Windows 7 HDD Issue

[jdelroyc]

I just installed Windows 7 on my PC. I had been using Windows Vista Ultimate (32 bit) and upgraded to Windows 7 RC (32 bit). I wanted to use a 64 bit OS, so I wiped the HDD which had Windows 7 RC on it to do a clean install of the full version of Windows 7 Ultimate. At first, it wouldn't install on my HDD and wouldn't show my other 350 GB storage HDD. I unplugged the storage HDD and finally it allowed me to install on my OS HDD. After I plugged the storage drive back in, it will only display as 127 GB. It also says it's empty, when I had quite a bit of media files on it. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is.
I've checked the Bios

and the HDD option for my storage drive is selected as "auto" (other choices include LBA, Large, and C??). I'm not sure what gives. I have updated all the drivers that I could find in relation to this problem, but have not performed an update to the bios as it appears to have the proper options available and worked with my previous system.

My two HDD are:

70 GB WD Raptor (Ibelieve this is not a typical IDE drive)
350 GB Maxtor IDE

Everything worked fine with both Vista and Windows 7 RC, and I'm just experiecing this problem with 7 Ultimate.

 

[linuxdudex12]

Try editing the partitions with a partition editor

 

[jdelroyc]

Both HDD are internal and plugged directly into the Mobo. One HDD is a WD Raptor drive with a higher RPM that I use for my OS, programs, etc. as it's quicker. The other drive, a Maxtor IDE drive, is a larger drive that I use for storage of music, pics, movies, etc.

I have heard about older Mobos having issues with large HDD, but this should not be the problem as it was working correctly with both Vista and 7 RC. I also wouldn't think it's a driver issue. Another point of interest is that when I was installing WIn 7, the installation could only "see" the raptor drive and not my storage drive. As I said before, I unplugged the storage drive (ide), installed Win 7, and plugged it back it. Now it's showing the drive, but the size is not correct and I don't have access to my data.

 

[linuxdudex12]

Both HDD are internal and plugged directly into the Mobo. One HDD is a WD Raptor drive with a higher RPM that I use for my OS, programs, etc. as it's quicker. The other drive, a Maxtor IDE drive, is a larger drive that I use for storage of music, pics, movies, etc.

I have heard about older Mobos having issues with large HDD, but this should not be the problem as it was working correctly with both Vista and 7 RC. I also wouldn't think it's a driver issue. Another point of interest is that when I was installing WIn 7, the installation could only "see" the raptor drive and not my storage drive. As I said before, I unplugged the storage drive (ide), installed Win 7, and plugged it back it. Now it's showing the drive, but the size is not correct and I don't have access to my data.

Well I g2g real quick, but ya could you give the spec's on your system? goto system information and copy and past the system summery

 

[jdelroyc]

WHen I go to system summary, it doesn't display any HDD info. You still want it?

 

[linuxdudex12]

Yeah I was just going to look up your computer system for any known complications with the hard drives you specified. Of course you can do this yourself if you want, I have solved allot of problems by searching google.com

 

[catilley1092]

That's the best way to solve many problems, is by web searching the problem, using a few key words. In fact, that's how after two months of not being able to use it, I found a 64 bit driver for my printer. Dell didn't list this driver for my printer, but using the web search, it led me to a post on Microsoft Answers and there it was. Why as to Dell not listing it, I don't know to this day. I contacted them by email and reported it, but it was a waste of my time. Apparently, they don't want you to know everything.

 

[Veedaz]

Just about anything can be found on the Internet today and Search Engines are about the best way to access the data.

 

[jdelroyc]

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but I think that it's pretty obvious that the first thing I would have done is use a search engine. There is no way I would waste my time posting on forums if I had been able to find a solution to my problem so easily. The fact is this seems like a problem that others are having, but I have not been able to find a way to fix it or make sense of it. I appreciate that you took the time to read my problem and reply, but to tell me that I should "google the problem' really doesn't help. The reason I came to this forum is BECAUSE I found it via a search engine, and BECAUSE the site is called "Windows 7 Forums" I assumed that there would be others here who had encountered this problem or something similar and would have some knowledge in regards to fixing it. So to clarify - yes, I did search for my problem before asking. If anyone has some helpful advice to actually fixing the problem with the HDD/OS, please let me know. I'm all ears.

 

[linuxdudex12]

LOL, well yes it is obvious but its better to have more then one person searching solutions for the problem. I don't mean to sound like jerk either but when you said "but to tell me that I should "Google the problem' really doesn't help." I really did not tell you to Google the problem yourself, I said I wanted to Google for possible solutions myself. So why don't you give us some more information about your system before we can help you aright? First of all if you build a system yourself and your not competent enough to put it together right of course you probably will run into system instabilities. Try reinstalling windows 7 and see if that works if it doesn't then you probably are dealing with the your magnificent handywork. Also another thing you may try running some other OS on your system to see if the instability persist. Thanks for your post though but I think you misinterpreted what I asked of you
Everythings on the Internet... If you cant find the solution its your problem not mine (unless you let us help you).

 

[jdelroyc]

Again, thanks for your reply. I'm not exactly sure if you've read through my original post. Let me clarify as I probably wasn't as clear as I could have been:

I built this computer myself. I have been building computers since the old 486's. This has nothing to do with a lack of competence in regards to building PCs, installing software, using Windows, etc. As I stated, I had already installed a copy of Windows Vista 32 bit. Everything worked just fine including the HDD which is having issues. When Windows 7 RC (retail candidate) was released to the public, I wanted to try it out so I upgraded. Again, everything worked correctly, including the HDD in question. Now that we are quickly approaching March 2010, I wanted to upgrade to the full retail version of Windows 7 Ultimate. As you probably know, you cannot upgrade from Win 7 RC to the full version without some tricky registry editing. I didn't mind formatting my HDD because the only thing contained on it was the Windows 7 RC OS and some games/programs that I could re-install. So during the installation process of Win 7 Ultimate, I formatted the appropriate HDD. The installation could not "see" the other HDD that I use for storage. I unplugged the storage drive, installed Windows to the HDD I use for my OS, and then plugged the storage HDD back in.

When viewing it in explorer, it shows that it is 127 GB/127 GB free, or empty. As I stated before this drive is over 300 GB. After searching the internet, which I am very good at FYI, I noticed a trend - this problem has occurred with previous Windows versions (XP, Vista, etc.) and Win 7 but nobody really seems to have a solution for Windows 7. I've tried many different things already, including changing settings in the BIOS, reinstalling the HDD, reinstalling Vista, reinstalling Win 7 - everything short of editing the registry or formatting the drive. I have talked to a few friends about this problem, and to a family member who works for Microsoft and is extremely intelligent. Nobody can figure out what exactly is causing this problem. This is the reason I came to this forum - maybe one of you had encountered this problem and knew of a solution that I or others hadn't thought of. After reading your last post, I'm not sure if you actually read anything I had written before. Instead of trying to insult me, please be constructive with your comments. I could sit here and think of quite a few ways to insult you, including your poor grammar, lack of reading comprehension, and the fact that you feel the need to insult people you don't know on the internet, but I will refrain from going that route.

Back to the problem - could the problem with the HDD have anything to do with the fact that I upgraded to a 64 bit OS when I had previously used a 32 bit OS? I attached an external 160 GB HDD but this is displaying correctly. Also, I took the problem HDD out of my PC and put it in a friends PC who is running both Win 7 and Ubuntu - the same problem occurs. We can see that the drive is a 300 GB+ drive, but it will only allow us to access 127 GB. There is no unallocated space. I have listed my system specs below. Thanks.


Windows 7 (6.1) Ultimate Edition (Build 7600)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+

MB Brand : Ellitegroup
MB Model : Nforce4m-a(V3.0)

GPU Type: Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS
Memory: 2 gb DDR2 dual channel
HDD: Maxtor EIDE 350 GB
HDD: Western Digital Raptor 80 GB SATA

 

[Montlake]

Solution

One thing you could try is use Google or another search engine to include my favorite: "Web Crawler". The cool thing about that is I imagine it crawls all around the web like a spider to find the information you are looking for. I think this works very well in the event that you need to find something, which you all should try. Anyway, I'm not trying to sound like a jerk either but that is my suggestion.

 

[bassfisher6522]

I just installed Windows 7 on my PC. I had been using Windows Vista Ultimate (32 bit) and upgraded to Windows 7 RC (32 bit). I wanted to use a 64 bit OS, so I wiped the HDD which had Windows 7 RC on it to do a clean install of the full version of Windows 7 Ultimate. At first, it wouldn't install on my HDD and wouldn't show my other 350 GB storage HDD. I unplugged the storage HDD and finally it allowed me to install on my OS HDD. After I plugged the storage drive back in, it will only display as 127 GB. It also says it's empty, when I had quite a bit of media files on it. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is.
I've checked the Bios

and the HDD option for my storage drive is selected as "auto" (other choices include LBA, Large, and C??). I'm not sure what gives. I have updated all the drivers that I could find in relation to this problem, but have not performed an update to the bios as it appears to have the proper options available and worked with my previous system.

My two HDD are:

70 GB WD Raptor (Ibelieve this is not a typical IDE drive)
350 GB Maxtor IDE

Everything worked fine with both Vista and Windows 7 RC, and I'm just experiecing this problem with 7 Ultimate.

I believe that the problem lye's with a compatibility issue with your hardware and the 64 bit OS. Did you run the windows 7 upgrade adviser for the particular upgrade version you wanted? You said it worked fine w/RC 7 32 bit. Then the issue arose with the 64 bit install. Do you have and OEM version of 7 or a retail version? You have to order the either 32 or 64 version of the OEM, with the retail DVD it has both on it....which is why the big price difference. My advice would be to install the 32 bit version and see if still have the problem. Could you fill in your system specs in your profile area as this will help us in determining a better solution for a particular issue.

 

[bassfisher6522]

This just came to me, it could be a firmware issue with the hard drive itself. Have you been to the hard drives manufacturer website to see if there is and update for the firmware? It's worth a shot.

 

[jdelroyc]

My system specs can be found in my last post. I can't seem to find any firmware/drivers for my HDD (Maxtor EIDE 350 GB) or for my Mobo. I do have the 32 bit version of Windows 7, so I will try to install that. On the compatibility website, it shows that my HDD should be compatible with both 64 bit/32 bit Windows 7. I've heard about a size limit for HDD on previous versions of Windows, but didn't think this would be a problem with Win 7, considering the HDD worked just fine with previous versions. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Can you wipe the drive clean on another machine or format it on another machine and then install back into your machine as if you just bought it and see if it picks it up as an additional drive with an assigned letter. If it does you should be able to install OS as normal and if not the hard drive itself might have gotten corrupted some how (ESD) and is faulty now.

 

[jdelroyc]

That is the last option should everything else fail to work. I highly doubt the HDD is faulty - it is almost certainly a software issue.. This problem has occurred before with previous OS and some people are encountering this problem with Win 7. After googling 127 GB hdd issue, many results popped up. Also, when viewing the HDD in device manager, it shows that it is a 300GB + drive.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Hi jdelroyc

I truly wish I could help you with this problem. But unfortunately my computer knowledge is not that extensive. I did run into a drive that would not setup under Windows 7. This is little different than your problem because you say your drive is registering empty where mine was registering unknown partition type.

My solution or should I say fix, which may not work for you was to copy the contents with a previous OS. After I had copied the contents, I re-partitioned and formated the drive with Windows 7 then copied the data back with the previous OS. I know this is not a solution to the problem but can be used as a work around until someone can identify the problem that is smarter than we are.

 

[catilley1092]

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but I think that it's pretty obvious that the first thing I would have done is use a search engine. There is no way I would waste my time posting on forums if I had been able to find a solution to my problem so easily. The fact is this seems like a problem that others are having, but I have not been able to find a way to fix it or make sense of it. I appreciate that you took the time to read my problem and reply, but to tell me that I should "google the problem' really doesn't help. The reason I came to this forum is BECAUSE I found it via a search engine, and BECAUSE the site is called "Windows 7 Forums" I assumed that there would be others here who had encountered this problem or something similar and would have some knowledge in regards to fixing it. So to clarify - yes, I did search for my problem before asking. If anyone has some helpful advice to actually fixing the problem with the HDD/OS, please let me know. I'm all ears.

I never meant that you didn't try to search for the answer yourself, but was offering suggestions. How can I or anyone else know what you did or didn't do? The search engine did resolve my problem, but everyone's issues are different. We are not perfect here, if we were, we all would have jobs with Microsoft or a similar corporation making tons of money. There is an extensive base of information here, but no one can answer every problem that arises. I do hope that you find an answer to your issue soon, as I understand your frustrations. Most of us at some point in time has had problems, too.

 

[bassfisher6522]

That is the last option should everything else fail to work. I highly doubt the HDD is faulty - it is almost certainly a software issue.. This problem has occurred before with previous OS and some people are encountering this problem with Win 7. After googling 127 GB hdd issue, many results popped up. Also, when viewing the HDD in device manager, it shows that it is a 300GB + drive.

That has me stumped....I'm with you that it's a software issue. If you do find an answer to it please post the answer so at least I'll know. Good luck.