Maxtor HD 20 GB squeezed to 10 GB by OEM, how to unsqueeze?

In article ,
says...
Norm wrote:
Ron, if you have it installed as a slave (no jumpers) and the bios says it's
10 gb then it would appear that it is a 10gb drive and you got screwed.

Unless the BIOS cannot detect larger drives. In which case he needs a
BIOS update or a drive overlay.

He's already tried using Maxblast which would've detected this when it
polled the BIOS and HDD.

--
________________________
Conor Turton

ICQ:31909763
________________________

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:50:25 +0200, "Ron" wrote:

Hi,

A while ago I bought a Maxtor HD, 20 GB. No matter what I tried I couldn't get more as 10 GB out of it.

When I asked Maxtor they replied:

"Some OEMs (eg. Compaq, Dell, etc.) have the option to change the capacity of drives to suit their particular needs. If an OEM has
sold you this drive as a higher capacity drive then you should take it up with them to get it replaced. If they sold it to you as a
smaller drive or in replacement for a smaller drive, then it has the correct capacity and can not be exchanged."

I tried low-level formatting with MaxBlast but it didn't help. Offcourse I would like to have the higher capacity. Does somebody
know a trick?

I'm not up to date with everything, but some years ago, any attempt to
lowlevel format a hd always reduced the capacity permanently, and
basicly you were f****d. :-(

I think the reason was supposed to be, that the hd couldn't llformat
itself at the factory llformatted density.
I've been brainwashed into that lowlevel format is a strict nono. Last
resort at the best. :-(

What has the *MaxBlast' manual to say about it?


ancra

In article ,
in says...
On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:50:25 +0200, "Ron" wrote:

Hi,

A while ago I bought a Maxtor HD, 20 GB. No matter what I tried I couldn't get more as 10 GB out of it.

When I asked Maxtor they replied:

"Some OEMs (eg. Compaq, Dell, etc.) have the option to change the capacity of drives to suit their particular needs. If an OEM has
sold you this drive as a higher capacity drive then you should take it up with them to get it replaced. If they sold it to you as a
smaller drive or in replacement for a smaller drive, then it has the correct capacity and can not be exchanged."

I tried low-level formatting with MaxBlast but it didn't help. Offcourse I would like to have the higher capacity. Does somebody
know a trick?

I'm not up to date with everything, but some years ago, any attempt to
lowlevel format a hd always reduced the capacity permanently, and
basicly you were f****d. :-(

I think the reason was supposed to be, that the hd couldn't llformat
itself at the factory llformatted density.
I've been brainwashed into that lowlevel format is a strict nono. Last
resort at the best. :-(

Brainwashed is right. Don't know how many years you're going back but I
used to recover old 500MB drives with low level formats.


--
________________________
Conor Turton

ICQ:31909763
________________________

ohhhh yeah but man, do ya got a year to wait for 120giger to finish....thats the question.. ;^)

"Conor" wrote in message ...
In article ,
in says...
On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:50:25 +0200, "Ron" wrote:

Hi,

A while ago I bought a Maxtor HD, 20 GB. No matter what I tried I couldn't get more as 10 GB out of it.

When I asked Maxtor they replied:

"Some OEMs (eg. Compaq, Dell, etc.) have the option to change the capacity of drives to suit their particular needs. If an OEM
has
sold you this drive as a higher capacity drive then you should take it up with them to get it replaced. If they sold it to you
as a
smaller drive or in replacement for a smaller drive, then it has the correct capacity and can not be exchanged."

I tried low-level formatting with MaxBlast but it didn't help. Offcourse I would like to have the higher capacity. Does
somebody
know a trick?

I'm not up to date with everything, but some years ago, any attempt to
lowlevel format a hd always reduced the capacity permanently, and
basicly you were f****d. :-(

I think the reason was supposed to be, that the hd couldn't llformat
itself at the factory llformatted density.
I've been brainwashed into that lowlevel format is a strict nono. Last
resort at the best. :-(

Brainwashed is right. Don't know how many years you're going back but I
used to recover old 500MB drives with low level formats.


--
________________________
Conor Turton

ICQ:31909763
________________________

Its something to do with the way you formatted it.

Something about the FAT (file allocation tables) or some sh*t like.

Try reformatting with some options... type format /help for more info.

This is just a guess by the way.


On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:50:25 +0200, "Ron" wrote:

Hi,

A while ago I bought a Maxtor HD, 20 GB. No matter what I tried I couldn't get more as 10 GB out of it.

When I asked Maxtor they replied:

"Some OEMs (eg. Compaq, Dell, etc.) have the option to change the capacity of drives to suit their particular needs. If an OEM has
sold you this drive as a higher capacity drive then you should take it up with them to get it replaced. If they sold it to you as a
smaller drive or in replacement for a smaller drive, then it has the correct capacity and can not be exchanged."

I tried low-level formatting with MaxBlast but it didn't help. Offcourse I would like to have the higher capacity. Does somebody
know a trick?

Thanks in Advance.

Ron

Let me ask a stupid question that you've probably already answered in a
previous message.
You say you can't get more than 10gig out of the drive?

What are the odds that you're running into the 8gig BIOS limitation od early
MB's?

did you buy the HD as a brand new drive? Is it under warranty? did the
seller guarenty the drive?

Can you compare the heads-cylinders that your Max-Blast software 'sees' with
the drive specs. Are they the same? Perhaps a head has gone bad reducing the
capacity?

What is the model of the drive.

I've seen drives that have a few jumpers that are used to impose some
limitations once in a while.

Jumper that limits capacity to 32gig
jumper to limit size to 2gig
jumper to limit cylinder count to 1024

I've never run into a drive that was intentionally reduced in capacity by
50% by the vendor.

"zalzon" wrote in message
...
Its something to do with the way you formatted it.

Something about the FAT (file allocation tables) or some sh*t like.

Try reformatting with some options... type format /help for more info.

This is just a guess by the way.


On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:50:25 +0200, "Ron" wrote:

Hi,

A while ago I bought a Maxtor HD, 20 GB. No matter what I tried I
couldn't get more as 10 GB out of it.

When I asked Maxtor they replied:

"Some OEMs (eg. Compaq, Dell, etc.) have the option to change the
capacity of drives to suit their particular needs. If an OEM has
sold you this drive as a higher capacity drive then you should take it up
with them to get it replaced. If they sold it to you as a
smaller drive or in replacement for a smaller drive, then it has the
correct capacity and can not be exchanged."

I tried low-level formatting with MaxBlast but it didn't help. Offcourse
I would like to have the higher capacity. Does somebody
know a trick?

Thanks in Advance.

Ron