External HD

[torp]

Hi all,

I had a spare WD Diamondmax 160GB drive setting around, so I thought I would put it to work. I found an enclosure on newegg for $9.99, so I bought it. I instelled the HD as per directions, left the jumper on CS (cable select), plugged it in, turned it on, and viola! I found I had a new 32GB drive. Thinking it might be the jumper selection, I tried master, and then no jumper at all. All three settings got me 32GB. I know I am doing something wrong here, but not sure what. What have I missed?

Thanks!

torp

[dibl]

Re: External HD

Is that external drive partitioned? If you suspect so, then I would hook it directly to the IDE bus, temporarily, and use GParted to re-partition it to a single ext3 partition.

If it's not partitioned, I guess there is some "feature" of your USB bus that is limiting the recognized size of USB devices.

[Snowhog]

Re: External HD

Take a look at the drive with any utility that shows the stats of the drive (GParted). It's probable that it only has a single partition formated to 32G and the remainder of the drive is 'unallocated' space.

[dibl]

Re: External HD

Snowhog, great minds think alike, huh?

[madberry]

Re: External HD

And just as a side note in external enclosures the jumper setting is always master never slave or cable select.

[mad]Berry

PS here is an how to for GParted:
http://madberry.org/2008/08/how-to-p...-the-easy-way/

[torp]

Re: External HD

Is that external drive partitioned? If you suspect so, then I would hook it directly to the IDE bus, temporarily, and use GParted to re-partition it to a single ext3 partition.

If it's not partitioned, I guess there is some "feature" of your USB bus that is limiting the recognized size of USB devices.

Ok, here is the deal. Gparted only sees 32GB too. Now this drive was partitioned before on a system with the 32GB limit (bios). My new system doesn't have that limit. So when I fired it up on the USB Bus is still showed only 32GB. How can I completely erase this sucker and start from scratch?

torp

[Snowhog]

Re: External HD

Use GParted to delete the partition. Then set a single full-size partition and tell GParted to format it (ext3 if you are going to use it for Linux).

[torp]

Re: External HD

Use GParted to delete the partition. Then set a single full-size partition and tell GParted to format it (ext3 if you are going to use it for Linux).

Done, looking at 32GB.

torp

[dibl]

Re: External HD

How can I completely erase this sucker and start from scratch?

I would use a GParted Live CD (to avoid mucking up anything else in the process). Get it here.

So, you'll have to hook up the drive with an IDE cable to your IDE connector (like maybe disconnect the optical drive, if you need to free up a connector). Put the jumper on "CS".

Boot the Live CD, find the bad boy drive, delete the 32GB partition, and then make a partition using the entire disk. Format it ext3. Put your system back together, and the drive back in the USB enclosure. Hook it up to the USB bus and observe success. Hopefully. If so, pour a cold one.

[torp]

Re: External HD



I would use a GParted Live CD (to avoid mucking up anything else in the process). Get it here.

So, you'll have to hook up the drive with an IDE cable to your IDE connector (like maybe disconnect the optical drive, if you need to free up a connector). Put the jumper on "CS".

Boot the Live CD, find the bad boy drive, delete the 32GB partition, and then make a partition using the entire disk. Format it ext3. Put your system back together, and the drive back in the USB enclosure. Hook it up to the USB bus and observe success. Hopefully. If so, pour a cold one.
[/quote]

Wow, after reading that I am thinking of another option. Chucking the POS in the nearest dumpster. Having a cold one. Driving up to best buy and getting a 750GB drive for $79.95. Go home and have a cold one. Install new drive, partition etc. Have a cold one, etc...

torp

[Snowhog]

Re: External HD

Be careful with step two (have a cold one), as if executed to often during the instruction, tends to result in outcomes not necessarily desired!

You may find that getting a new HD is the easier solution, but I wouldn't chuck the other HD - hey, 120GB is 120GB, and getting it reset as such is worth it.

[dibl]

Re: External HD

Driving up to best buy

You can skip that step too, just go here use a credit card, spend $76 plus a few for shipping, and go straight for the cold one.

Here's a terrabyte for $160.

[Qqmike]

Re: External HD

Just a couple cents' worth ...

First, $9.99 enclosure?! My Rosewill was more like $50 USD.
But, I don't know much about enclosures.

Second, if it were my “spare” and “to-be-reused” HDD, I'd darn sure zero it out (zero fill).
The manufacturer of the HD may have free software for doing so (Seagate's Seatools is an example of such), for writing zeros to the entire drive.
Or, you can use the dd command, which you can use from Kubuntu or from Live Kubuntu CD or another (free) Live CD called Helix (comes with a special DoD version of dd), all explained here:

dd Command
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090824.0


(You're on your own there I don't like taking responsibility for the use of dd, as I'm sure some of the others in this thread will agree. For example, if you are not careful, you might zero-out your main drive ... OOPS! It's happened to smarter people than you & me.)

[torp]

Re: External HD

Just a couple cents' worth ...

First, $9.99 enclosure?! My Rosewill was more like $50 USD.
But, I don't know much about enclosures.

Second, if it were my “spare” and “to-be-reused” HDD, I'd darn sure zero it out (zero fill).
The manufacturer of the HD may have free software for doing so (Seagate's Seatools is an example of such), for writing zeros to the entire drive.
Or, you can use the dd command, which you can use from Kubuntu or from Live Kubuntu CD or another (free) Live CD called Helix (comes with a special DoD version of dd), all explained here:

dd Command
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090824.0

(You're on your own there I don't like taking responsibility for the use of dd, as I'm sure some of the others in this thread will agree. For example, if you are not careful, you might zero-out your main drive ... OOPS! It's happened to smarter people than you & me.)

Now that is what I am looking for! I'm going to zero that sucker out.

As for the enclosure, it was a Rosewill fron Newegg. A closeout model, aluminum body, but no fan. Seems to do just fine though.

Thanks for the DD tip, will report on how it goes.

torp

[Qqmike]

Re: External HD

Hot damn! You get'm, torp.
After doing so, GParted will ask if you want to set a new disk volume label or some-such thing, and offer you a DOS-label (or something). Say "OK" and then go for the clean, new partitioning.
Good luck. (I've done this several times; in fact, to one of my "main" drives, as well as to my flash drives. No problems at all. Just took awhile, but your smaller drive should go faster.)
The Helix Live CD with the special dd command adds a bit of "confidence" in this little exercise, but is not absolutely necessary.