45GB external HD won't give more than 32GB?

[RedTomato]

Hello,

I extracted an old 45GB HD from my previous PC to use as an external HD (in a firewire enclosure) for my new 15'' PB.

the HD is an IBM Deskstar DTLA-307045, 7200rpm, 46.1 GB capacity (it says on the disk label)

The problem is my PC formatted it (3 years ago!) as a 32GB HD - I didn't mind loosing the 15 GB at the time, as I thought I could always reformat it if i ever needed the extra space.

Now, I do indeedy need the extra space, but I can't work out how to make the extra 15GB turn up.

I've erased the entire contents and reformatted using Disk Utility in my OS 10.3.8 but it still thinks it's a 32GB HD.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

RedTomato

 

[BornAgainMac]

First highlight the drive name (not the partition) in Disk Utility and you will see a Partition menu. You probably will see two partitions and you are only formatting the first 32 GB partition. Drop the partition and repartition as one large partition and you should see the entire 45 GB (close to it after formatting).

You probably were only formatting the partition that was allocated.

 

[RedTomato]

I've already tried doing that, and it is still stuck at 32GB soz.

Somehow, OSX firmly believes the total capacity is 32GB and no more. It won't allow me to create partitions of more than that. (even using Mac OS Extended [Journaled] filesystem)

Getting Info on the disk (in Disk Utilties) gives this:

(Oxford Semiconductor is the name of the firewire chip in the external drive enclosure)


Name : Oxford Semiconductor Ltd.
Type : Disk

Disk Identifier : disk2
Media Name : IBM-DTLA -307045 Media
Media Type : Generic
Connection Bus : FireWire
Connection ID : 13757097539803680
IO Content : Apple_partition_scheme
Device Tree : fw/node@30e001e0001a20/sbp-2@c000/@0:0
Writable : Yes
Ejectable : No
Mac OS 9 Drivers Installed : No
Location : External
Total Capacity : 31.5 GB (33,820,284,928 Bytes)
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 0


Getting Info on the single partition gives me this:

Name : Untitled 1
Type : Volume

Disk Identifier : disk2s3
Mount Point : /Volumes/Untitled 1
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : FireWire
IO Content : Apple_HFS
Device Tree : fw/node@30e001e0001a20/sbp-2@c000/@0:3
Writable : Yes
Capacity : 31.4 GB (33,686,028,288 Bytes)
Free Space : 31.3 GB (33,656,676,352 Bytes)
Used : 28.0 MB (29,351,936 Bytes)
Number of Files : 2
Number of Folders : 3
Permissions Enabled : No
Can Turn Permissions Off : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 3

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

How old is your enclosure? Although unlikely it is possible that your chipset in there is too old to see more than 32GB.

 

[RedTomato]

I hadn't thought about that one...

I brought the enclosure new a year ago, but it was pretty cheap compared to others on the market (£30/$45) so it may have been quite old.

it's a 5.25 inch enclosure - I used to have a DVD burner in it, so maybe it wasn't meant to deal with large HDs.

Taking out the circuit board and removing a few stickers reveals it's an Oxford 911 chip.

The recent warnings about problems with firewire enclosures on the Apple website have all been about the Oxford 922 chips, so mine is from before that.

a quick google search on oxford 911 reveals it to be from at least 2001. Huh, things aren't looking good...

But no, there are several reviews testing the Oxford 911 on drives of 40+ GB, e.g. at

http://www.barefeats.com/fire21.html

so it seems the chip isn't a problem...

Thanks for raising that point tho.

RedTomato

 

[RedTomato]

replying to myself...

Found the Oxford 911 chip can deal with all drives up to 160GB. Larger than 160 GB requires the 922.

Seems I will need a new enclosure for my next planned purchase - a Maxor Diamondmax 300GB HD.

Also seems OS10.1 and before had problems with firewire.

Neither of these two things are relevant to me at the moment really.

I'm considering burning a mac-knoppix CD and having a go at reformatting the HD under linux (which I know very little about). Do you think that will help?

thanks

RedTomato