WD1600ADFD Raptor Reporting Only 32GB As Total Space

I have a 160GB Raptor drive in a Dell computer which was running like a top  (32-bit Windows Vista Business) and I decided to install Windows 8.1 on it. I fdisked it and deleted any and all partitions on it and installed 32-bit Win 8.1 Professional. 8.1 installed just fine and the drive was at full capacity.  Later I decided to go to 32-bit Windows 7 Pro so I fdisked it again to delete all partitions but now suddelnly it will only show a 32GB partiton no matter what I do.  I’ve run the “diskpart clean all” command multiple times and it’s still reporting the low size.  I have also used the latest version of Easus Partiton Master Professional (the paid version) to view and delete the partiton but no matter what I do I still haven’t been able to reclaim the full capacity of the drive. It only shows a 32GB partition and that’s it.  Hopefully somebody on this Forum has a “magic bullet” I can use to get back the missing gigabytes.  I don’t think anything I did could have seriously damaged the drive, since I was only using fdisk from an old Windows 98 DOS boot disk.  The hard drive has only ever had 32-bit versions of any operating system on it so I don’t think GPT partitions are playing any role in all this (plus, Partition Master would show the GPT partiton if there was one on there).  Thanks and standing by…

You are correct about GPT vs MBR. This should only matter if a drive is over 2TB and then you would want to switch to GPT. Using an old DOS utility like fdisk can sometimes cause issues with larger capacity drives in some instances that I have come across.

I would try to do a write zeros to the drive using Data Lifeguard diagnostics and see if that can bring the disk back to full capacity. If not, then you may need to replace the drive. Sometimes older software can may send some type of ATA command to the drive that fixes it as a specific capacity. Unfortunatley, I don’t have any software or know of any that can reset a drive if it was an ATA command. I included a link below to DLG for Windows and there is also a DOS version if you prefer that.

DLG Windows

http://support.wd.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3&lang=en

DLG Dos

http://support.wd.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=2&lang=en

Windows 98Se was limited to 128GiB HDDs for internal use. In external enclosures I have been able to access a 320GB drive.

The early version of Win98 FDISK was limited to 64GiB. Microsoft provided an updated version for accessing 128GiB.

As for the 32GB problem, could it be that you have attempted to create a FAT32 partition, in which case Windows XP and later will have limited the partition’s size to 32GB?

Otherwise, could it be that the physical capacity of the drive has been truncated? If so, then try to restore its full factory capacity with a tool such as HDAT2, or HDD Capacity Restore Tool, or HPAremove.

http://www.itsecure.at/hparemove-v0-2/
http://www.hdat2.com/
http://hddguru.com/software/2007.07.20-HDD-Capacity-Restore-Tool/

 • FDISK.EXE is probably not the best utility regardless of which version you use…  with DOS v5, the size of a logical drive was limited to 528mb… ** with windows v95-OSR2, the FDISK limit was raised again to partition size of 8gb…  with the advent of Windows NT and 2000, the size of **** partitions could be set through the graphical interface called “Disk Management” during installation and further changed through the operating **** system using “Disk Administrator / Management.”  however, the operating system isn’t the only factor which limits the disk partition size.**

The standard BIOS has a limit of 504mb…  to overcome this, newer BIOS include an enhanced mode that uses “logical block addressing” (LBA) techniques to enable larger partition sizes available through DOS and Windows…  known as “enhanced cylinder, heads, sectors” (ECHS), it increases the number of r/w heads the system can recognize from 16 to 256…  with window NT and 2000, the system then creates either a "file allocation table" ( FAT) or a more flexible “master file table” (MFT)…  but wait, there’s more…

The newest methods are able to recognize even larger disks depending on whether or not the old drive is partitioned as MBR "master boot record", (a step in the POST procedure) and not as GPT. The maximum addressable space for the MBR layout is (disk)<2 TB… If the source is a bootable operating system drive, conversion alone is insufficient. Booting Windows from GPT is very different from booting from MBR. It requires a UEFI-based BIOS, a special EFI system partition on the drive, different Windows boot files, and a special record in the BIOS NVRAM. These can only be created when doing a new Windows installation.

For additional information, i would recommend a  WD search, a current volume of the A+ Certification Training Guide, or searching your system

board mfg, or using the Acronis software posted here on the WD downloads section, which can provide you with an UEFI emulation driver (ACRONIS IMAGER atih installer WD en).

hello, travasaurus:

 

Below are some posts to the site mentioned in a previous response by fzabkar

…  i really think you should visit the www.hddguru.com site and look at the " forum " Q & A that follows - especially the entry about 32gb clip mode…

 

Let us know how it goes…

--------------------------------------------------- see originals on www.hddguru.com ------------------------

Hello Dimitry,

I have a 250GB hard disk drive installed with 2 partititions. I took it and installed it in another pc but instead of 250GB bios and windows recognize only 33GB. I’ve tried your programm but with no luck since also that recognizes only the 33GB.
Is there a chance that I did something wrong?

Stratos

Comment by Stratos on September 7, 2007 8:28 pm

Hello,

From your description I can be 99% sure that you’ve set “32-GB clip mode” with HDD jumpers.

Thanks

 Comment by Dmitry Postrigan on September 8, 2007 12:18 pm

The wise man has spoken!!!
You’were 1000% correct.That was exactly what I did and as soon as I choose the 16-GB clip mode everything returned to normal.I’m a happy man with my 250GB hard disk drive ready for new adventures and this thanks to your advise.

Thank you

 Comment by Stratos on September 9, 2007 1:36 am