Restore on larger hard disk changed disk size

The situation we will see here is the one Patrick and others describe. The clone has been made and the large HD is no longer large.

If it was my laptop, this is what I'd do. Now that I've been enlightened.

1. Zero LBA-3 with Roadkil's Sector Editor

2. Use MHDD and run the NHPA command

All fixed in a few minutes.

 

This has been an extremely interesting thread. Thanks to Patrick, GroverH and Dan Goodell for providing the solution. For those unfortunate people caught by this problem and who feel uncomfortable using the software described above, these instructions should make it less painful.




This is a procedure to fix your HD so that it shows full size. Don’t worry about trashing your HD. If you do mess up this procedure you just need to repeat the clone and start again.

You will need to download two files. The first is Roadkil’s Sector Editor.

http://www.roadkil.net/diskutils.html

Unzip the file and copy sectedit.exe to a folder in your HD.

The second file to download is Magic Boot Disk

http://hddguru.com/download/software/Magic-Boot-Disk/Magic_Boot_Disk_ISO_v2.0.zip

The main page is

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.02.10-Magic-Boot-Disk/ but you needn’t look at this page .

Unzip the file and burn the .iso as an image. Not as a data CD. For example, in Nero close the initial window and choose Recorder, Burn Image.

Double click sectedit.exe. In the Select Disk box choose Physical 0 and click Open. (DON’T choose any of the drive letters). Use the arrows at the bottom right to find LBA-3. It should take 3 clicks. Here is mine which is already zeroed. Your sector should have code.


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b16/bjkdegree/LBA-3.gif


Click Edit, Zero Data. Now you should see all zeroes. Click File, Save Sector. Close Roadkil. Double click sectedit.exe again and confirm that LBA-3 has been zeroed.


Now shutdown Windows and boot to the Magic Boot Disk CD. Accept the defaults.

At C:\MHDD> type MHDD and press Enter.

Type the number of your HD (it should be 1) and press Enter.

Now the prompt is MHDD>

Type RHPA and press Enter. Make a note of your Native Maximum LBA address. You will also see your reduced HD size.

Type NHPA and press Enter. Type Y for “Do you want to set Native LBA address”. Type Y for “Continue”.

Type RHPA and press Enter. Your HD should be full size.

Type exit

Remove the CD and boot to Windows. The HD should be fixed.

 

I ended up clearing all partitions after recovering the full size of the HD with the Hitachi Feature Tool and then, using the NHPA command. I then loaded Windows from scratch and all is well. However, after reading this, I'm considering loading an image of my system so I don't have to go to all the trouble of reinstalling everything. I'm not clonning so I assume I should be OK reloading the image as long as I don't also reload the MBR? Does that sound like it should work?

 

stansil,

I'm pleased you sorted it out too. Yes, restore your image and don't click "Restore MBR and Track 0". You won't have the HPA problem. As Dan Goodell mentioned you can restore the Dell MBR (boot code in LBA-0) later, if you desire, and this will allow you to use the Dell Restore partition. As you are using TI you already have an image backup solution and don't need the Dell Restore. I delete the Dell Restore partition after I've made an image of my C: drive.

Let us know your experience with restoring the image without the MBR. TI creates a generic MBR for you.

PS Just to be safe, check LBA-3 on that HD with Roadkil before you restore the image. Make sure it is zeroed.

 

I restored the image of my OS partition (C Drive) without restoring the MBR or Track 0. It worked! I booted up to my system just like it was before I got into this whole mess and my I now have full use of my new bigger hard drive. I have to say that this has been educational. Thanks everyone.

Stan

 

Stan, many thanks for letting us know that not restoring the MBR and Track 0 works in this situation.

 

This image (kindly provided by Dan Goodell) is the Dell LBA-3 associated with the HPA. Your sector may look slightly different but if you find the "[XLDR]" string in the lower right, that's a good clue that you are looking at the right sector.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b16/bjkdegree/lba-3_dan.gif

 

First off...HUGE thanks to those contributing to this thread...I would have been totally hosed without it tonight.

Here's what I did today (on my Dell Inspiron E1505, presumably with MD2):

1. Picked up a brand new 120GB Fujitsu drive and the "Apricorn Easy Upgrade SATA" kit (a USB enclosure and the software to clone the drive to the enclosed drive.)

2. Put the new drive in the enclosure, installed software, cloned drive.

3. Put new drive in E1505 and booted.

4. Bluescreened.

5. Saw that the BIOS was only reporting 78GB of space (~the size of my previous drive)

6. Assumed that the BIOS wasn't re-scanning the bus, and spent hours trying to figure out how to make it do that.

7. Found this post and realized that this was my problem.

8. With the new drive in the E1505, used the Hitachi Feature Tool (http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool) to resize my disk to the correct maximum size (this was fairly trivial)

9. Now I knew I needed to edit absolute sector 3, but couldn't - as I couldn't boot windows without it resetting the max size again, and Roadkil required booting to windows. Quick google found PTS Disk Editor (http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/tool/FreeTools.html#PTSDE), a DOS-based sector editor.

10. Booted with the Magic Boot Disk CD from above (http://hddguru.com/download/software...k_ISO_v2.0.zip), as it loads CD-ROM drivers which I could then use to get to another CD that I burned PTS Disk Editor to.

11. Used PTS Disk Editor to edit Absolute Sector 3 (which looked like the one Don posted earlier) to be all zeros.

12. Saved the sector.

13. Rebooted to the new 120GB drive....OHNO! The dreaded "blue www.dell.com" bar appeared.....I assumed this meant that I had just reset the drive to the old 78GB again, but....

14. Alas, it booted successfully, with the expected, now larger, disk size present! Phew!

Thanks again to all who contributed here! Would've been stuck completely without you!

 

Roo2001,

Thanks for outlining your experience. It's very interesting. I don't know why you couldn't boot to the new HD. Any ideas?

I think the "blue www.dell.com" bar just means you have the Dell LBA-0.

 

I experience simillar problem with my 160GB Seagate SATA hdd. The computer has nothing to do with Dell. Anyway, I cloned 40 GB hdd with Acronis TI and now the 160GB shows the size of ~36GB. I tried to use MHDD and its command NHPA to set Native maximum LBA address. However, the result prints the following: "Fail. Try to re-power HDD." I also ran Hitachi Feature Tools, but it prints some kind of error, too. I don't need any data from the hdd, just want it to be the original size. Thanks for your ideas. Vlad

 

vlad48,

I understand WinXP shows the new C: drive as 36 GB. In Disk Management, do you see any Unallocated Space after the C: drive? Do you have Partition Magic?

What brand of computer do you have? How old? Desktop or Laptop?
Latest BIOS?
Any jumpers on the new HD that could limit its size?
Was there a HPA on the 40 GB HD?

What does RHPA report as the Native Maximum LBA address? How about RHPA on the 40 GB HD?

 

Thanks for prompt reply. It's a non-brand pc, desktop - assembled last week. I've put the hdd in another computer, because in the original one MHDD didn't find it. (original mainboard is Asus M2V-MX, the new MB is Asus M2NPV-MX, hdd is 160GB Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA)

Bios shows the capacity of 36GB, so the OS also shows 36 as maximum (no unallocated space). RHPA reports LBA 71,923,005, but Native Maximum LBA address = 312581807. LBA of the 40GB hdd is exactly the same, 71,923,005.

If there is a HPA? Well.. I'm not sure about it. How can I know?;-)

 

Vlad,

I just remembered, MHDD doesn't see the SATA hard drives in my desktop computer but the Hitachi tool does.

As you say, it's only 36 GB showing out of 160 GB.

But what is the Native Maximum LBA address of the 40 GB HD? Is it higher than this? I'd expect it to be around 78,000,000. If that's the case then you have a HPA.

Where did the 40 GB HD come from? Did you buy it new?

 

The 40GB HD comes from a client's old PC. It's Western Digital W400.

Now the 40GB HD is likely to be broken, because BIOS doesn't detect it and RHPA shows just the general info (name, SN, LBA, Size..), then

"Init drive: [RESET]
! ERROR: Drive not responding or operation canceled
[RECAL]
! ERROR: Drive not responding or operation canceled
Read NHPA command...
Native Maximum LBA address = 1
Done (RHPA)."

Anyway, what really matters is the size of the 160 HD. However, I cannot say if the 40 GB had HPA or not

 

Vlad,

If it was my 160 GB HD, this is what I'd try.

Delete the 36 GB partition. Zero the First Track with a disk editor or with TeraByte's MBRWork (choices 3 and 4 to delete LBA-0 to LBA-62, then choice 5 to write a Standard MBR). Now try MHDD or the Hitachi tool again. Good luck.

 

I tried deleting the partition and MBR. Didn't help The config command in MHDD prints

"Writing changes to the drive...
Device error."

Does this mean the HD is broken?

 

Vlad, I don't know. The whole situation has been very unusual. It's worth trying the HD in another computer to see if MHDD behaves differently.

 

The procedure I used to restore an image of a 80 GB disk to a new 250 GB disk is simple and worked without a hitch:

- boot the Linux recovery CD
- start the "add new disk" procedure
- select the new disk and add it, it will be reinitialized
- start the partition restore, it will now automatically use the entire disk

Danny
---

 

I had the same experience as Brian. Using Acronis Migrate Easy I was trying to clone from my original 60GB drive to a new 120GB drive installed in an external USB case. I tried getting my 120GB drive back to its original size using Seatools and was not successful. Seagate had me return my drive for a replacement and I now have the 120GB drive back. I have read all of this thread but still have a few questions berore I try it again.
1. What do I need to do to prepare the new HD?
2. Can I use TI trial version to do the cloning?
3. Is there anything I need to do before cloning besides zeroing LBA-3 on the original drive?

 

E1705guy,

The instructions in previous posts only apply to Dell laptops with a HPA. Other brand computers may have different setups.

So if you have a Dell laptop with a HPA you must NOT clone your HD to a larger HD. You must take the image/restore approach and do NOT select Copy MBR and Track 0.

See Post #30. Any questions?

Correction: If you zero LBA-3 on the original HD then you should be able to perform a clone procedure. No-one has tested this yet. Leave the new HD empty. You don't need partitions. The Trial TI should work. Nothing else needed.

 

Brian,
Yes, my laptop is a Dell E1705, Media Edition 2005, and Media Direct 2.
Post #30 is with OS already installed on new drive, wright? So I don't do the image/restore approach. I'm just going to zero LBA-3 and do a clone with TI trial version as you stated in the correction of your above post.
My new drive is shown on Windows Disk Manager to be Basic and all unallocated (Black Bar).Is this OK, or do I need to format (NTFS) first?

 

E1705guy,

Leave your new HD as Unallocated Space. It's ready to go. It doesn't matter if it's partitioned and formatted as TI deletes all partitions before it starts cloning.

Let us know how it goes. You will be the first to use this technique.

Post #30 was using the image/restore technique. The restored image over-wrote the OS. In effect this is the same as restoring to an empty HD.

 

Brian and everybody,

It worked like a charm. The only thing is I don't have the use of the Media Direct button. When I press the Media Direct button it just boots my computer as normal.
So anyone else who wants to clone their old drive to a new larger drive can do it by using this procedure without going through the grief that was posted here in this thread.
My laptop is a Dell Inspiron E1705, Media Center Edition 2005 with Media Direct 2. I had a 60GB drive that I cloned onto a 120GB that was installed in an external USB case. Here is the procedure:

1. Download Roadkil's Sector Editor from: http://www.roadkil.net/diskutils.html

2. Download Acronis True Image 10 (I used the trial version).

3. Using Sector Editor, zero LBA-3 on the old drive.
Double click sectedit.exe, In the Select Disk box choose Physical 0 and click Open. (DON’T choose any of the drive letters). Use the arrows at the bottom right to find LBA-3. It should take 3 clicks, Click Edit, Zero Data. Now you should see all zeroes. Click File, Save Sector. Close Roadkil. Double click sectedit.exe again and confirm that LBA-3 has been zeroed. (See post #27 & 32 above)

4. Open the Acronis TI program and in the PICK CATEGORY choose MANAGE DISKS and CLONE DISK then select AUTOMATIC and follow the Disk Clone Wizard from here. The cloning took me about 36 min. (I sugest reading Chapter 13 of the users manual)

5. After the cloning I rebooted to see if everything was still OK and then turned off the computer and removed the old drive from my laptop and removed the new cloned drive from the USB case and installed it into my laptop.

 

E1705guy,

Good work and thanks for letting us know it was easy. I'd image that your scenario will be infrequently used. Not that it's a bad technique but the average person cloning their Dell laptop won't know there is a HPA problem until it's too late. Then they will need to use the earlier technique.

One variation of your technique which preserves Media Direct on the smaller HD, is to perform the clone process but don't boot to the clone (larger HD). Instead, boot to Disk Editor and zero LBA-3. Then you can safely boot to Win XP. I doubt many people would want to keep the smaller HD in its present state so your technique is easier.

http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/tool/de/PTS-DE.htm

Roo2001, in Post #33 has described a clever way of using Disk Editor from a CD. See his paragraphs 10, 11 and 12. This saves you the problem of adding Disk Editor to a boot CD because most laptops will lack a floppy drive. So Disk Editor on a floppy is not an option.

 

Hi, I am new to the upgrading hard drives game, and I have a few questions. I have a Dell E1705 with Media Direct. I got it when they first started producing this model so im assuming i have that HPA problem. I just ordered my new hard drive and i was wondering that i should download the sector editor from roadkil.net and do the zero LBA-3 before cloning the hard drive. And after that, i would clone it. Is this all that i have to do? Any help would be much appreciated.