Ext HDD's greater than 137GB under Win ME

[dencorso]

So far, so good.

We now know that RPM works with you disk.

But it's seeing the wrong full HDD size.

It insists the HDD is 6024 MB. That I don't like. Look again at my screenshot of my 1.5 TB HDD: RPM figured the right size (1430789 MB)!

Get the free version of Active KILLDISK for Windows. Let's give you disk a good zeroing, before we proceed. I think zeroing out the fist 100 sectors should be enough. But don't do anything before jaclaz posts here again.

@jaclaz: I'm thinking about wrong data in the MBR. I'm sure you can suggest a faster and quicker way of cleaning just it and the PBRs, and guide piikea successfully through it. I'm sure remember Big HDDs need a generic MBR in place to be accessible. I know Active KILLDISK does it properly. But it'll be really slow. So, please, do chime in and advise.

[Ponch]

So far, so good.

We now know that RPM works with you disk.

But it's seeing the wrong full HDD size.

It insists the HDD is 6024 MB. That I don't like. Look again at my screenshot of my 1.5 TB HDD: RPM figured the right size (1430789 MB)!

Get the free version of Active KILLDISK for Windows. Let's give you disk a good zeroing, before we proceed.

I'd say so far, not good at all.

RPM sees a 6Gig drive but so does Swissknife.

At first it saw a 6GB drive with a total of ~1Tera partitions in it (hence red numbers). Now after DIY, it only shows that 6Gig space that you can partition (which probably was the 1st partition from the starting point). My intuition is that you do not have a standard disk but a disk with some hardware protection (encryption or other, probably not compatible with ME) that we killed. Can you give us the brand and model?

As for zeroing, RPM can do that (pressing "E" on the desired space/partition) but I don't think it will help as it will only zero what it sees. As Hammer would say, ... Stop! Jaclaz time.

[jaclaz]

Someone called?

As I see it we have a number of variables, most of which have UNKNOWN values.

We don't know:

• if the USB support of the OS is working as it should
  
• if RPM can actually manage 1 Tb size disks
  
• if Swissknife supports 1 Tb disks
  
• if Diskman4 supports 1 Tb disks (and ANYWAY it is too difficult to use program for the end user)
  

To which you add a (no offence whatever intended ) a non-expert user and the result of the equation CANNOT but become "a suffusion of yellow".

At this point I would try (for free) the partition logic approach:

http://partitionlogic.org.uk/

this way we remove any problem that might be caused by the Win9x + the USB support added to it.

The alternative being parted magic.

Instead of using the latter "directly" I would rather suggest the UBCD:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

which includes, besides parted magic, more tools, including the "SuperFdisk" (which I never used BTW) that could be yet another alternative tool.

jaclaz

[rloew]

As I see it we have a number of variables, most of which have UNKNOWN values.

We don't know:

• if the USB support of the OS is working as it should
  
• if RPM can actually manage 1 Tb size disks
  
• if Swissknife supports 1 Tb disks
  
• if Diskman4 supports 1 Tb disks (and ANYWAY it is too difficult to use program for the end user)
  

For an independent assessment, try my RFDISK Demo. It is designed for Drives up to 512TiB so it will definitely support 1TB. The Demo is Read Only.

[dencorso]

@jaclaz, Ponch and RLoew: Thanks a lot for chiming in! Your advice certainly will help us move forward.

So here is what little I do know but did not say explicitly, up to now:

1) piikea's USB HDD enclosure is based on JMicron JM20329 (from the VID=152D&PID=2329), which does support 48-bit LBA.

2) RPM worked and still works correctly (from a DOS Box, under Win 98SE + 98SE2ME + NUSB 3.3 + USB20DRV) with my External USB 2.0 HDDs, which are:

a. IOMEGA MDHD500-U enclosure with a Hitachi Deskstar HDS725050KLAT80 500 GB HDD inside;

b. Seagate FreeAgent Go SE 500 GB with a Seagate Momentus ST90500325AS (5400 rmm) 500 GB HDD inside;

c. Seagate Expansion 1500 GB with a Seagate Barracuda LP ST31500541AS (5900 rmm) 1500 GB HDD inside.

So I know of at leas one example where it does work correctly with a 1.5 TB HDD (of which I presented a screenshot in post #39

3) piikea's HDD is a 1 TB Western Digital but he never said which model.

[Ponch]

[*]if RPM can actually manage 1 Tb size disks

from the documentation, (UPDATES in ver 2.42 , thus not 2.40)

" > 128 GiB disk support but only upto 1.99 TiB - UNTESTED"

I'm all right with a 500Gig and apparently dencorso is fine with his 1.5Tera.

[dencorso]

Yea, but you have a point, Ponch: I usually work with RPM ver 2.43 (beta)...

I suggested ver 2.40 because it's the "stable" version... but you've just pointed out a good motive to update my genaeral recomendation to 2.43, which behaviour I'm sure of.

[Ponch]

But your (good) screenshot says 2.40.

[piikea]

As to make & model -

WESTERN DIGITAL WD10EALS Caviar Blue 1TB 7200RPM 32MB cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

in an

EAGLE e series 3.5" SATA to USB 2.0 aluminum external hdd enclosure

System has USB 2.0 - which readily recognizes a card reader, mp3 device & 80GB ext HDD w/o issues so perhaps 1TB is too big(?). Although IT IS assigned a drive letter & displays in Windows as 931GB (which is about right?).

Waiting to proceed for a concensus on what best to try next...

[dencorso]

But your (good) screenshot says 2.40.

Sure. There I used 2.40. But just to read the disk info. I didn't use 2.40 to actually partition it, I did that using 2.43 (beta), for which I can vouch, since it never gave me grief with USB disks under 98SE, nor with IDE disks under real DOS or under 98SE. For USB, it does not matter whether the disk on the other side of the USB enclosure is actually SATA or PATA.

@piikea: Meanwhile, since just inspecting the disk without doing anything causes no harm, would you please do it again, this time using RPM 2.43, just to be sure it too sees the disk as just 6024 MB?

[piikea]

@piikea: Meanwhile, since just inspecting the disk without doing anything causes no harm, would you please do it again, this time using RPM 2.43, just to be sure it too sees the disk as just 6024 MB?

RPM 2.43 gave same numbers.

[Ponch]

I don't have Ranish Partition Manager nor access to a Windows XP (or 2k) machine.

I think at this point it would be a huge shortcut to pass by a friend that has a recent machine (XP or later) and see how that drive behaves.

[dencorso]

Although IT IS assigned a drive letter & displays in Windows as 931GB (which is about right?).

You mean in the Windows Explorer, when you right-click the drive icon and select "Properties", right?

I don't have Ranish Partition Manager nor access to a Windows XP (or 2k) machine.

I think at this point it would be a huge shortcut to pass by a friend that has a recent machine (XP or later) and see how that drive behaves.

Agreed. If at all possible, it would be really a good idea to find out how XP's Disk Management tool sees it. But jaclaz's idea of trying the Partition Logic standalone tool is a good idea, too, and is perhaps simpler to put in practice than hunting for a friend having XP. So, I'd try jaclaz's idea as the next step. What I'd do would be: get the 0.69 iso, burn it into a CD, boot from it with the USB HDD connected and go on from there.

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

Why don't you try "Free Fdisk" ?

http://web.archive.org/web/20060110183341/ffdisk.webaps.de/fdisk121.zip

It correctly partitioned a 750 gb SATA drive on my win-98 system.

[piikea]

I don't have Ranish Partition Manager nor access to a Windows XP (or 2k) machine.

I think at this point it would be a huge shortcut to pass by a friend that has a recent machine (XP or later) and see how that drive behaves.

Agreed. If at all possible, it would be really a good idea to find out how XP's Disk Management tool sees it. But jaclaz's idea of trying the Partition Logic standalone tool is a good idea, too, and is perhaps simpler to put in practice than hunting for a friend having XP. So, I'd try jaclaz's idea as the next step. What I'd do would be: get the 0.69 iso, burn it into a CD, boot from it with the USB HDD connected and go on from there.

Not sure but may be able to try it on a Windows 7 pc - I guess that'll be about the same. (I am in a new city only a few months & do not know many people yet).

Edited September 20, 2010 by piikea