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Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

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  • Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

    Hello
    I recently obtained a axtor 80gig HD, 8mb Cache. It was given to me by my brother, he said they didn't need the storage. They had just bought the drive. I hooked the drive up to my computer, and it was labled "HPRECOVERY." It also said that its max space was around 4 gigs. I thought they had simply given me the wrong drive, but the information on the drive complies with the box, 80gig's. Please help, as this drive is much needed.

    Regards,
    Lawton

  • #2
    Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

    Assuming your using Windows XP, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management and click the Disk Management option. It should show the hard drive with the 4gb HPRECOVERY partition and another ~70gb of either formatted or unformatted space.

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    • #3
      Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

      I may be off base here, but I'm guessing you may have Win98 or WinME installed on your systems? If so, then what you are experiencing is the inability to read a NTFS partition (the primary of the 80GB one your brother gave you). The 4GB partition labeled RECOVERY is the reinstallation files that are included on the HP machine and will be in a FAT file system for maximum compatibility. Since Win9x does not read NTFS, it just shows you what it CAN read.

      Just a thought but a scenario that would explain your current problem. If you are indeed on a Win9x box, you can use a boot disk and use the fdisk utility to remove the main partition and create a new one with all remaining space to allow you full access to the drive, but you'll lose any data you may want from the original partition.
      Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
      My Toys

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      • #4
        Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

        Thanks for the help, when I get home I will try amdman's advice, since I am in fact using windows XP.


        Regards,
        Lawton

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        • #5
          Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

          It identifies the extra 70 gigs as unused space, how do I go about making it all into one usuable partition?

          Regards,
          Lawton

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          • #6
            Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

            Depends if you feel like keeping what is on it?

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            • #7
              Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

              Does the drive show up in My Computer? If so you should be able to right-click and choose the format command. If not, go back into the disk management utility and you can format if from there. Once it is formatted you should be able to access it normally.
              Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
              My Toys

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              • #8
                Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

                The drive is recognized in My computer, however, I have tried every form of format I can think of, and they all seem to lock up about 4 percent into the process, and halt progress. This drive should be brand new...



                Regards

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                • #9
                  Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

                  Anything I can do to check/fix this HD?

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                  • #10
                    Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

                    Does the Maxtor website offer a diagnostic utility for download? Most major manufacturers do anymore.
                    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
                    My Toys

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                    • #11
                      Re: Help appreciated, misbehaving hard drive

                      Yes, I went through it all and it turns out the drive is just plain defective. They offered a replacement, free of charge due to warrenty. Thanks everyone.

                      cheers

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