? And since the jumper is set to master now I need to move it over to the slave setting if I'm going to install it in a desktop as one right?

I have used smartmontools to interrogate drives behind a USB-PATA bridge. I know that HDDScan and HD Sentinel can do the same, at least for some bridges.

HD Sentinel (DOS / Windows/Linux):
http://www.hdsentinel.com/

HDDScan for Windows:
http://hddscan.com/

smartmontools (Linux/Windows):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/files/
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartm ... i/Download

The drive will report its maximum capacity in bytes or sectors. If it reports 32GB instead of 160GB, then a HPA must be active (unless it is faulty?).

You will probably still need to connect it directly to a motherboard to restore its native capacity, though.

Sure you could. Connect this one, boot to an MHDD CD, and you're set.

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Probably I missed it. What does Disk Manager in XP shows?

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Good Luck
http://www.datarecovery.net

It showed a 32 gb drive. Is there anything specific you wanted to know other than that?

Thanks. That seems like the easiest solution. I'll let you know what happens when I find a desktop to take apart.

did it show 32GB partition or 32GB hard drive capacity.... ?

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

so on bottom right side of disk manager in XP you have (x being your Disk number)
------------------------------------------------------------
Disk x :
Basic :
32GB :
Online :
-------------------------------------------------------------
?

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.

Disk 5..................(G:)
Basic...................31.49 GB FAT32
31.49GB...............Healthy
Online..................