External Harddrive Capacity Limitation

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txathlete · #1 Post by **txathlete** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:50 am

I have an internal Seagate Barracuda 7220 Ultra ATA/100 internal hard drive. It's a 120gb HD. I bought a USB external case for it. The problem is that I can't get my laptop (Z60M) to recognize more than 31.4gb. I've updated bios (1.22) and embedded controller program (1.18) and tried running Disk Wizard. Nothing seems to help. Call IBM and the guy told me the bios doesn't support it. Is there a work-around? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Ken Fox · #2 Post by **Ken Fox** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:00 am

txathlete wrote:I have an internal Seagate Barracuda 7220 Ultra ATA/100 internal hard drive. It's a 120gb HD. I bought a USB external case for it. The problem is that I can't get my laptop (Z60M) to recognize more than 31.4gb. I've updated bios (1.22) and embedded controller program (1.18) and tried running Disk Wizard. Nothing seems to help. Call IBM and the guy told me the bios doesn't support it. Is there a work-around? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Sounds weird. Have you plugged the unit into another computer to see what happens?

The "Universal Serial Bus" is not a fully mature technology. It SHOULD be by this point but I have devices that are recognized properly by some computers and not others. I have a couple of different USB2 hard drives in boxes that are not recognized by all of my machines but are properly recognized by some of them. I don't understand this but there are obviously some incompatibilities out there.

txathlete · #3 Post by **txathlete** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:06 am

Yes, I've had it plugged into an HP DV1000 and it gave the same 31.4gb reading. I originally had it in my desktop (Win98) and it recognized the full capacity fine (~111gb).

I was thinking maybe I need to set the "cable select" jumper and see what it does.

The HD is set as a slave drive (to be used for storage).

Ken Fox · #4 Post by **Ken Fox** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:51 pm

txathlete wrote:Yes, I've had it plugged into an HP DV1000 and it gave the same 31.4gb reading. I originally had it in my desktop (Win98) and it recognized the full capacity fine (~111gb).

I was thinking maybe I need to set the "cable select" jumper and see what it does.

The HD is set as a slave drive (to be used for storage).

I have never seen a USB2 box that was setup for a HD to be inserted with the jumpers set to "slave."

I think that is your problem; set it to "Master."

Master and slave are old designations that precede the more modern "cable select" setting (which I've never used in my desktops preferring to set them manually, although at the moment I have no "slave" drives on an IDE channel). SATA drives are not set this way at all, there is no such configuration and they all get plugged in the same way.

I've never seen a notebook computer where the hard drive(s) needed to be set as master or slave.

techie · #5 Post by **techie** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:54 pm

I have a 2.5" Seagate 160GB disk in a USB cabinet. The is no problem reading it using either my new Z61p or my older T41p.

I have also had numeruos of other drives connected to the T41p. Off my head I can remember a 3.5" 300GB Maxtor, a 3.5" 400GB Hitachi and a 3.5" 500GB Seagate.

If it doesnt work - check the master/slave selection as Ken Fox suggests. All my 3.5" drives are set for master when used in a USB cabinet.

txathlete · #6 Post by **txathlete** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:28 pm

Ken Fox wrote:
I have never seen a USB2 box that was setup for a HD to be inserted with the jumpers set to "slave."

I think that is your problem; set it to "Master."

Master and slave are old designations that precede the more modern "cable select" setting (which I've never used in my desktops preferring to set them manually, although at the moment I have no "slave" drives on an IDE channel). SATA drives are not set this way at all, there is no such configuration and they all get plugged in the same way.

I've never seen a notebook computer where the hard drive(s) needed to be set as master or slave.

The HD is automatically set as a slave without using jumpers. I called Phoenix Tech to try and get an updated BIOS but the tech said that the OEM BIOS I have is the most current.

The HD housing is a CompUSA brand USB External HD housing ($20 on sale) that supposedly supports up to 400gb HDs. I have tried using the Seagate Disk Wizard to try and format the drive, but it still only shows 31.4gb. I tried using DDO and it could not locate the HD. Tried to use Acronis and it could not locate an HD (external or internal).

The HD is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120gb model no. ST3120026A if that helps.

Bob34 · #7 Post by **Bob34** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:25 pm

Sounds like a bad External Enclosure, especially if partitioning/Volume management (Windows Disk Management isn't recognizing any unpartitioned space too by the sound of it)

PS There is a jumper setting that limits capacity, but that should be at the 137GB limit.

txathlete · #8 Post by **txathlete** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:12 pm

Bob34 wrote:Sounds like a bad External Enclosure, especially if partitioning/Volume management (Windows Disk Management isn't recognizing any unpartitioned space too by the sound of it)

PS There is a jumper setting that limits capacity, but that should be at the 137GB limit.

Good point. Is there an external enclosure ya'll recommend? Maddog? etc... Is Newegg the cheapest place to get a good quality HD external enclosure?

External Harddrive Capacity Limitation

External Harddrive Capacity Limitation

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