Large Hard Drive Problem

[SgtSpamBoy]

Ok Gurus, I've got a problem.

I have a 200 GB drive that I'm trying to use in an external enclosure that doesn't support drives larger than 137 GB. I thought I could just put the drive in my PC, partition it into 100 GB and 100 GB, and then put it back in the external enclosure... this does not work.

It partitions fine when hooked up directly via ATA, but when I put it into the external enclosure and hook that up, I can see both 100 GB sections, but can only access the first one - the other does not allow me to explore - gives me an I/O error and I am unable to reformat it correctly.

Is there a special way I should format or some special order to do it, or is it impossible?

Thanks for any help

 

[WhiteZero]

Since the external enclosure just converts the hard drives native format to USB or FireFire or whatever, I dont even know why it would only support 137 GB.

In any case, I guess it has a limitation that isnt based on partition size but the actuall total size of the drive. So there wouldent be any way to use those left over gigs.

What kind of enclosure is that anyway?
And is this an external enclosure or an external drive that you somehow just swaped the stock drive with a bigger one?

 

[Adabiviak]

The bigger hard drives need bigger enclosures because they get heavier as more and more data are written to them. This is helped out a little bit by going to a multi-platter system and the NTFS file system also shaves off a few ounces.

...sorry, couldn't resist. My guess is that whatever limits the enclosure from seeing over 137 GB is the same anomaly/limitation that prevents you from seeing multiple partitions, although, as mentioned above, that's certainly an odd limit.

 

[SgtSpamBoy]

It is a Buslink external Firewire enclosure that came with a 100 GB drive that I swapped out. The 137 GB limit is pretty standard for older technology -

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/bios/sizeGB128.html

 

[WhiteZero]

Ohhhh, lol.
I was thinking SATA, not old ass regular ATA.
XD

 

[The Hulk]

The bigger hard drives need bigger enclosures because they get heavier as more and more data are written to them. This is helped out a little bit by going to a multi-platter system and the NTFS file system also shaves off a few ounces.

...sorry, couldn't resist. My guess is that whatever limits the enclosure from seeing over 137 GB is the same anomaly/limitation that prevents you from seeing multiple partitions, although, as mentioned above, that's certainly an odd limit.

Man O man, I was going to ask what you were smoking.... "shaves off a few ounces." Good stuff!

 

[Asus]

Does the enclosure support 48bit addressing? Do you have Windows XP SP 1 installed?

48bit addressing is what is needed. And Windows needs to support it (which SP1 has support for).
There are also programs from WD, Maxtor etc that enable your machine to see thier high capacity drives.

 

[SgtSpamBoy]

My PC sees it fine when the drive is directly hooked up via ATA, just not when it's in the enclosure...