Partitioning issues with WD 320gb. Suggestions?

[Purplehaze]

Got a new notebook drive today and it was originally detected at expected size (320 gb) while connected via USB enclosure. I then used ghost to mirror my old drive onto this one but forgot to have it "fill out" the unallocated space.

Now the new drive keeps detecting as the size of the old one, 80 gb in both the BIOS and disk manager. I've tried deleting the partitions but it still can't find the additional space.

Suggestions for a next step? I tried the WD tools zero writer but that didn't do the trick. Do I need to somehow whipe the MBR and/or partition tables?

All updates are current so it's not the pre-SP2 disk size problems. BIOS is also up to date.

I want my 240gb back :(

[DonDon]

Boot up with your trusty Win98 boot disk, and making sure that the drive you want to fix is the only drive connected, type "fdisk /mbr"

That will install a fresh copy of the Pre Vista MBR and MAY fix your problem. It can't hurt anything.

I have never played around with partition resizers in the past, but one of them may be able to help also.

Also, check the WD diagnostic disk and see if it has an option to Low Level Format. While I have never had to do that, that may also fix you up.

You can try booting with your Winxp install disk, and see if it can see the unused space or do a better job of clearing the partitions.

Maybe post your issue in the WD website user forum area. Also dig around their knowledge base and see if anything turns up.

Uhm, other than that, I am out of suggestions.

Don

[Purplehaze]

Thanks Don.

After hours of searching I finally found a program that did the trick. HDAT2 removed the HPA that ghost (for some reason) created which was blocking the rest of the space from being visible.

After freeing up the space I was able to delete the existing partition and I'm now attempting to ghost again with the settings I had originally intended to use. Hoping for better results this time around but at least I know how to fix it if it happens again!

[DonDon]

Thanks for the info, I didn't know these creatures existed.

What brand is the laptop? I was looking at an article that says some Dell models will do exactly what happened to you. Link (http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm) I am just wondering if there are others?

Don