tobtoh@gmail.com wrote:
> This problem has me completely stumped. I would appreciate any advice
> people might have on how to fix this problem ...
>
> The Problem:
> -----------
> I have a Seagate 250 Gig ATA drive in an external disk enclosure
> (connects via USB to my PC). When I connect, it reports the partition
> as 2048 Gig!!! This is in WinXP SP2 and fully patched, latest BIOS etc
> etc
>
> What I Have Tried:
> -----------------
> I have tried many many things none of which worked. These included:
>
> 1. Formatting disk
> 2. Removing all partitions and formatting
> 3. Using 'fixmbr'
> 4. Using Seagate's DiskWizard tool and the other disk tool that you
> have to boot into (I forget what it is called)
> 5. Installing Linux on it and then reformating the disk to use it for
> XP.
>
> Comments:
> --------
> Using Seagate's disk tool, I was able to write zero's across the start
> of the disk and then re-initialise the disk. After I did this, the disk
> reported the correct 250 Gig capacity. I went back into XP and went to
> format the disk once more only for the format fail to complete and then
> the disk returned to 2048 Gig in size.
>
> Also, in Linux, the disk appears as 2048 Gig.
>
> So based on these two observations (and given everything else has
> failed), I'm thinking that the disk has a hardware fault in the area of
> the MBR.
>
> Does this sound correct? Anyone have any other theories?
>
> Cheers,
> Ben
>

To eliminate half your potential problems from consideration, try
connecting the drive directly to the computer. If it is reported
properly and can be formatted and partitioned, then it obviously isn't
the drive and that leaves your external enclosure (well, and your
USB/Firewire port too I guess) as the problem. Some older enclosures
specifically did not support "large" hard drives -- something to do with
the bridge/controller being incompatible.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com