Wrong Disk Size Reported by ADD

I purchased a new Hitachi Travelstar 200GB SCSI disk for my laptop. I used Acronis True Image Workstation to backup my C (OS Partition) and D (Data Partition). Both Disk Director and Windows report that my hard drive is only 110.4GB in size. I ran Recovery Expert and it says there is no unallocated space (as does Disk Director).


I used Disk Directory version 10.0 (build*2,160) to create 2 new partitions.
I created a C partion of about 35Gb and allocated the rest to D. It was about 155-160GB. I rememember that.
I then restored my C and D Drive using TIW. I did not pay attention to disk space at this time. I just made sure my comptuer booted and behaved OK.
After restoring my C and D drives using Acronis True Image workstation I created a 3rd partion. During analysis I got an error about unable to read a sector. I ignored it and the new partition was created. I immediately did chkdsk /f /r on C and D. It took a very long time.

Once completed Disk Director and Windows say my total hard drive space is 110.4GB. Where did the rest of the space go?? Disk Director recognizes the hard drive model and manufacturer. I verified this is a 200GB hard drive and the D partition was about 155GB-160GB when I did my last Disk Director commit. The size changed during the D drive restore of as a result of the chkdsk. I have no idea what happened.

Where is my disk space and how do I get it back? Also Disk Director reports all disk space is allocated.

Currently Disk Director reports my C drive is 35GB, my D drive is 71.2 GB and my E Drive is 4GB.

What happened and what can I do to get back my missing disk space?

 

echu_nyt:

By any chance is your laptop a Dell with the MediaDirect feature?

 

It is a Dell laptop but I am not sure if it has the MediaDirect feature. I do not think so. It might but if so I have never used it. I know I deleted the dell factory recover partition when I first got Disk Directory.

I have been reading about this issue for about 6 hours. During my searches I came across reports of the MBR. That reminded me of something that I left out of my original post that may be important. When I was restoring my C Drive Acronis True Image Workstation showed me two records. The MBR and the C Drive. I restored both of these.

I am guessing this means I now have the MBR off of my older small drive on my new larger drive.

If this is the cause what can I do to fix the MBR??

If not any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Ed

 

Ed:

I don't have much experience with this problem other than what I've read. A good description of the issue is on Dan Goodell's web site, and there is a huge thread in the TrueImage forum that contains procedures for fixing the problem or preventing its occurrence.

If I'm understanding this correctly then the damage was done when you restored the MBR from your old image. Not only that, with the Dell MBR restored the hidden HPA has already been created on the disk, so that is why you cannot see the full size of the disk. If you had simply omitted restoring the MBR when you first imaged the new disk then you wouldn't have had any problems.

I haven't read the full text to understand the details, but I believe that the simplest solution may be to use one of the manufacturer's tools (referenced in Dan Goodell's article) to completely zero and initialize the new disk, thus removing the HPA. Next, restore your image again but do not restore MBR and Track 0 this time so that you don't put the Dell MBR back on the disk. When you restore with TI it will create a generic MBR.

Maybe Brian K, who understands this problem, will drop in to help.

 

Mark - that sounds like my problem. Damn - I debated whether or not to restore the MBR. I made the wrong decision!

That thread shows a solution but, boy is it confusing. I will give it a shot. I need to go out and by some CDs to burn ISOs dang. I don't use CDs anymore.

Thanks!!!

 

In case anyone stumbles on this thread. I found a fix using a program called HDAT2.

This was linked to from another post in this forum. This worked for me to retrieve my hard drive space, but my computer is still acting very odd.

------

Q: Host Protected Area (HPA) vs. 28/48-bit LBA mode

A: There is a problem of incompatibility on some hard drives (e.g. Seagate) when you are using 48-bit command for removing Host Protected Area (HPA) created with 28-bit command.
48-bit command cannot remove HPA created with 28-bit command and vice-versa. Following solution is for disk supports 48-bit LBA mode only and if you have HPA greater than 127 GB.
Solution:

1. Power-on PC, boot and start HDAT2.
2. In 'SET MAX (HPA) Menu' select 'Set Max Address'. Change 'LBA mode' from 48 to 28-bit LBA mode and press 'S' key to set maximal address for 28-bit LBA mode (127 GB).
3. Power-off PC (Important !), power-on PC, boot and start HDAT2.
4. In 'SET MAX (HPA) Menu' select 'Set Max Address'. Leave the selected 48-bit 'LBA mode' Change 'LBA mode' from 28 to 48-bit LBA mode and press 'S' key to set maximal address for 48-bit LBA mode.
5. After restart you should get the full (native) capacity of hard drive.

 

echu_nyt,

It's an interesting problem but less so from where you are sitting. You have recovered your HD space with HDAT2 but are likely to lose it again if you don't zero LBA-3.

This summarises what you need to do to fix your current HD.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=167401&page=2#27

In place of MHDD you can use several other tools including HDAT2 but the easiest one to use is SeaTools for DOS

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/

If you decide to do the whole exercise again, the problem can be prevented by zeroing LBA-3 on the old HD or overwriting the Dell MBR boot code on the old HD with a standard MBR. eg fixmbr or fdisk /mbr. After either of these measures has been performed on the old HD you can safely copy/clone to a new HD.

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/hpa-issues.htm