1TB hard drive only showing up as 800GB

[Blastguy]

So a while back when I first setup my hard drive I made it 800GB instead of the full 1TB (it's a 1 TB hard drive) for some reason thinking I could extend it later.

I couldn't extend it when I tried so I made a backup of all my files onto another drive and deleted all the partitions on the problem drive. This is what it shows:

http://imgur.com/a/TyXQD

I am 100% sure this is a 1TB drive because it says 1TB on it, I bought it brand new (It's a Western Digital Caviar Blue), and I vaguely remember being able to choose 1TB when I was first setting it up.

Please help!

 

[DR_Luke]

If it is a 1TB drive, it must have the HPA set to 800GB. Are you Linux savvy?

Edit: More details for using hdparm in linux to reset the HPA

1. check current HPA settings and to show the full sector size

> hdparm -N /dev/XYZ

2. set HPA to XXXXXXXXXXX, the max sector size shown in step 1

> hdparm -N pXXXXXXXXXXX /dev/XYZ

 

[RolandJS]

My school firewall prevents me from seeing the picture. Since your OS and Data partitions are fully backed up and are restorable -- I'm wondering if you can usb or dvd boot MiniTool Partition Wizard version 9, and use that tool to get the 1TB back. However, be advised that after I formatted my 1TB usb ext HD, I got 931GB usable byte-space with the remainder being used by Windows OS as infrastructure, housekeeping, operations.

 

[USAFRet]

My school firewall prevents me from seeing the picture. Since your OS and Data partitions are fully backed up and are restorable -- I'm wondering if you can usb or dvd boot MiniTool Partition Wizard version 9, and use that tool to get the 1TB back. However, be advised that after I formatted my 1TB usb ext HD, I got 931GB usable byte-space with the remainder being used by Windows OS as infrastructure, housekeeping, operations.

A 1TB drive reporting as 931GB is absolutely normal, and has nothing to do with formatting, infrastructure, etc, etc.

Is is simply a difference in reporting units.
Base 10 vs Base 2
Human vs machine.

Read more here:
http://wintelguy.com/gb2gib.html
http://www.andrewwhyman.com/blog/rants/mb-mib-gb-gib-what-the-differences-are-and-why-it-causes-confusion/
And of course, the lawsuit from 10 yrs ago: https://www.cnet.com/news/gigabytes-vs-gibibytes-class-action-suit-nears-end/

 

[RolandJS]

Thanks USAFRet; I was simply passing on old information from another source! Tell me more about Base 10 versus Base 2 -- I want to learn from you

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks USAFRet; I was simply passing on old information from another source! Tell me more about Base 10 versus Base 2 -- I want to learn from you

Read the links above. Explains it pretty well.

And this old chestnut has been going around forever.
The drive is exactly the same and correct size. You've lost nothing.

Now...the OP having only 800GB out of a 1TB drive....that IS an issue.

 

[Blastguy]

If it is a 1TB drive, it must have the HPA set to 800GB. Are you Linux savvy?

Edit: More details for using hdparm in linux to reset the HPA

1. check current HPA settings and to show the full sector size

> hdparm -N /dev/XYZ

2. set HPA to XXXXXXXXXXX, the max sector size shown in step 1

> hdparm -N pXXXXXXXXXXX /dev/XYZ

No I'm not Linux savvy.

 

[Blastguy]

Thanks USAFRet; I was simply passing on old information from another source! Tell me more about Base 10 versus Base 2 -- I want to learn from you

Read the links above. Explains it pretty well.

And this old chestnut has been going around forever.
The drive is exactly the same and correct size. You've lost nothing.

Now...the OP having only 800GB out of a 1TB drive....that IS an issue.

If it means anything, I used CrystalDisk and the "Reallocated Sectors Count" is Current- 200 and Worst- 200 and Threshold- 140. Don't know what to do.

 

[RolandJS]

According to this Google return:
parameter indicates the count of reallocated sectors (512 bytes). When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps.
S.M.A.R.T. Attribute: Reallocated Sectors Count | Knowledge Base
https://kb.acronis.com/content/9105

...reallocated sector count of 200, worst 300, threshold 140 is not a good sign.

 

[Blastguy]

According to this Google return:
parameter indicates the count of reallocated sectors (512 bytes). When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps.
S.M.A.R.T. Attribute: Reallocated Sectors Count | Knowledge Base
https://kb.acronis.com/content/9105

...reallocated sector count of 200, worst 300, threshold 140 is not a good sign.

So what does this mean for me? What can I do about it?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

According to this Google return:
parameter indicates the count of reallocated sectors (512 bytes). When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps.
S.M.A.R.T. Attribute: Reallocated Sectors Count | Knowledge Base
https://kb.acronis.com/content/9105

...reallocated sector count of 200, worst 300, threshold 140 is not a good sign.

So what does this mean for me? What can I do about it?

That drive is actively failing. Back up all your data and replace it ASAP.

 

[Blastguy]

According to this Google return:
parameter indicates the count of reallocated sectors (512 bytes). When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps.
S.M.A.R.T. Attribute: Reallocated Sectors Count | Knowledge Base
https://kb.acronis.com/content/9105

...reallocated sector count of 200, worst 300, threshold 140 is not a good sign.

So what does this mean for me? What can I do about it?

That drive is actively failing. Back up all your data and replace it ASAP.

My data IS backed up and I don't think that my drive is failing. I've made posts on other forums and nobody has said something that drastic.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

What you think is completely irrelevant. The numbers do not lie. That drive is actively failing, and it won't be much longer before it's completely unusable. However, you're free to do as you wish.

 

[USAFRet]

My data IS backed up and I don't think that my drive is failing. I've made posts on other forums and nobody has said something that drastic.

Well...here's #2.
That drive is dying.

 

[RolandJS]

What the OP needs to understand is that some of us are coming from a data recovery mindframe, we assume the worst is imminent for a problematic HD until proven otherwise. Others assume nothing bad or drastic is imminent concerning the HD until proven otherwise. If any particular HD is indeed heading for imminent failure, all the wishing, all the software fix attempts, all the EZ-recovery attempts, if such do not succeed, if such fail as such too often do, then the DR company/specialist has a much harder, a much more expensive, recovery attempt field to plow, and the success of recovery is quite often much less than such would have been if done upfront.