320 GB External Hard Drive Appearing As Only 128 GB

Question

Level 1

0 points

320 GB External Hard Drive Appearing As Only 128 GB

Hello all,

I've been looking into external storage solutions for my Mac. I was using an old Maxtor 60 GB FireWire drive for awhile, and that drive died. I opened the hard drive enclosure and removed the dead drive. Since I had a perfectly good enclosure, I went out and bought a 320 GB Western Digital EIDE hard drive. Upon putting the drive in the enclosure and connecting it, it appeared as only a 128 GB hard drive. I did some research, and discovered that older buses were limited to 127-128 GBs. I assumed that since the hard drive enclosure was relatively old, and had previously housed only a 60 GB drive, the bus was out-dated. I went online and ordered this ( http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=18006 03&CatId=2779) hard drive enclosure. Assuming this would remedy the problem, I set it up and hooked it up. The hard drive still appears as a 128 GB drive, after erasing and formatting it multiple times. I thought that this might be an issue with the enclosure, however, there have been reviews on the website by people using large hard drives and this problem has never been mentioned. Does anyone know what might be causing this?

MacBook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Nov 8, 2009 12:04 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 8, 2009 12:19 PM in response to TommyGunn54

On what computer is the drive connected? Are you connecting to your MacBook Pro? Did you try repartitioning the drive as follows:

Extended Hard Drive Preparation

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Reply

Answer 2

TommyGunn54 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2009 1:52 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for your suggestion!

I followed the steps you mentioned and the capacity of the drive is still shown as 128 GB.

Reply

Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 8, 2009 2:31 PM in response to TommyGunn54

Is this an older ATA drive? If so there may be a jumper on the drive that limits it to 128 GBs for use with older Windows PCs. If this be the case then the drive needs to be jumpered for full capacity usage.

Otherwise you must create a new partition and be sure to configure the drive for GUID or APM, not MBR, or you may not be able to obtain the drive's full capacity.

Reply

Answer 4

TommyGunn54 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2009 2:48 PM in response to Kappy

This is a relatively new drive, I got it over the summer. It's jumpered on "Master" instead of "Cable Select" per the drive enclosure manufacturer's instruction to do so.

The partition I created was configured for GUID, and still came out to 128 GB.

Reply

Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 8, 2009 5:34 PM in response to TommyGunn54

This is an ATA drive so it may be jumpered for the 128 GB limit. You will need to check the jumpers on the drive.

Reply

Answer 6

TommyGunn54 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2009 5:49 PM in response to Kappy

I'll check the jumpers, but I'm pretty sure the problem has been solved, or at least explained. I posted this in another forum and was given this response:

Hi TommyGunn.

I found the earlier thread that I was looking for concerning a similar situation, but my memory of it was faulty. It wasn't a WD drive, but a Samsung, and the problem didn't originally lie with the drive itself, but with the enclosure into which it was first inserted. Just like you, the person concerned, Andreas, inserted the drive in an old Maxtor enclosure, and then went out and bought a new case when it would only format as 128 in the original one, but was still unable to exceed the 128 limit.

We tried for a long time to help him sort it out (giving much the same advice as we have given here), but in the end he had to invoke the help of pro hardware specialists.

The bad news, I'm afraid, is that even with the help of some very experienced hardware techs using the drive maker's own testing and formatting software they were unable to ever restore it to its full capacity. Those old Maxtor enclosures certainly seem to inflict some damage, I'm afraid.

The only good news for Andreas was that he was able to get the drive replaced under warranty, in the end.

see http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3618599#3618599

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -

Thanks to who all who posted in this thread for your help, I'm very likely going to just put the corrupted drive into the old enclosure and get a new one for my new enclosure.

Reply

Answer 7

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 8, 2009 7:26 PM in response to TommyGunn54

Well it's certainly a possibility, but you put the drive into a new enclosure or so I understood from your original post. But you will have to decide how to proceed.

Reply

Answer 8

TommyGunn54 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 8, 2009 9:18 PM in response to Kappy

I did put the drive in a new enclosure, but the Maxtor enclosure corrupted/damaged it such that a new enclosure didn't rectify the issue.

Reply