Ext HDD's greater than 137GB under Win ME

[dencorso]

@piikea: Yeah. Win 7 would do, all right.

But if you happen to have a blank CD handy, do give Partition Logic a shot.

Or just try the floppy version, in case you can use floppies.

[piikea]

PArtition Logic shows the drive as 953868Mb (approx.). Once in there I'll be damned if I can work it. I attempt to create a primary partition guessing at cylinder #'s or Mb's, then try to create logical drives from there but start with 0 cylinder to any # & it says incorrect starting cylinder, try "1" & it says incorrect ending cylinder. Try to use "m" for megabyte & get same scenario. Googled around for more info on using it but there's very little.

Edited September 20, 2010 by piikea

[piikea]

Why don't you try "Free Fdisk" ?

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

Tried it w/ no luck but thanks.

[dencorso]

953868Mb! That's 931 GB! Promising indeed. Well, Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1 is the location of the MBR. The first partiton should begin at Cylinder 0, Head 1, Sector 1... But let's wait for jaclaz to chime in. He's familiar with that program, while I'm not, so he'll be the best one to guide you through it safely. Moreover, he's our resident savant about HDD's, partitioning and formatting, so you couldn't possible be in better hands.

[jaclaz]

@dencorso

Partition logic uses LBA, first sector is sector 0.

@piikea

With all due respect, it's not like being "brain surgery".

Boot the partition logic.

Select the right disk.

Delete all.

You should see ONLY one line with written in it "empty space" selected.

Create.

Choose primary.

Strating sector: 0

Ending: 1000m

Partition type 06 (FAT16)

Write changes.

Format (FAT 16).

Set active.

Write changes.

First line will look like 1 FAT16 fat 0-127 1004 primary/active

Select second line (empty space).

Create.

Choose Logical

Starting sector : 128

Ending: 3000m

Partition type 0c (FAT32)

Write changes.

Format (FAT 32).

Now you have THREE lines, select last one, (empty space).

Create.

Choose Logical

Starting sector : 511

Ending: 50000m

Partition type 0c (FAT32)

Write changes.

Format (FAT 32).

You now should have:

1. a primary around 1 Gb FAT 16
   an extended partition (which you don't see in partition logic listing) containing:
   
2. a logical volume around 3 Gb FAT32
   
3. a logical volume around 50 Gb FAT32
   

What happens now when you look at in in FDISK?

Do the three volumes above get a drive letter in DOS/Win9x?

Can you (re-)format each of them from DOS/Win9x?

If everything is OK, re-do with more senseful sizes for the partitions (I personally ALWAYS have a primary FAT16 - which I can also hide - and one primary ONLY) on ANY hard disk I use, as it may become useful, but of course you can create everything FAT32, up to 4 primaries or only logical volumes.

jaclaz

[piikea]

First line will look like 1 FAT16 fat 0-127 1004 primary/active

If everything is OK, re-do with more senseful sizes for the partitions (I personally ALWAYS have a primary FAT16 - which I can also hide - and one primary ONLY) on ANY hard disk I use, as it may become useful, but of course you can create everything FAT32, up to 4 primaries or only logical volumes.

jaclaz

the 4th column in 1st line is shown in cylinders not bytes so no "0-127"

What happens now when you look at in in FDISK?

Says "No Partitions Defined"

Do the three volumes above get a drive letter in DOS/Win9x?

Win ME shows it as 1 drive but does assign it a drive letter -

capacity: 999MB used: 0 bytes free: 999MB

Can you (re-)format each of them from DOS/Win9x?

n/a (?)

[dencorso]

What does RPM 2.43 see now? And FreeFDISK?

[piikea]

What does RPM 2.43 see now? And FreeFDISK?

Note: I tried re-partitioning/formatting with "my" sizes but same result just different sizes.

RPM 243 -

FreeFDISK (and FDISK) -

It seems to only want to show the primary partition & the other 4 partitions I created (w/ my sizes) as 1 ext partition with the entire drive size. Also the drive letter is different than what shows in Windows.

Edited September 20, 2010 by piikea

[dencorso]

Let's update your critical USB files so:

1) Download USB20DRV.EXE

2) Go to C:\WINDOWS\INF, open USBSTOR.INF using NOTEPAD and find this place in the file:

[uSBSTOR.AddReg]

HKR,,DevLoader,,*NTKERN

;HKR,,NTMPDriver,,"wdmstub.sys,USBSTOR.SYS"

HKR,,NTMPDriver,,USBSTOR.SYS

... notice that the third line is commented (that is, has a semicolon which I marked in red before it) and fourth line is not commented. So move the semicolon from the third line to the fourth, thus:

[uSBSTOR.AddReg]

HKR,,DevLoader,,*NTKERN

HKR,,NTMPDriver,,"wdmstub.sys,USBSTOR.SYS"

;HKR,,NTMPDriver,,USBSTOR.SYS

Now save USBSTOR.INF

3) Install USB20DRV.EXE

4) Reboot

5) Connect the USB HDD

6) Go to Device Manager and locate the Disk Drive (it's possible it'll be showing a yellow exclamation point), select it and press "Del" and confirm

7) Disconnect the USB HDD, without attempting to stop it

8) Reconnect the USB HDD and let windows reinstall the drivers for it.

9) Go to Windows Explorer and check how many letters it assigns to the USB HDD

10) Check again RPM 2.43 and FreeFDISK

11) Please let us know what happened.

[piikea]

8) Reconnect the USB HDD and let windows reinstall the drivers for it.

9) Go to Windows Explorer and check how many letters it assigns to the USB HDD

10) Check again RPM 2.43 and FreeFDISK

11) Please let us know what happened.

Did these things - IF it updated the drivers it didn't give any sign of it. However, in Windows it assigns the ext HDD & it;s partitions the proper drive letters as I partitioned it & proper sizes.

But RPM 2.43 shows -

and FreeFDISK this -

So idk - good AND bad news perhaps?

[dencorso]

All partitions you created with Partition Logic got letters!

And now RPM 2.43 says the HDD has 953859MB That's 931 GB!

It used to think it had just 6024 MB!!!

While 953859MB is not exactly the same as 953868MB, both are 931 GB, all the same!

The difference being in how each interprets the maximum possible disk capacity.

So these are great news! Congratulations!

You now have proper USB support for your new HDD under Windows ME.

So that's a *BIG* step forward!

The downside is that you'll have to repeat the steps...

5) Connect the USB device

6) Go to Device Manager and locate the Disk Drive (it's possible it'll be showing a yellow exclamation point), select it and press "Del" and confirm

7) Disconnect the USB device, without attempting to stop it

8) Reconnect the USB device and let windows reinstall the drivers for it.

... for every other USB device you have, to properly reinstal them.

But this must be done just once for each device, so it's a small price to pay for better USB support for every one of them (which will not be perceptible, since they already worked OK) and for your new 1 TB drive, which wasn't being detected right before (but this one you've already caused to be redetected, so you don't need to do it again for the 1 TB HDD).

After you confirm that all your devices are working OK (they should), then you should decide how do you want the definitive partitioning of your new 1 TB HDD to be, and whether to do it with RPM 2.43 or with Partition Logic.

Hence, we've moved forward, now, by quite a lot.

[piikea]

All partitions you created with Partition Logic got letters!

You now have proper USB support for your new HDD under Windows ME.

So that's a *BIG* step forward!

YES, my main concern is that WIndows(!) see's it correctly (which it does) but if RPM, FDISK, & FreeFDISK see it incorrectly does that signal potential problems? Can't remember where I read this now but is there reason to fill up the drive to see if it functions right? Tho' 931GB would take some doing!!

[jaclaz]

I don't want to seem more grumpy than I usually am, but this:

If everything is OK, re-do with more senseful sizes for the partitions

DOES NOT mean:

NO MATTER if everything is OK or NOT, re-do with ANY crazy partitioning scheme that crosses your mind (also without specifying EXACTLY what it is).

Which is what you seem like having understood:

Note: I tried re-partitioning/formatting with "my" sizes but same result just different sizes.

Now that we are beyond the USB driver problem (BTW first point in the list):

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)
  

Can you re-partition it from partition logic EXACTLY as I suggested you to:

FAT 16 primary/active "1000m"

Extended partition

FAT32 Logical volume "3000m"

FAT32 Logical volume "50000m"

And post how it is seen in RPM and freeFDISK (please note that we need to also see the "inside" of the Extended partition if FDISK/freeFDISK).

Right now there is something "wrong":

1. first partition seemingly is out of cylinder boundary
   
2. RPM shows a second Primary partition
   
3. FreeFdisk shows an Extended (but the inside of it is unknown)
   

I need to see what happens with the sizes/types I suggested, there are REASONS for them.

jaclaz

Edited September 21, 2010 by jaclaz

[piikea]

@ jaclaz:

As I posted before -

the 4th column in 1st line is shown in cylinders not bytes so no "0-127"

I used your numbers with an "m" BUT starting with the 2nd partition there's no way to set "sectors" - its either "c" (cylinders) or "m" (megabytes). Therefore it ONLY shows 0 - 2031 so I cannot put "128". I used 2032 to "3000m" & so on using cylinder numbers.

1. Free FDISK shows -

2. the 3 partitions DO show in Win ME & get assigned drive letters.

3. I can (& did) (re-)format each of them (full) in Win ME. (It said to run Scandisk on them which I did not do).

Just to provide more info....RPM 2.43 -

My partitioning scheme (numbers) aren't "crazy" but rather logical given my intended usage & in order to be able run defrag, etc on the partitions w/o problems.

Edited September 21, 2010 by piikea

[dencorso]

Sorry to chime in so late... Today has been a proverbial "long day".

@piikea: would you please give me a screeshot of the above using RPM 2.43, with partition 5 selected, instead of 0 (the MBR). Be sure to use 2.43, since the above is from 2.40, despite your saying 2.43.

I just wish to check out what RPM is not liking in 5 (since it's shown in red).

@jaclaz and piikea: In my experience, RPM is the most picky partitioning program available. When it thinks all is well, then all is really well. It complains with anything out of what it deems the ordinary, so it'll balk at primary partitions starting at sector 2 head 0 cylinder 1, like the ones many pendrives come from factory formatted with. So, creating the definitive partitioning with RPM ensures maximimum compatibility with any machine and OS, which I think of as a good idea, for removable storage media. Moreover, as RPM is the pickiest, anything partitioned with it should be see as "correct" by all, but the converse is not necessarily true.

Since piikea intends to use the USB HDD as storage only media and wishes it to be compatible with Win 9x/ME, I'd say a 250 GB primary FAT-32 LBA partition, followed by a single VFAT Extended LBA partition containing three logical FAT-32 LBA partitions, two of 250 GB and the third comprising the rest (~ 181 GB), or, alternatively, the three of them having ~227 GB each, would be what I'd do. This is a scheme that satisfies Occam's Razor (i. e.: "no unnecessary complications"), IMHO, and is very "standard". An even simpler scheme would be to have *no primary partition* and a single VFAT Extended LBA partition containing four logical FAT-32 LBA partitions of equal sizes, but that is non-standard (althou I use it in one of my HDDs for a long time already, without any problems.

But, since I do acknowledge jaclaz is more knowlegeable than myself in these matters, I'm willing to learn what are the shortcomings of such an scheme.

I do understand that a small primary active FAT-16 CHS partition can be used as a safety measure, to attract all kinds of damage to itself, protecting the important bigger ones that follow, contined in an extended partition, but I've never come around to do that, as of yet.