Missing unallocated space on my external drive

islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

I have a Maxtor 240 gig external usb drive. I created two FAT32 partitions and left 128 gigs as unallocated. I never used the drive. I decided later to use the usb drive with a different computer. I wanted the drive to one full size NTFS partition so using Disk Manager (XP) I right clicked on each Fat32 partition and chose 'delete partition'. They don't show up at all and now I only see the other 128 unallocated gigs that I never messed with. Did I just waste half my drive? How do I get the full 240 back and what did I do that was so wrong?

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gmoney · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:24 pm Post subject:

im thinkin just right click the drive and select format and set it to format to ntfs...

islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

I deleted and re-formatted in NTFS but the whole drive still shows only one (healthy) partition of 128 gigs. The graph in disc manager shows the partition bar as stretching almost the entire lengh, where I would expect it to only go maybe half way due to the fact that the drive is a 240 gig. It looks as if to me like the drive believes it's a 128gig and no more.

gmoney · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:53 pm Post subject:

so in disk properties with the lil pie graph it is only showing 128gigs.. max.. hmm u should try a program like partition manager to see if it can locate the rest of ur space.. windows disk management isnt very helpful in that aspect

2old2care · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:02 pm Post subject:

SP1 or later XP required to see that much. 2¢
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Ham_fisT · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:04 pm Post subject:

you are using Win XP with at least SP-1 right?

if I'm not mistaken...before SP-1, XP had a hard time recognizing space beyound the 128GB that you are seeing.
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islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

I am running XP with SP2. In the beginning it showed 240 gigs unallocated before I started creating partitions and yes, in the pie chart it shows a complete pie with 128 gigs free space. I have thought about using partition magic and othes like it, but I found they don't work with usb drives. I am using a laptop so I would have to locate a desktop to stick it into internally. That's the only thing I can think of but what a pain.

islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

Someone else mentioned that the drive may need to be debugged. I don't know what that is or how to do that.

2old2care · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:16 pm Post subject:

does maxtors utility maxblast support usb drives? it should fix it.
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Josh · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:46 pm Post subject:

I had that problem with my maxtor 160 Gig.

Way to fix that for me was to delete ONE of the two partitions (using windows drive manager) then recreate a partition(s) using the remaining free space then format it. That "should" fix it.
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islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

Im made a mistake when I said it was a Maxtor. All my other drives are Maxtor but I just noticed this one is a Western Digital. Are there utilities for this drive like the Maxblast program?

Josh · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 6:57 pm Post subject:

Still try what i said for your WD.

Just go to Western Digitial's web site, they have utilities and drivers on there.

http://www.wdc.com/en/index.asp?Language=en
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PUTALE · SirTweaksabit Joined: 04 Feb 2005 Posts: 361

mmh, my 120gig works fine as it suppose to be. NOw, try WD's software to see if you can fix the problem. WD has datalifeguard which can partition, format hd.
did you see the total disc as 120gig after you have deleted all the partitions? You mention that you had 2 partitions, 1 that's unallocated, did you delete both the partitions?
Also, you mention that you took it to another computer, I know this maybe stupid but try to hook the hd back to the orinigal computer that you partitioned, and see if you can see the whole space.

islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

Half the drive had the two partitions, the other half was unallocated. That part is still there but after deleting the two partitions, they just dissapeared instead of turning into unallocated space themselves. I tried the WD lifeguard thing and even it says that it only sees 137444mb, but on the additional info tab it says it sees 268430085 LBA Sectors, not that I know what that is. Other than reading or formatting (what it sees) it can't scan it properly or do a 'Write Zeros' erasing process because it "can't open the 'Smart' or port driver". It approves of my internal drives but not the usb devices. I guess I'll have to ask the Western Digital Crew why Liveguard Tools doesn't work with USB.

islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

Also, I started this project on my xp laptop, so this was the original computer and it did show three sections on the graph, two Fat32 partitions and one unallocated all together equeling 240 gigs. But not anymore.

PUTALE · SirTweaksabit Joined: 04 Feb 2005 Posts: 361

are you sure you got the 240gig HD? Not to questioning you but it's so strange that the hd space has completely dissapeared. Because I would expect the WD tool will detect the hd's space. Check the bottom of hte HD to make sure it's 120gig.
Try update your usb drivers, maybe that's the culprit.
Post some image and let us see exactly what's wrong, I understand but just want to clear view of all the numbers.

Silicon Skum · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:29 am Post subject:

If it's possible to open the USB drive, it may me worth taking the drive out of the caddy and installing it internally on the computer and then partition and format the disk. I Think it should work right if you delete ALL partitions, restart the computer and then run the WD drive utilities or use windows to create a single active partition of max allowed size / or what windows suggests as max size and then format that

Wost case - if you still can't get it to work, try to recreate the original partitions, it is possible to make windows read 2 seperate partions on the same drive as a single partition (still 2 partitions but windows will read it as one continuous drive).

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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Yup, I agree with everyone above.

WD's LifeGuard software should work with the drive, to format and partition it. Sounds like the MBR on that drive got messed up somehow. If it doesn't, you should be able to remove it from the case, and install it in your machine as a slave drive, and reformat it that way. That should be a worst-case scenario, though. LifeGuard should do the job just fine.
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islanddj · TweakNOOB Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 11

WD lifeguard could see the sectors but not the partition. Nothing I did with it would make any difference. What I ended up doing was taking the drive out of the enclosure and put it into someone elses desktop (my comp is a laptop). I used someones Partition Magic program and it found that something was corrupt with the 'missing' partition, therefore it wasn't readabe. It fixed the problem and i proceeded to combine everything into a single 240gig partition. Aparently the WD Lifeguard doesn't do repairs like that. This has been a good lesson for me and I thank everyone for thier advice. I will remember all the posts here since they could be the answer to future similar type problems.