200 GB HD incorrect capacity

S

Spakman

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All,

Recently received an external drive enclosure (firewire 400) from OWC to put a Seagate Barracuda 200 GB Ultra ATA/100 drive in. The drive only shows up as 127 GB. What accounts for an approximate 73 GB loss?

Thanks
Spakman
 
only that info is for internal hard drives, spakman's question is about his new external drive. did you reformat the drive before sticking it in the case, or did you do it after you put it in the case. also, what mac and os did you format it on? i know that os 9 could only format 127gig and smaller, and i'm not sure if all versions of os x supported large format. also, does the case its self support large format drives?
 
All versions of OS X support large drives (> 127GB).

If the enclosure is older, or originally came with a drive under 127GB, then it may not support large drives (the enclosure may not have 48-bit LBA [large block addressing]).

Best bet is to contact OWC and inquire about the enclosure's capabilities, specifically 48-bit LBA. If it DOES support that, perhaps your enclosure is damaged and needs to be returned (although I don't see how damage could remove 48-bit LBA capabilities).
 
Would it matter if the drive were set to either master or slave? I'm not quite sure which should be selected for an external drive. I origionally put this drive in an old maxtor firewire case some time ago, but it wouldn't mount so I figured it was the old case.
 
Usually it's either Master or no jumper at all -- rarely slave, unless you've got a multiple-drive enclosure.

Also, some hard drives can be set to limit the reported size of the hard drive to be compatible with older systems [like Windows 3.1 or 95 or something] -- make sure your jumpers aren't set to this mode if applicable. I believe it capped them at something like 37GB, but who knows? It may cause the effects you describe as well...
 
the external FW case doesn't do Ultra ATA. It has an IDE adapter inside which can only address 127 GB. I have the same with an older Maxtor case. 160 GB drive inside, no-can-do, stays at 127.
 
The drive enclosure is an OWC OWCMEFW911UPL. Just got an email from OWC tech support - they recommend returning the enclosure as something may be wrong with it - according to OWC the enclosure should support drives up to 750 GB.

Thanks for all the support - I appreciate it.
 
I am having the same problem with a Vantec, NexStar 3 Enclosure and a WD250 connected to my PowerMac G4 Sawtooth. And it is not an enclosure problem as the HD/Enclosure works fine when connected to my PowerBook (reports 237GB).

All of the files I have loaded show up on both (only about 100 GB full) but only 127GB are reported by the Sawtooth and I have had some errors trying to write to the drive when connected to the Sawtooth.

Both computers are running 10.4.7, only differences I can think of are that the sawtooth is only USB 1. Could the USB limit it? Or does the ATA driver just tunnel through the USB?

Any ideas on what I could try?
 
Ok well I solved my own problem. No idea how, but it is now working fine on both computers and i doubt my installing mysql5 on the sawtooth had anything to do with it! Other than that I have just been connecting and disconnecting the drive trying to determine the reason.

Confused but Happy!
 
This just keeps getting better. I just received the "replacement" enclosure for the one that had the 200 GB drive showing as only 127.83 GB. Installed in the replacement enclosure it again shows 127.83 GB. I even connected it to my PB and got the same capacity listing. Any chance I could have a mis-labeled drive from Seagate? How could both computers, with a "new" enclosure, both show 127.83?

I don't understand.
 
if the drive is formated before sticking it in the case, then it is only going to show up as 127gig. you need to erase it un plug it, and reformat it in the new enclosure on a different mac than erased it. if that doesn't work, then i'd be touching base with seagate.
 
It's called "48-bit LBA" (LBA = "Large Block Addressing"). Without 48-bit LBA capabilities, you will only be able to "see" 137GB (base-10... 128GB in base-2), even if you try and partition the drive -- meaning you can't take a 250GB drive and partition it into two 125GB partitions... you are limited to 137GB/128GB total.
 
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