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DataCom

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 24, 2006
3
0
I just picked up 3 wd1200JB's and am experiencing some weird issues.
When I use fdisk to setup the drive it shows a % under the partition.
Also the format displayed in fdisk when I set one up is 3UNKNOWN not fat32. what is 3unknown? When setting the whole drive as a extended partition it says 71% not 100%.
The guy I got them from said they were from a Mac pc. I have an Intel based system. I set on up using Partition magig and it says 3fat32 not fat32.
Is there a mac format left on these in the MBR or is it a virus? I have tried wd tools, partition magic and fdisk. I can make them work but I think the mbr is showing something left over from the mac format. Also I am only getting 114gb out of them.

any ideas?

Update: I also found out they were used in a raid system. Would that alter the MBR? How would I reset the drive?
 
I just picked up 3 wd1200JB's and am experiencing some weird issues.
When I use fdisk to setup the drive it shows a % under the partition.
Also the format displayed in fdisk when I set one up is 3UNKNOWN not fat32. what is 3unknown? When setting the whole drive as a extended partition it says 71% not 100%.
The guy I got them from said they were from a Mac pc. I have an Intel based system. I set on up using Partition magig and it says 3fat32 not fat32.
Is there a mac format left on these in the MBR or is it a virus? I have tried wd tools, partition magic and fdisk. I can make them work but I think the mbr is showing something left over from the mac format. Also I am only getting 114gb out of them.

any ideas?

Update: I also found out they were used in a raid system. Would that alter the MBR? How would I reset the drive?
1. are u talking about 3 external drivers?
2. are u saying pq magic show "3fat32" as format?
3. do u have a mac? if so, does its disk utility work?
 
1. are u talking about 3 external drivers?
2. are u saying pq magic show "3fat32" as format?
3. do u have a mac? if so, does its disk utility work?


these are internal drives, regular ide 7200 rpm and 100 Ultra-DMA.
PQ shows fat32 when the drive Partition is created with it.
Fdisk shows 3fat32 under format type and has a % sign under the drive letter.
I am not using a mac. I am using a Intel windows based system.
 
if u run "fdisk /mbr" whats the result?
fdisk might not recognize many disk formats. its too old.
im not sure if there is an Mac format partition on it, if your pq magic is too old, it might not recognize it as well.
 
"fdisk /mbr" doesn't really do anything.
I have been using fdisk on drives the same size with no problems.
I have used the pq magic to setup 250GB drives so that is good.
The strange part is pq magic and WD tools are the only ones that will set it up to a Fat32.
also strange is the 3fat32 in the fdisk. I have also seen when fdisk sets up the drive it shows 3unknown under format type.
 
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