Resizing down to 137GB limit, XPSP3

[technoid]

I am working on a friend's laptop that has a newly installed 160GB harddrive (installed by another guy/service). The friend said the laptop felt slow since then, so he wanted me to look at it. I discovered the laptop has the 137GB BIOS limit, so even though the drive and laptop still working ok, the electronics has throttled down the drive's transfer speed from UDMAx to PIOx (due to handshake communication errors) and that is why he noticed the slowness. The drive currently runs around 3.5GB/second instead of around 25GB/second (normal).

I am thinking in trying the freeware EASEUS Partition Master. I have never resized partitions before. The big question now is if Partition Master will be able to resize the partition (160GB) and split it into 2 partitions, say like, 120GB and 40GB, so that the laptop can run the drive back at normal speed? I am just wondering if PM will have a problem seeing the entire partition because the laptop has the BIOS limitiation. There is no laptop BIOS upgrade to overcome the 137GB limit.

It would have been nice if the laptop didn't even boot with the big drive in it, but it seems that it worked and so it was a big oversight on the previous guy installing the drive and OS. I suppose he didn't notice the slowness. Installed OS is Windows XP SP3. The OS sees the full 160GB ok, but the laptop doesn't (BIOS sees it as 137GB). I checked with EASEUS and they said that it will probably not work, because the program needs both the BIOS and OS to see the correct drive size. If that's so, I am also wondering if there is another partitioning program that can do the job. I don't want to have to start over and repartition/reformat from scratch, if possible.

Please move this to the correct subforum if this is the wrong place.

[kingsc]

I am working on a friend's laptop that has a newly installed 160GB harddrive (installed by another guy/service). The friend said the laptop felt slow since then, so he wanted me to look at it. I discovered the laptop has the 137GB BIOS limit, so even though the drive and laptop still working ok, the electronics has throttled down the drive's transfer speed from UDMAx to PIOx (due to handshake communication errors) and that is why he noticed the slowness. The drive currently runs around 3.5GB/second instead of around 25GB/second (normal).

I am thinking in trying the freeware EASEUS Partition Master. I have never resized partitions before. The big question now is if Partition Master will be able to resize the partition (160GB) and split it into 2 partitions, say like, 120GB and 40GB, so that the laptop can run the drive back at normal speed? I am just wondering if PM will have a problem seeing the entire partition because the laptop has the BIOS limitiation. There is no laptop BIOS upgrade to overcome the 137GB limit.

It would have been nice if the laptop didn't even boot with the big drive in it, but it seems that it worked and so it was a big oversight on the previous guy installing the drive and OS. I suppose he didn't notice the slowness. Installed OS is Windows XP SP3. The OS sees the full 160GB ok, but the laptop doesn't (BIOS sees it as 137GB). I checked with EASEUS and they said that it will probably not work, because the program needs both the BIOS and OS to see the correct drive size. If that's so, I am also wondering if there is another partitioning program that can do the job. I don't want to have to start over and repartition/reformat from scratch, if possible.

Please move this to the correct subforum if this is the wrong place.

What do you mean by UDMAx and PIOx? I haven't heard these terms.... but that doesn't mean much.

I assume you're talking about DMA vs PIO mode. There's a way to set this to DMA(Which I think is faster IIRC) without having to repartition...

[technoid]

What do you mean by UDMAx and PIOx? I haven't heard these terms.... but that doesn't mean much.

I assume you're talking about DMA vs PIO mode. There's a way to set this to DMA(Which I think is faster IIRC) without having to repartition...

Oh sorry, yes that is what I meant, the "x" in PIOx/UDMAx is just the speed level#, i.e. UDMA5, UDMA4, PIO3, etc. (and UDMA is Ultra DMA). Can't recall the drive brand/model right now, but it is 160GB, 5400 rpm. I did a ton of research, including Microsoft support and BIOS config, but no matter what I did, XP didn't recognize the fixes and just reverts back to PIO mode. According to Microsoft, if the drive reports CRC errors too many times, it reverts drive speed to PIO. So after all that, seems everything points to the 137GB limit. Laptop BIOS is set to drive UDMA. I checked transfer speeds using HDTune, PCWizard and a couple other benchmarkers and the drive runs around 3.5GB/sec currently, which is about 5-7 times slower than normal. Ouch!

[submix8c]

Hmm... may have something to do with the Mode setting on/in the HDD (?). Usually, just setting the BIOS to AUTO on everything for the HDD allows detection. I was under the impression that the "barrier" was irrelevant once booted to the OS. Have you checked for a BIOS update?

[technoid]

Hmm... may have something to do with the Mode setting on/in the HDD (?). Usually, just setting the BIOS to AUTO on everything for the HDD allows detection. I was under the impression that the "barrier" was irrelevant once booted to the OS. Have you checked for a BIOS update?

Yes, the drive detection is set to Auto in BIOS, and when you look on the harddisk page there, it shows the drive size as 137GB, not 160GB, which gives you an idea that it has the 137GB limitation. I tried reconfiguring the BIOS, but nothing worked. I looked for a BIOS update on the mfr's site and there is none. The laptop is at the latest BIOS rev. I contacted the mfr through their support page, and have not gotten reply since I wrote them about 3 weeks ago. And I wouldn't want to wait any longer.

The laptop is a Fujitsu Lifebook C Series #C2240. The BIOS is at 1.05 and that is what Fujitsu has as the latest rev on their website. You can find specs and downloads at http://support.fujitsupc.com/CS/Portal/supportsearch.do

Perhaps someone might find something there that I did not. I will probably have to break down and just redo everything (delete partition and start from scratch). But I will try the Partition Master first. I have until this weekend to finish this, heh.