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New 320 GB hard disk drive, but I can only see 132 GB

New 320 GB hard disk drive, but I can only see 132 GB

I have an Acer Ferrari 3400 laptop with a 80 GB drive installed and Windows XP. I cloned the 80 GB disk to a 320 GB, but I could not boot from it. So I loaded up the Windows XP CD and at the format hard disk part I deleted the partitions, but I could only see 132 GB available.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 277
Total answers/comments: 1
Guest [Entry]

"After a bit of googling, it turns out that the culprit is not the operating system, but your old laptop. The Acer Ferrari 3400 does not support LBA mode.

Your only option for using the 320 GB drive internally is to use Disk Drive Overlay (DDO). (DDO is a TSR that loads onto sector two of the hard drive and is used for computers that do not support LBA mode.)

You can use Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Tools (or a similar tool provided by the manufacturer of your HDD) to prepare your hard disk.

Many consider DDOs as evil (like codec packs :) ... but sometimes they are a necessary evil.

As an alternative, consider buying a smaller hard drive, e.g. 120 GB (or keep the original 80 GB drive). You can get an external USB enclosure for the 320 GB drive -- but make sure the enclosure's chipset supports large-capacity drives, lest you end up with the same problem."