Only 238 GB of a 500 GB HD is seen by Win XP SP3 on a T60p?

[ethink]

I am the new owner of a T60p (2007-93U).

The prior owner replaced the original HD with a Hitachi Travelstar 500 GB (HTS545025B9SA00). http://www.hdsentinel.com/storageinfo_d ... 5025B9SA00

The prior owner has also installed Windows 7 on this T60p.Under windows 7, the full 500 GB was recognized by the T60p.

The BIOS for this T60p is 1.09a (79ET65WW)

I used the Lenovo T60p Recovery CDs to install Windows XP and return the T60p to factory specification. The Recovery CDs reformatted the HD to 238GB.

What do I need to do so I can use the full 500 GB on this HD?

Thanks1

[rkawakami]

Well, as long as you have the restore CDs and are willing to do another OS install, I think that the easiest way to do what you want is to completely erase the hard drive prior to running the install. This can be done using most any disk utility that "wipes" the drive.

Note that this will delete any and all data from the drive. Whatever is in the other 273GB partition(s) will be gone.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 50#p497350

[rumbero]

What do I need to do so I can use the full 500 GBs on this HD?

Download a Ubuntu Live Linux CD from www.ubuntu.com and boot the machine with it. Run the gparted program to edit, delete, and resize the partitions according to your needs.

[ethink]

Well, as long as you have the restore CDs and are willing to do another OS install, I think that the easiest way to do what you want is to completely erase the hard drive prior to running the install. This can be done using most any disk utility that "wipes" the drive.

Note that this will delete any and all data from the drive. Whatever is in the other 273GB partition(s) will be gone.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 50#p497350

Ray:

Thank you for answer my posting.

I do not understand "why" this would work. My understanding is that the ThinkPad recovery process completed deletes all of the data on the HD and then reformats the HD. I used the Recovery CDs with a HD that had Windows 7 and was formatted to use the full 500 GB.

The T60/T60p Recovery CDs contain Windows XP + SP2. In this form, they should support HDs larger than 137GB. Based on my experience with this installation, the ThinkPad recovery process was able to format a NTFS HD of 238GB (which is approximately a 250GB HD)

I have done some additional research on this topic and found this information on the Lenovo site about installing Windows XP for the T60/T60p:
Installation instructions for Windows XP - ThinkPad T60, T60p
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 66020.html


I have read this information carefully and it appears that I need to install the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit), Vista (32-bit) and XP (32-bit)"http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-70477[/i]

When I ran the Recovery CDs for the T60p, the process did give me the option to install "3rd party drivers" before I started the recovery process with CD1.

Has anyone successfully installed these drivers on a T60p?
If yes, were you able to setup the HD to be larger than 250GB?

Please share your experience.

Thanks,

[Colonel O'Neill]

Large Partition Support should be enabled for XP by default. Windows 2000 had trouble with it without a few service packs.

[ethink]

Large Partition Support should be enabled for XP by default. Windows 2000 had trouble with it without a few service packs.

The Lenovo T60/T60p Recovery CDs for Win XP include SP2. Using these Recovery CDs, the Travelstar 500gb HD was recognized and formatted as 238gb, which is certainly larger the prior 137gb limit. So it does seem that Large Partition Support has been enabled for Win XP.

However, I am trying to understand why only 238gb of a 500gb HD has been formatted.
Has anyone successfully installed a 500gb SATA HD in a T60p?

[RealBlackStuff]

The formatting process in the XP Recovery is not sufficient to wipe out the W7-specific remnants.
You need to wipe the disk with either DBAN (has a CD-version) or Active@killdisk, both free on the web.
You only need to wipe about 5 %, then cancel the wiping.
Now install/Recover again and get ~500GB.

[ethink]

The formatting process in the XP Recovery is not sufficient to wipe out the W7-specific remnants.
You need to wipe the disk with either DBAN (has a CD-version) or Active@killdisk, both free on the web.
You only need to wipe about 5 %, then cancel the wiping.
Now install/Recover again and get ~500GB.

RBS:

Thank you for your reply to my post and the explanation as to "why" the HD did NOT format to the full 500gb.

I would appreciate your advice on the following:

According to the Lenovo site, Installation instructions for Windows XP - ThinkPad T60, T60p
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 66020.html

I have read this information carefully and it appears that I need to install the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit), Vista (32-bit) and XP (32-bit)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-70477

Do you recommend that I also install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver as part of the T60p Recovery Process?

[RealBlackStuff]

Just install as per recovery instructions, then check if SystemUpdate 3.14 is installed.
If not get it here: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS002642 (requires .NET Framework, read that webpage).
Run Systemupdate.
If that doesn't install it, manually install that matrix if you want.
Personally I've never (knowingly) installed that matrix on my machines, it might be included in the recovery files?

[jdrou]

Personally I've never (knowingly) installed that matrix on my machines, it might be included in the recovery files?

Almost certainly Lenovo has included the driver on the recovery disc. This is one advantage of using a recovery disc versus a generic Windows XP disc (unless you know how to slipstream storage drivers into the disc yourself).

[ethink]

Almost certainly Lenovo has included the driver on the recovery disc. This is one advantage of using a recovery disc versus a generic Windows XP disc (unless you know how to slipstream storage drivers into the disc yourself).

I used the Lenovo Recovery CDs for the T60/T60p to install Win/XP. I just checked the drivers for the SATA Controller, Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller. The driver for this controller was automatically installed and is at the initial release level, 5.5.0.1035.

Based on this information, it appears that the root problem may be what RBS suggested:

• The formatting process in the XP Recovery is not sufficient to wipe out the W7-specific remnants.
  You need to wipe the disk with either DBAN (has a CD-version) or Active@killdisk, both free on the web.
  You only need to wipe about 5 %, then cancel the wiping.
  Now install/Recover again and get ~500GB.

I will try this approach.

Thanks to all for the helpful advice.

[rkawakami]

My basic understanding with this type of problem is that when the restore CD detects a hard drive that has already been partitioned and formatted, then it will use that information to set up the drive. However, it may not work correctly in all cases. Certainly the differences between the WinXP and W7 disk partitioning structure is enough to throw things off. My guess would be that when you tried the install the first time, the disk sectioned off over 250GB for the hidden partition, instead of only a couple of GB. It's been standard advice around here that when you are restoring an OS that you wipe the drive beforehand. This gets rid of any partitioning information so that the restore CD will see a blank drive and then set everything up properly. As RBS said earlier (and what I also mentioned in the other thread I referenced), only the first portion of the disk need be erased; 5-10% of the total size is usually good enough.

[ethink]

The formatting process in the XP Recovery is not sufficient to wipe out the W7-specific remnants.
You need to wipe the disk with either DBAN (has a CD-version) or Active@killdisk, both free on the web.
You only need to wipe about 5 %, then cancel the wiping.
Now install/Recover again and get ~500GB.

I ran DBaN and let it run for a full cycle (~5 hours). At the end of processing, it reported that I had a 500GB HD.

I then ran the ThinkPad Recovery CDs for WinXP (includes SP2) for the T60/T60p. The install process appeared to be completely successful; all drivers and add-in software was installed.

However, I still ended up with only ~250GB of the HD recognized.

Windows XP "sees" this HD as a Hitachi Travelstar HTS545025B9SA00; when I research this model #,
http://www.hdsentinel.com/storageinfo_d ... 5025B9SA00, this HD is defined to a 250GB HD

This is really a curious situation!

Thanks to all for your tips and recommendations

[rkawakami]

Hmmm... my suggestion would be to get a copy of Hitachi's DFT (Drive Fitness Test) program and see what it says about the drive. It should be able to read the model, serial number and size of the drive. I don't know why DBaN and Windows 7 would say you have (had) a 500GB drive if the part number (HTS545025B9SA00) is correct.

ref: http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT (Download DFT)
ref: http://hgst.com/downloads/dft32_user_guide.pdf (DFT User's Guide)

[RealBlackStuff]

I think we all ignored/misread the very first link in OP's post: http://www.hdsentinel.com/storageinfo_d ... 5025B9SA00

The hard disk there is very clearly defined as a 250GB hard disk, and NOT a 500GB.
End of story.