200GB HD formatted loses 70GB!

[markpxxxxx]

I bought a Western Digital Caviar EIDE HD that is supposed to be 200GB, but when I formatted it with Drive Setup for my Mac G4, it came out to 130. Where did the extra 70GB go???

[kc0arf]

Hello,

Are you using OS X or OS 9? I am also wondering if you formatted HFS or HFS+. I think that on the larger drives, you want to go HFS+ due to sector size. It is designed for the larger hard drives, and security and so forth.

Let us know,

Christian

[markpxxxxx]

I used Mac OS Extended option, which told me the size was 130 before it even formatted. I am on OS9, but will switch to X if you think it will make a difference.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

According to Apple's website, the HFS+ under OS 9 should support a 2 Terabyte solution. Your volume is smaller than that by a long shot.

TO be honest, I have never been a fan of ungodly large partitions like this on a workstation.

What happens if you try to make 2 partitions 100 GB each?

Christian

[markpxxxxx]

The program won't let me do anything with the full 200GBs. It only gives me the 130 to work with from the beginning, before I can even partition or do anything else.

Maybe I have a mislabeled HD? I find that hard to believe, and it does say 200GB on the HD itself. I bought this from a reputable company, but who knows?

Is there another free formatting program out there I can test this HD out on?

[markpxxxxx]

Okay, I talked to WD on the phone and they said I need a controller card for the Mac to make it read the EIDE HD at its fullest capacity. Can anybody here give me info about controller cards, such as which kind will work in an old G4 tower 500MHz? I'd like to find something cheap on Ebay, if possible.
Thanks.

[chas]

Hi Mark

G4s before the MDD models only support drives up to 128GB in size, irrespective of the actual drive capacity. Having said that, it is possible to use drives bigger than 128GB in these machines. What you need is the latest version of Intech's SpeedTools (http://www.speedtools.com) which comes with a rather natty utility called ATA Hi-Cap. This allows you to use drives bigger than 128GB with these earlier G4s, with the proviso that you can't use a partition bigger than 128GB. In other words, you'll have to partition your 200GB drive into two partitions, neither of which can be bigger than 128GB.

I had this problem a few months back but once I applied this utility, I got back 70-odd GB from my new 200GB Maxtor. Now that LaCie are doing monster drives (the 1.6TB looks rather attractive), utilities like ATA Hi-Cap are becoming very useful.

=:~)

[markpxxxxx]

Thanks, this sounds great! Unfortunately the software costs almost as much as the drive did itself, so I guess I will have to pass on it. I can live without the 70GB, I guess.

[chas]

The Hi-Cap utility is available as a standalone item for $29.95

=:~)

[markpxxxxx]

OK, I'll check it out, thanx.

[yellow]

Sounds to me like you're trying to put in on an older ATA connection that has a limit of 120GB/137GB. There is a size limitation on old ATA hardware. You may need to purchase a newer ATA/5 or ATA/6 PCI card to see the whole thing. Which version of G4 is this?