Restore on larger hard disk changed disk size

[Brian K]

Originally Posted by Gwarjis

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?

Gwarjis,

That's correct. Let us know the outcome.

Good work for realizing what might happen if you don't zero LBA-3. See Post #46.

[Gwarjis]

Originally Posted by Brian K

Gwarjis,

That's correct. Let us know the outcome.

Good work for realizing what might happen if you don't zero LBA-3. See Post #46.

Thanks! I will reply with the results ASAP.

[E1505Guy]

Hi,

I registered here for just one reason: to say THANKS to everyone who provided info in this thread -- you really made my life easier.

My situation is that I wanted to upgrade the harddrive in my E1505 from the Seagate 80GB 7200 RPM SATA to a WD 160GB 5400 RPM SATA.

I'd used the TI clone utility at least 3 other times with ZERO problems. (I have TI 9, latest build). I told my wife, "watch this.... it's so easy, you could do it next time." Famous last words.

You can imagine my chagrin & embarrassment when after cloning, I swapped drives, booted up with the new drive.... and got the dreaded boot-up error.

Even worse, when I put the 160GB WD back in the enclosure, it only showed 80GB -- I thought the HD had somehow become trashed by the process. (I still don't understand the logic of allowing the LBA count to be reduced, but whatever...)

Long story short, based on info in this thread, I used the Hitachi Feature Tool to "recover" the lost space, and then the Roadkil sector editor to whack LBA-3 to zeros on the original drive before cloning. Then I cloned, and everything worked perfectly. In fact I created my handle (E1505Guy) in deference to E1705guy who tried the same thing just before me (and he in turn benefitted from all the information in this thread).

Specifically, to anyone who comes across this thread and already has a "reduced size drive", first use the Hitachi Feature Tool to get back the full size of your hard drive.

Next, before cloning, use Roadkil's sector editor to zero LBA-3 on the original drive. I believe this eradicates the Media Direct button's functionality, but I *never* used the Media Direct button, so good riddance... I think there is also information in the thread about preserving it if anyone is so inclined.

Last but not least, perform the standard TI clone & all is good. Like I said, I'm still running version 9 and it works fine.

Post 11, item 1, pretty much explains what I did with the Hitachi Feature Tool to get back the lost disk space. Also see post #33, item 8, for an URL.

Regarding the Roadkil sector editor & zeroing LBA-3 on the original drive, see post 32.

Post 48 pretty much sums up what I did after I got my 160GB drive back to 160GB.

I never would have gotten this working without the help of the folks on this thread. So thank you all, you really saved me.

One question: is there any technical reason that Acronis couldn't detect this problem/condition and guide the user through it? It seems that this issue is nothing new, and there is even TI 10 now, but as I understand it, TI 10 doesn't fare any better. I would think it would be in their best interest to have their software handle it properly. First thing I did was google the problem symptoms & I found this thread. If my less-technical mom tried Acronis & had this problem, she would have gone running to Acronis. Support costs go up.

[Brian K]

E1505Guy,

Thanks for outlining your experience with this problem.

It's a Dell issue. All cloning software will have the same outcome when cloning a Dell laptop with MediaDirect2. I gather Dell no longer use a HPA for MediaDirect.

[Brian K]

E1505Guy,

I posted instructions on how to use MHDD. The Hitachi tool doesn't see my SATA HDs.

Would you mind posting instructions on how you used the Hitachi tool to remove your HPA? Others will benefit. Thanks.

[E1505Guy]

Brian K -- good idea.

OK so first I downloaded the Hitachi Feature Tool and burned the ISO image to a CD.

Then I booted up with the "shrunken" WD hard drive in the laptop, and the Hitachi Feature Tools CD in the drive (make sure your computer is configured to boot from the CD/DVD drive -- I usually put the optical drive at the top of the list on all my computers anyway).

A screen will come up, I don't recall if you have to accept a license agreement or whatever, but of course do what you have to in order to continue!

The main screen will come up, and a list of installed drives will appear. My WD HD was the only HD so I just used the cursor keys to select it. If you have more than one HD make sure you select the correct drive.

Then I hit ALT+F to select "Features", then I used the down cursor to select "Set Capacity". I have attached a file to this post which shows the screen that comes up when everything is OK, i.e. the "current values" and "manufacturing values" are the same.

In my case, the "current values" were about half of the "manufacturing values". I don't recall the exact numbers, but let's say the manufacturing numbers for capacity were 156.04 GB and the current value for capacity was 78.02... What I did was this: where it said New Capacity (GB): I changed it from 78.02 to 156.04 (or whatever the manufacturing value was).

Then I used the TAB key until the OK button was highlighted, and hit ENTER to accept the changes. (Make sure there is a bullet next to "Save Permanently" before you do this -- this is the default so you shouldn't need to worry about it.)

Instead of entering in the manufacturing capacity as a number, there is another (maybe easier?) way to get back the full capacity. In this post (item 1), PatrickR selected "Options" from the "Set Capacity" screen, and selected "Maximum". That is probably a better way to do it (I say better because you let the tool determine the maximum).

After that exit with ALT+X (don't recall if it asks to save changes, but of course if so, say "yes") and you're set.

At that point I rebooted again and used the Hitachi Feature Tool ("Set Capacity" again) to confirm the drive capacity had been restored.

That's it. Once back into Windows, the full drive capacity (unpartitioned of course) was shown again.

Hope that helps.

[Brian K]

E1505Guy,

Excellent. Isn't this a great thread?

[E1505Guy]

Yeah it sure bailed me out, that's for sure.

[GroverH]

Excellent. Isn't this a great thread?

Yes, it sure is a great and very informative post. Maybe we could get a forum moderator or Patrick to modify the first post and add an additional topic header--- something that Google might find more informative. Maybe something like "Resizing Dell drives" or perhaps you have something to suggest for an additional topic name?

We want others to benefit from the research already done in their behalf.

Any suggestions.

[Gwarjis]

Sorry for the late response, but I had to send in my laptop in Dell for repairs. I believe i need some help. I zeroed the lab-3 and then cloned, but my hdd says 93gb instead of 100gb. Also, my old hdd says 73 instead of 80gb. Both have 7gbs missing. What do I do to get the 7gb back? I already formatted the old hdd, so theres nothing in that, and im using the new one right now. I got rid of the system restore that was preinstalled by Dell. Why is that 7gigs missing from both drives and how do I get them back?

[Gwarjis]

^^^Also, I just deleted a partition on my backup hdd that would equal it to 80gigs. It says it unallocated. How do I add it together?

[GroverH]

Use your XP Disk Management.

Regarding the missing 7GB. Just a note to let you know I also have two large drives which have 7gb un-allocated space at the beginning of the first partition. I believe the space got there because the disks were original Fat32; changed to NTFS; and then re-partitioned/re-formatted as FAT32 again. The un-allocated space was picked up during the last change. The last change occurred using the Acronis Manage Disks. It was the only thing I could find that would convert the NTFS to FAT32. I have Powerquest Partition Magic and that would not allow a change it from NTFS. This was a 500GB and a 320GB size drive.

[Gwarjis]

Originally Posted by GroverH

Use your XP Disk Management.

Regarding the missing 7GB. Just a note to let you know I also have two large drives which have 7gb un-allocated space at the beginning of the first partition. I believe the space got there because the disks were original Fat32; changed to NTFS; and then re-partitioned/re-formatted as FAT32 again. The un-allocated space was picked up during the last change. The last change occurred using the Acronis Manage Disks. It was the only thing I could find that would convert the NTFS to FAT32. I have Powerquest Partition Magic and that would not allow a change it from NTFS. This was a 500GB and a 320GB size drive.

Well, the7gb on my new 100gb hdd isn't shown. All it says is 93gb as the total capacity. Is the 7gb the media direct? Sorry if i sound like a dummy, but im not great with computers

[Brian K]

Gwarjis,

Binary vs digital. When you buy a 100 GB HD and put it in your computer it will show as 93 GB. 100/1.024/1.024/1.024= 93.13

So your HD capacity is normal. You haven't lost anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte

[Gwarjis]

Thanks!

[danomatic]

Originally Posted by Brian K

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”.

I have a Dell E1505 and ran into the problem in this thread. I have tried the above steps but it does not work.

At the step where I type nhpa, I get the message to type "Y" but then I get another prompt saying "Native maximum LBA addess "156301487" with a y/n prompt. I type Y and then I get an error message and to repower the HD.

The size of the drive remians at the incorrect size. I really do not know what to do. This is a brand new 80 GB drive that now shows as a 35 GB drive.

-------------------

ok, I relaized after reading through this that I needed to use the Hitachi tool to get my new drive top show its original capacity. It is all set now.

[Brian K]

danomatic,

Strange, "156301487" is appropriate for an 80 GB HD.

See Reply #56 from E1505Guy. He's written some excellent instructions on using the Hitachi Feature Tool. Let us know what happens.

[kamiraa]

Hi, I found this searching for answers.

I had a 80 gig in my e1705 , when I went to the new 160 gig sata 7200.2 I setup two partitions, upon reboot the drive went to half the normal size and remained there. I tried to use the first method of the mdda , it didnt work it told me to repower my drive like others have mentioned.

I tried hit tools, when I go to resize it gives me a failed message. The drive isn't partitioned or anything yet. I tried to wipe out the mbr and it wouldnt let me get anywhere it says there is a error in the mbr.

Im so confused.

[Brian K]

Originally Posted by kamiraa

I tried to wipe out the mbr and it wouldnt let me get anywhere it says there is a error in the mbr.

kamiraa,

Could you give us more details on what you tried with the MBR?

Do you have a floppy drive? Have you already zeroed LBA-3? Confirmed that it is zeroed?

[kamiraa]

Originally Posted by Brian K

kamiraa,

Could you give us more details on what you tried with the MBR?

Do you have a floppy drive? Have you already zeroed LBA-3? Confirmed that it is zeroed?

Ok sorry I wrote a short description. I was up 30 hrs (working on it for 10 hrs). My body was dead.

I tried every method in here. I first setup two partitions, I split the 160 gig into two parts (I wanted to keep one for programs and one for music and such)

The partions worked using partition magic, I started to do the copy over using GHOST12. At this point the 160 gig was in a nec enclosure. I then replaced the 160gb directly into the e1705 laptop and disconnected the enclosure. The system upon bootup bluescreened and turned off. I then put the orig 80 gig back in the laptop and the 160 gig back into the enclosure. The paritition was damaged and showed now only nor parititon , 80 gig. I veified this in computer managment (disk managagment) , then I checked paritition magic.

My first step was to put the 160 gb back in and boot using a 98se cd. I used fdisk to wipe its mbr. No help , it killed the parition and such but still read 80 gig.

Next step was to use hirens ultimate boot disk to start system up and inspect the computer using a better fdisk, the drive still posted as 80 gig, I wiped it out and rebooted again.

Next step I used the MDAA method, I got the same error that vlad posted. When it got to the N command (im going off memory) the first yes worked, the second one failed and it said repower the drive.

Next step was to use the editor posted , I put the 80 gig back into the system, 160 gig in an enclosure, booted, inspected the HD and wiped out the lba3 and zero'd it out. I then tried to get the system to post 160 gig , it wouldn't.

Next I tried to use hitatchi tools to resize, it wouldn't resize to the orignal ammount. It shows 160 gb as the orignal and the current is around 76? I tried to even resize to something smaller, 30 gb, nope wouldn't work says "can't resize", I tried 120 gb, nope says "can't resize"

Next I used the method I think you posted about using that 2nd dos program to wipe out the lba0 - 62? I did step 3-4 then rewrote the mbr in step 5.

I tried hitatchi tools again, same error "can't resize"

I booted up and lba3 was still zero'd.

Any other advice. Its the 7200.2 SATA seagate 160gb.

Also when the system starts up (im running bios a09) it shows dell in BIG blue letters centered on the screen, below it in white it shows www.dell.com.

Does my system have that screwed up setup also that I need to get rid of , people were mentioned the dell.com would be in blue on the top. Mine is how I described.

This sucks . .

[GroverH]

Any chance of you uploading an attachment showing a picture of your drives as illustrated in XP Disk Management? Something similar to the Image DM1 shown at the end of my Backup Guide Below.

[kamiraa]

sure let me boot it up now

[kamiraa]

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3...a/screenhd.jpg

there is the screen shot. If you want anything else just let me know I have a camera and this computer running with the old hd.

I bout a copy of true image 10 for future imaging, screw norton. Now I just goto figure out how to get my 160 gigs back

[Brian K]

kamiraa,

We are in unknown territory now. I'd try zeroing the HD with CopyWipe for DOS and then using MHDD and the Hitachi tool.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php#download

Fingers crossed.

[GroverH]

Would he get better results from the utilities if the drive were attached direct to controller rather than connected via usb?