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Malt Magics · Jan 13, 2007, 08:51 PM

hey all,

recently I bought an internal 320GB Maxtor HD to put inside a LaCie enclosure; the LaCie's HD had died. Once placed inside the LaCie enclosure, I plugged it in to format the HD I noticed its capacity was only 128GB.

Does anyone know what the exact issue is? I had bought this off of TigerDirect and just noticed it said this on the product page:

Maxtor DiamondMax 21 320GB 7200 16MB ATA-100 EIDE RoHS OEM Hard Drive 6A320Y0 at TigerDirect.com

"Please Note: In order to properly access the full capacity of an ATA interface hard drive or partition larger than 137GB and properly support 48-bit logical block addressing, Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 are required. This issue does not affect SCSI hard drives."

is this why I'm not able to access the HD's full capacity?

Also, the enclosure was for a 120 GB external HD. Could this be the cause? I read older enclosures may not be able to support large HDs, though a tech guy at my office took a look at the empty enclosure and said I'd be fine with the Maxtor.

And would it matter what jumper setting it is on? I believe it's currently on Master.

any help with this would be much appreciated.

thanks

MichiganRich · Jan 13, 2007, 08:56 PM

I'm not going out on a limb to say that the controller in the enclosure is not capable of adressing big drives. You've got it jumpered correctly, and it's showing up, but with that enclosure and controller that's all the gigabytes you're going to see.

Can you post detailed information about the enclosure? Model numbers, anything that the System Profiler has to say about it?

Malt Magics · Jan 13, 2007, 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by MichiganRich

I'm not going out on a limb to say that the controller in the enclosure is not capable of adressing big drives. You've got it jumpered correctly, and it's showing up, but with that enclosure and controller that's all the gigabytes you're going to see.

Can you post detailed information about the enclosure? Model numbers, anything that the System Profiler has to say about it?

The System Profiler says it's a LaCie 1394 Disk drive LUN 0. It was bought 3-4 years ago.

Also, what do you mean by the controller? which part is that exactly?

hey, thanks again for the help.

MichiganRich · Jan 13, 2007, 09:15 PM

The controller is the bridge between the ATA bus of the hard drive and the FireWire bus leading to the computer. It's the chipset that makes everything 'talk'. For example, most modern drives have whats called an Oxford chipset, popular models would be Oxford 911 or 922. Google it for some detail.

What you have is a box that provides power to the drive, somewhere for it to sit, and a 'bridge' to make it speak FireWire. I'm strongly thinking that such an 'old' enclosure does not have a chipset that supports big drives, as this is a common issue even in the computer itself. A friend's old graphite G4, for example, will only see big drives as 128 gigs.

Get onto NewEgg and get a new cheap enclosure that you like the looks of, and you will have NO problem with your new Maxtor drive, I promise you. If you can find a cheap drive like your Maxtor that is around 128 gigs, put that in the current LaCie enlosure you have. LaCie enclosures are generally really nice and well made, so it would be worth using it, just not with so many GBs going to waste.

Malt Magics · Jan 13, 2007, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by MichiganRich

The controller is the bridge between the ATA bus of the hard drive and the FireWire bus leading to the computer. It's the chipset that makes everything 'talk'. For example, most modern drives have whats called an Oxford chipset, popular models would be Oxford 911 or 922. Google it for some detail.

What you have is a box that provides power to the drive, somewhere for it to sit, and a 'bridge' to make it speak FireWire. I'm strongly thinking that such an 'old' enclosure does not have a chipset that supports big drives, as this is a common issue even in the computer itself. A friend's old graphite G4, for example, will only see big drives as 128 gigs.

Get onto NewEgg and get a new cheap enclosure that you like the looks of, and you will have NO problem with your new Maxtor drive, I promise you. If you can find a cheap drive like your Maxtor that is around 128 gigs, put that in the current LaCie enlosure you have. LaCie enclosures are generally really nice and well made, so it would be worth using it, just not with so many GBs going to waste.

thanks. I came to that conclusion after your first reply and I started looking for a new shell. And secondly that's why I bought the replacment HD in the first place, the LaCie shell is a good shell and i didn't want it to go to waste!

thanks again for all the help.

MichiganRich · Jan 13, 2007, 09:30 PM

No probs. Glad to help.

Any good deals on 120 gig drives at NewEgg?

Malt Magics · Jan 13, 2007, 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by MichiganRich

No probs. Glad to help.

Any good deals on 120 gig drives at NewEgg?

Newegg had a 120 GB Western Dgital for $89.99, which is a bit pricey.

TigerDirect has a nice Seagate 120 GB for $59.99. that'd be the one to get.

there weren't any external enclosures with firewire though. I'll probably have to compromise and just get one of them perhaps.

MichiganRich · Jan 13, 2007, 09:44 PM

How do you mean there weren't any external enclosures with firewire?

Malt Magics · Jan 13, 2007, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by MichiganRich

How do you mean there weren't any external enclosures with firewire?

they all just have USB ports from the looks of them....nevermind. they list them as 1394a ports. I had to click on them to see the port shape to see some indeed were firewire.

sknapp351 · Jan 13, 2007, 10:07 PM

I have had this enclosure for some time, and had no problems.

PPA 3.5" USB 2.0Firewire External Hard Drive Enclosure with Light Bar 1912 at TigerDirect.com

SAm

Malt Magics · Jan 13, 2007, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by sknapp351

I have had this enclosure for some time, and had no problems.

PPA 3.5" USB 2.0Firewire External Hard Drive Enclosure with Light Bar 1912 at TigerDirect.com

SAm

thanks for the link. I may just get that one. the other ones on NewEgg that I saw were at least $100 or a little large, or too small.

I saw this one at new egg:
Newegg.com - macally PHR-100AC External Enclosure - Retail

but the first review wasn't so hot.

pwrmacg4 · Jan 13, 2007, 10:37 PM

Should it have to have an Oxford chipset? I saw this for 2.5" drive for myself: OWC Mercury Express 2.5" Portable Aluminum... (ME25PALUFW) at OWC

Any recommendations for 2.5" hard drive?

jeffcoop · Feb 18, 2007, 06:38 AM

Originally Posted by pwrmacg4

Should it have to have an Oxford chipset? I saw this for 2.5" drive for myself: OWC Mercury Express 2.5" Portable Aluminum... (ME25PALUFW) at OWC

Any recommendations for 2.5" hard drive?

Note OWC's comment that large/fast drives may require an external power adapter. I have the previous model of the OWC Mercury Express case with a Samsung 120 GB 5400 RPM drive, and the case doesn't seem to be able to power the drive consistently--I've had a couple of instances where the drive has simply shut off in mid-operation. This is using the Firewire connection, not the USB (USB ports are infamous for supplying insufficient power).

Veltliner · Feb 20, 2007, 06:37 PM

I saw a 250 Gb Seagate drive at newegg for 75$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...x=0&Go.y=0

It's the second or third drive, a Barracuda 7200.10,

It is OEM.

What material do you have to buy to install it into an external casing? Any cables?

mduell · Feb 20, 2007, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by Veltliner

I saw a 250 Gb Seagate drive at newegg for 75$.

Newegg.com - Search Results for seagate hard drive

It's the second or third drive, a Barracuda 7200.10,

It is OEM.

What material do you have to buy to install it into an external casing? Any cables?

Answered in your other thread.

Veltliner · Feb 22, 2007, 12:17 AM

Thanks a lot.

(This is actually not my thread, it's Malt Magic's thread)