How can a hard drive report less than it's actual capacity? [SOLVED] - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:18:00 pm
content: I have a new WD RED 6TB drive with a problem that I cannot understand. In all likelihood, I am the error. Here is the setup. Brand new drive used to restore an image on a PC - success. Setup as MBR drive and Win10 as a bootable system drive from a backup image. This was only an intermediate need for the drive and once I was done working out the image restore task - I wanted its permanent task to be a simple single drive to mirror my NAS from a remote location. I then used Paragon Disk Manager to delete the partitions created during the image restore to ensure the PC did not try to boot from this disk. When I did that, I was expecting the un-allocated space to be 6TB. For some reason it shows an un-allocated space as 1493GB - no volumes, partitions or anything else. I can see this in Windows Disk Manager as well as the Paragon Disk Manager.I downloaded the WD windows tools and it reports capacity at 6TB and all the SMART attributes are just fine - (no surprise for a new drive). At the moment WD Tools utility is running an extended test, but that will take 8-12hrs. Not sure if it will do anything.I am not sure where I messed this up and how to fix it. Hoping that it is a simple and easy thing. Some sort of reset? Any ideas?FYI: This drive has no data except for the trash from the image restore. There is nothing that needs to be backed up.Connected direct to SATA bus.Old-ish motherboard ASUS 7yrs old - not sure if that matters. Not really wanting to update BIOS or any other low-level drivers for fear I will mess up this otherwhise perfectly working and critical PC. It appears that all was fine until I deleted the partitions.PC nerds and gurus?

author: RGB255_0_0
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:24:24 pm
content: Reinitialise as GPT.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:27:58 pm
content: Quote from: RGB255_0_0 on September 18, 2016, 09:24:24 pmThat was the fist task, but changed nothing.I also tried that booting from a USB (WinPE) version of Paragon, but it is not different from booting into Win 7.

author: RGB255_0_0
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:34:15 pm
content: You did that in Disk Management?Try the command prompt:DiskpartList diskSel disk #CleanConvert GPTCreate partition primaryFormat quick fs=ntfs

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:38:04 pm
content: Did the PC ever recognize the drive's full capacity? Otherwise it could be a bios problem. Try it on another pc?

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:50:48 pm
content: A good start would be a text dump or a screenshot of your current partition table/partition layout. There are many, many possible causes for your issues that I can think of from the top of my head. Rather than trying to guess at them based on your approach, it would be better to have a look at the situation you are actually in.Do you have a linux live CD or USB handy? A good start would be the command "fdisk -l" (and paste the output here) or a screenshot of gparted looking at your disk.

author: bitslice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:53:46 pm
content: Problem covered herehttps://community.wd.com/t/6tb-red-win-7-64bit-only-recognizes-1-5gb/17502/9http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/6TB-HDD-capacity-not-recognized/td-p/4798434

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 09:55:05 pm
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on September 18, 2016, 09:38:04 pmI believe it did, but the first task was in a limited view WinPE utility. That was where the partitions were deleted and it was converted to GPT. I cannot say for sure what partitions and un-allocated space added up to before I did that. The system I restored using this disk seems to have reported the space just fine, albeit in smaller pieces because it was MBR.What would I be looking for in the BIOS? A setting or absence of a setting since this is a fairly old system?Quote from: RGB255_0_0 on September 18, 2016, 09:34:15 pmYes, Disk Management and Paragon hard Disk Manager 15.I can do a quick try in the command terminal.........Quote from: Whales on September 18, 2016, 09:50:48 pmYes - I am totally guessing my way through. I don't have Linux installed anymore, I had a USB for a while but used it for something else. fdisk is easy enough if it can provide some clues.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:01:06 pm
content: Quote from: bitslice on September 18, 2016, 09:53:46 pmSolid reads....I want to re-boot to go through the BIOS, but don't want to interrupt the Extended Test that WD tools is doing - maybe that dos not matter though. Sounding like the BIOS is at least the first place to look.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:04:40 pm
content: Quote from: Whales on September 18, 2016, 09:50:48 pm?No fdisk?

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:09:43 pm
content: First thing to do: Try GParted. GParted is a miracle tool, and will fix anything that can be fixed. (Except dynamic volumes. Grumble grumble.)Make sure you make a new partition table using GParted.Make sure you are using the proper drivers/file system for windows (I think some file system stuff or driver problems arise from drives over 2TB)Try it in another machine if these don't work. I doubt it's the case, but see if your machine has UEFI BIOS (Doubt it would cause a problem tho) if it doesn't, and nothing else works, try something with UEFI BIOS.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:21:45 pm
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on September 18, 2016, 10:09:43 pmI think I found the culprit - the SATA controller was setup for RAID. This was how the previous system disk was setup and it did not matter for the other smaller disks in the system <1TB each.Turning off the RAID controller in BIOS seems to allow the full disk to be addressed! Awesome! Thanks everyone - I was going to wait for the 12 hour extended to test to finish, which would have told me nothing useful.Quote from: Whales on September 18, 2016, 09:50:48 pmThat is the truth - I scoured a ton of discussions of the same problem but for different reasons. Never came across the SATA controller being in RAID mode which is listed totally separate from the rest of the physical disk info/configs.Seems like I am good to go. Relief!

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:35:06 pm
content: You should start up a Linux and run smartctl on it at least. There is a -conveyance test that's not too long. I also run a full badblocks test, but on that size disk it may take 3 days or more.As an fyi, fdisk is replaced by diskpart on newer Windows.Enter diskpart in a command prompt window or Start > Runenter ? for commandsDISKPART> list diskDisk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gp-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --Disk 0 Online 139 GB 0 BDisk 1 Online 7640 MB 0 BDISKPART> select disk 1Disk 1 is now the selected disk.DISKPART> list partitionPartition ### Type Size Offset------------- ---------------- ------- -------Partition 1 Primary 7639 MB 31 KB

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:38:17 pm
content: Quote from: rdl on September 18, 2016, 10:35:06 pmGood info - I did not know that fdisk was retired. It is so hard to keep up anymore. Once upon a time, I was an 'expert' - not anymore. Progress has run me over in the PC world.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 12:50:05 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on September 18, 2016, 10:09:43 pmHPA.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 12:54:46 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on September 19, 2016, 12:36:58 amDone, thanks for the reminder.Quote from: Monkeh on September 19, 2016, 12:50:05 amWhat is HPA?This?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 12:57:21 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on September 19, 2016, 12:54:46 amHost Protected Area. It's a feature set in ATA which allows you to lock the host (OS) out from a section of the drive. Quite trivial to disable from the right OS - but gparted is as ignorant of it as any other partitioning tool.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 12:59:41 am
content: Is this the area used by some software to store license information - like Solid Works? Or is it ROM?What is it's purpose in life?

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 01:03:21 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on September 19, 2016, 12:59:41 amUserspace software has no way to access it on a typical OS. That's the point. When HPA is disabled it's a usable area of the disk like any other - when it's enabled (usually by the BIOS before handing over to a bootloader - I don't recall if it's persistent, I think it might be), the drive reports a smaller capacity. Very likely what your 'RAID controller' (bleh, fakeRAID) was doing, actually.If license control software is using it on the fly on a Windows system, they're employing very dirty low level tricks which make me uncomfortable.QuoteVariety of tasks. System restore software often uses it to prevent intentional or accidental deletion, along with things like Computrace/Lojack-For-Laptops (the horrific virus that it is), BIOSes have been known to store backup images there (after partitioning, clobbering a valid partition table at the end of the drive - fuck you Gigabyte, fuck you very much).

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 01:54:09 am
content: Quote from: Monkeh on September 19, 2016, 12:50:05 am

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 02:33:21 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on September 19, 2016, 12:54:46 amNot quite.Go back to the original post and do it there.That's where the board view gets the thread title from.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 02:37:36 am
content: Yet another lesson learned. When do I get know everything?Sent from my horrible mobile....

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 03:02:38 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on September 19, 2016, 02:37:36 amAt least you don't have to tap on your handy in Germany.Yes, cellphones are called handies in German. It was a word made to "Sound more English"You win, Germany, you win.