300GB drive in USB enclosure only showing as 36.8GB

[rogersmj]

I took a drive from my Linux server, a 300GB Seagate PATA (IDE), and stuck it in a Vantec USB 2.0 enclosure to use as a backup drive on my main machine. When I plugged it in, though, it only registers as 36.8GB -- even after I use Disk Utility to partition it. I previously had a 120GB drive in this enclosure and it worked fine; the enclosure supposedly supports up to 500GB drives. Anyone know what's going on?

 

[chriscl]

Have you checked on the back of the hard disk to see i yo have any jumpers set?

On *some* IDE disks, there is a jumper you can set to 'clip' the maximum partition size (something to do with legacy/older BIOS limits) and *I think* that limit was 30-some GB?

Have a look at the drive, and if there are any jumpers fitted, take them off (you shouldn't need to jumper the drive in an enclosure?)

Also - in "Disk Utility", when you see the unpartitioned drive, it should show as its full capacity before partitioning (which - of course - will be less than 300GB due to 'rounding down' where 1GB is 1000MB, not the stated 1024MB!)

 

[rogersmj]

Ok, I officially get the prize for being the biggest idiot on the forums this week.

With all these hard drives floating around from my server (six of them -- I'm doing some major reconfiguring), in my wine-induced haze last night I had grabbed the old 40GB Seagate that looked exactly like the 300GB (except for the little "40.0 Gbytes" on the label, of course) and installed it in the USB enclosure. I didn't notice until I opened it back up this morning to double-check the jumpers.

What have we learned? Don't do computer work after 3 or 4 glasses of Cappola Diamond Pinot Noir.

 

[mreg376]

What have we learned? Don't do computer work after 3 or 4 glasses of Cappola Diamond Pinot Noir.

I disagree. It was an acceptable risk.