Installing 250gig hard drive

[kish]

I just got a new Seagate Barracuda 250gig hard drive which I am installing in an external firewire case, My problem is that when I try to initialize the drive using Disk Utility (I am using a Mac Mini G4, OS 10.4) it only sees the drive as 128gig.

How can I initialize the drive to access the full capacity?

Help! Anyone?

 

[Eidorian]

I am installing in an external firewire case...

...it only sees the drive as 128gig.

How old is the FireWire case?

 

[kish]

How old is the FireWire case?

Its about 4 years old (firewire 400).

 

[Markleshark]

That could be the problem, the case could limit the size of the drive. Ermmmm, I think its the firmware that does this, so you could try search for some firmware updates (I don't know if that'll work/is possible though) and see what you can find.

If not, then its time for a drive case update my friend.

 

[Eidorian]

Its about 4 years old (firewire 400).

Your FireWire enclosure has a controller chip in it. It might be so old that it can't recognize drives over 128 GB.

 

[kish]

Your FireWire enclosure has a controller chip in it. It might be so old that it can't recognize drives over 128 GB.

Thanks all, I guess it must the enclosure as the computer is only about a year old it may not be firmware.

I will try a new firewire enclosure soon and let you know how I succeed (or not).

 

[thejadedmonkey]

If you partition the drive as 2 drives in a different computer, it MAY work. I'm just thinking out loud though...

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Older enclosures had the Oxford 911 chip in them that could not recognize big drives. Get one with the 911-A or B chip & you'll be set

 

[kish]

Older enclosures had the Oxford 911 chip in them that could not recognize big drives. Get one with the 911-A or B chip & you'll be set

Great, thanks for that info now I won't go out and buy an enclosure with the same old chip.

 

[kish]

Great, thanks for that info now I won't go out and buy an enclosure with the same old chip.

OK. I got a new enclosure and had my new hard drive up and running in 10 minutes with full capacity.

The only firewire case available was a compact case that stands on end (vertically instead of horizontally) and has no fan or air vents as a result the drive runs very hot.

I am not happy with this arrangement, the drive standing on its side or the heat (I live in the tropics so its hot enough here).

I am told that hard drives stop for few milliseconds every so often to perform what is known as thermal recalibration, so the hotter the drive runs the more frequently it recalibrates and this can slow performance when working with large files.

I work long hours with a lot of large Photoshop files, so I need speed in writing to disk (the application also creates temp files and uses the hard drive as a scratch disk).

Heat is known to shorten the life of electronic devices so the thought of the drive dying on me and losing weeks of work is not something I cherish.

I know back-up, back-up, back-up.....