[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: ATA Drive Question

[Leroy Tennison]

william jones wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: BBBB <Brad.List at Thingbuilder.com>
> To: NTLUG Discussion List <discuss at ntlug.org>
> Sent: Friday, December 1, 2006 2:21:43 PM
> Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] OT: ATA Drive Question
>
>
> I purchased a used IBM Netvista computer with a 20 gig ATA drive (according
> to the part number).
> When using ubuntu's disk partitioner or using Partition Magic, I only see 10
> gigs.
> If this is in fact a 20 gig drive, How do I make the other 10 gigs visible?
>
> Thanks,
> Bradley
>
> Bradley,
>
> I had a similar problem with a flash drive.  The missing half turned up in another directory.  It was not visible to the partitioner as an ordinary partition because it was formatted as Linux swap.  I use it for backup, readable by Linux but not by Bill's bloatware.  The other half, which was always visible, is formatted vfat32, readable by all.  Admittedly, there are problems that will make half of a disk unreadable, such as a bad platter or a bad reading head.  I wish you good fortune.
>
> William L. Jones.
>
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>   
Something else to consider - see if Seagate (I believe that's what was 
said in a later post) has a low-level format program for the drive. It's 
not always called that though, when I needed one for a Maxtor I had I 
found a program on the MaxBlast diskette which said "restores the drive 
to it's original factory condition" or something like. Came with dire 
warnings about data loss.

When I got into Linux a few years ago this Maxtor drive couldn't even be 
seem by Linux. The issue was Maxtor's spoofware to make Windows 95 think 
it was a small enough drive to install on (Microsoft has these 
interesting limitations and nasty responses when the OS encounters 
something "out of bounds". Windows 95 wouldn't install in a drive bigger 
than 2GB thus all the hardware vendor's work-arounds, another Win 9x 
puked when it saw 1GB of RAM but worked nicely with 512 MB). Wiped the 
drive with Maxtor's program and everything was fine. I realize your 
problem is different but it's worth at least checking to see if some 
finagle has been pulled on the drive.


Another idea which may be easier to accomplish - see if Seagate has a 
drive diagnostics program (my drive came with one). This will give you 
another view into the drive (lots of bad sectors?) and may have some 
helpful utilities.