Hard Drive Issue

I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.

Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?

Thanks everyone.


--
Koflach

Koflach wrote:
> I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
> showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
> Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
> installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
> I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
> 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
> a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>
> Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>
> Thanks everyone.
>
>

Can you salvage the data that's on that drive, in other words could you
delete all partitions and start over?

If so it may be quickest to download Ubuntu which comes as an ISO file
and then burn a CD with it. You could then insert that CD without
damaging your existing setup, it runs from the CD unless you explicitly
choose to install it. You could then use the partitioning tool :GPARTED:
to sort the partitions out.

I really intend this as a last resort method but at least it's free. Of
course wait for other ideas first, and if unsure ask for more clues.
Ubuntu is generally very good at finding drivers that will work on many
machines.

To troubleshoot this issue, I need to confirm the following points:



1.Can you access the old hard disk? How many partitions have you divided?



2.Can you see the new hard disk in Disk Management?



3.Before allocating letters, did you have the new hard disk scanned or
formatted?



Generally, the reason why you can't allocate letters to a new hard disk is
due to any of the following status.



1.Unavialble letter is used to allocate to the new hard disk. Generally, you
can assign letters from C through Z, A and B is usually assigned for floppy
disk. Moreover, you can't use letters which are already assigned for the
older disk. For detail steps on how to allocate driver letter to the new hard
disk, please visit the following website.



How to allocate drive letter with Disk Management in Windows Vista



2.The hard disk has bad sectors or lost clusters. You can download Data
Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows by visting the following website and
perform a test.



http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...&sid=3&lang=en



Note: Please follow the instruction listed on the above website.



3.The new hard disk is RAW, you may need to format it before assigning
letters.



4.Hard disk is damaged. If you connect both the SATA and the legacy ATA
power cable to the drive at the same time, this may result in damage to the
drive. Thus you can't access hard disk any more. In this case, I recommend
that you contact manufacturer for support.

Good Luck!

--
Computer/Software Tech.

Make it a great day!

Charles Richmond




"Koflach" wrote:

>
> I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
> showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
> Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
> installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
> I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
> 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
> a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>
> Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>
> Thanks everyone.
>
>
> --
> Koflach
>

Also to add this link:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...110521033.mspx
--
Computer/Software Tech.

Make it a great day!

Charles Richmond




"THE C. [MSFT MVP]" wrote:

> To troubleshoot this issue, I need to confirm the following points:
>
>
>
> 1.Can you access the old hard disk? How many partitions have you divided?
>
>
>
> 2.Can you see the new hard disk in Disk Management?
>
>
>
> 3.Before allocating letters, did you have the new hard disk scanned or
> formatted?
>
>
>
> Generally, the reason why you can't allocate letters to a new hard disk is
> due to any of the following status.
>
>
>
> 1.Unavialble letter is used to allocate to the new hard disk. Generally, you
> can assign letters from C through Z, A and B is usually assigned for floppy
> disk. Moreover, you can't use letters which are already assigned for the
> older disk. For detail steps on how to allocate driver letter to the new hard
> disk, please visit the following website.
>
>
>
> How to allocate drive letter with Disk Management in Windows Vista
>
>
>
> 2.The hard disk has bad sectors or lost clusters. You can download Data
> Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows by visting the following website and
> perform a test.
>
>
>
> http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...&sid=3&lang=en
>
>
>
> Note: Please follow the instruction listed on the above website.
>
>
>
> 3.The new hard disk is RAW, you may need to format it before assigning
> letters.
>
>
>
> 4.Hard disk is damaged. If you connect both the SATA and the legacy ATA
> power cable to the drive at the same time, this may result in damage to the
> drive. Thus you can't access hard disk any more. In this case, I recommend
> that you contact manufacturer for support.
>
> Good Luck!
>
> --
> Computer/Software Tech.
>
> Make it a great day!
>
> Charles Richmond
>
>
>
>
> "Koflach" wrote:
>
> >
> > I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
> > showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
> > Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
> > installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
> > I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
> > 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
> > a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
> >
> > Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
> >
> > Thanks everyone.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Koflach
> >

Hi, Koflach.

You do mean Disk Management, right? My favorite way to run DM is to press
Start, type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter. When I enter Disk Management
through Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk
Management, not only does it take more effort, but then its display has so
much other information using up the screen real estate that I feel like I'm
working laparoscopically - or through a keyhole. :>(

You know, of course, that 1 TB does not equal 1,000 GB. Because of rounding
and converting binary and decimal numbers, my 1 TB Seagate starts out with
931.51 GB, per DM. How many GB did your drive start with? That number
should be in the left-hand column of the Graphical View in DM.

Tell us about existing partitions on that HDD: How many partitions and how
large? Were they created and formatted in WinXP, or in Vista? Do they show
anything in the Status column other than "Healthy"?

Is the color bar over the 859 GB colored Black for Unallocated, or Green for
Free space? The terms sound synonymous to me, but DM seems to indicate that
there is a difference - although I haven't found the difference explained in
the Help file. I note that the only "Unallocated" space shown in my system
is the 8 MB at the end of my USB ReadyBoost flash drive, which I understand
is reserved for system use. All the areas outside any partitions on my HDDs
are labeled "Free space". So, just in case it does matter, what does DM say
about your 859 GB?

The Help file in Disk Management has a full page on "Move Disks to Another
Computer". Perhaps something in this page will hold the clue to your "can't
format" problem.

Please post back and let us know how this works out for you.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"Koflach" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
> showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
> Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
> installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
> I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
> 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
> a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>
> Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>
> Thanks everyone.
>
>
> --
> Koflach

Has nothing to do with the OP's issue . Still trying to pretend that you are a MS
MVP and on top MSFT posting via the Web interface

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"THE C. [MSFT MVP]" <THEC.@MSN.COM> wrote in message
news:E9393474-FC95-44C5-B949-...
> Also to add this link:
> http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...110521033.mspx
> --
> Computer/Software Tech.
>
> Make it a great day!
>
> Charles Richmond
>
>
>
>
> "THE C. [MSFT MVP]" wrote:
>
>> To troubleshoot this issue, I need to confirm the following points:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1.Can you access the old hard disk? How many partitions have you divided?
>>
>>
>>
>> 2.Can you see the new hard disk in Disk Management?
>>
>>
>>
>> 3.Before allocating letters, did you have the new hard disk scanned or
>> formatted?
>>
>>
>>
>> Generally, the reason why you can't allocate letters to a new hard disk is
>> due to any of the following status.
>>
>>
>>
>> 1.Unavialble letter is used to allocate to the new hard disk. Generally, you
>> can assign letters from C through Z, A and B is usually assigned for floppy
>> disk. Moreover, you can't use letters which are already assigned for the
>> older disk. For detail steps on how to allocate driver letter to the new hard
>> disk, please visit the following website.
>>
>>
>>
>> How to allocate drive letter with Disk Management in Windows Vista
>>
>>
>>
>> 2.The hard disk has bad sectors or lost clusters. You can download Data
>> Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows by visting the following website and
>> perform a test.
>>
>>
>>
>> http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...&sid=3&lang=en
>>
>>
>>
>> Note: Please follow the instruction listed on the above website.
>>
>>
>>
>> 3.The new hard disk is RAW, you may need to format it before assigning
>> letters.
>>
>>
>>
>> 4.Hard disk is damaged. If you connect both the SATA and the legacy ATA
>> power cable to the drive at the same time, this may result in damage to the
>> drive. Thus you can't access hard disk any more. In this case, I recommend
>> that you contact manufacturer for support.
>>
>> Good Luck!
>>
>> --
>> Computer/Software Tech.
>>
>> Make it a great day!
>>
>> Charles Richmond
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Koflach" wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
>> > showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
>> > Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
>> > installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
>> > I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
>> > 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
>> > a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>> >
>> > Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>> >
>> > Thanks everyone.
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Koflach
>> >

RC

Wondering if the OP formatted that HD originally in Fat32

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:%23N6w$...
> Hi, Koflach.
>
> You do mean Disk Management, right? My favorite way to run DM is to press Start,
> type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter. When I enter Disk Management through Control
> Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk Management, not only
> does it take more effort, but then its display has so much other information using
> up the screen real estate that I feel like I'm working laparoscopically - or
> through a keyhole. :>(
>
> You know, of course, that 1 TB does not equal 1,000 GB. Because of rounding and
> converting binary and decimal numbers, my 1 TB Seagate starts out with 931.51 GB,
> per DM. How many GB did your drive start with? That number should be in the
> left-hand column of the Graphical View in DM.
>
> Tell us about existing partitions on that HDD: How many partitions and how large?
> Were they created and formatted in WinXP, or in Vista? Do they show anything in
> the Status column other than "Healthy"?
>
> Is the color bar over the 859 GB colored Black for Unallocated, or Green for Free
> space? The terms sound synonymous to me, but DM seems to indicate that there is a
> difference - although I haven't found the difference explained in the Help file.
> I note that the only "Unallocated" space shown in my system is the 8 MB at the end
> of my USB ReadyBoost flash drive, which I understand is reserved for system use.
> All the areas outside any partitions on my HDDs are labeled "Free space". So,
> just in case it does matter, what does DM say about your 859 GB?
>
> The Help file in Disk Management has a full page on "Move Disks to Another
> Computer". Perhaps something in this page will hold the clue to your "can't
> format" problem.
>
> Please post back and let us know how this works out for you.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100
>
> "Koflach" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>>
>> I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
>> showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
>> Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
>> installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
>> I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
>> 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
>> a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>>
>> Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>>
>> Thanks everyone.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Koflach
>

Free space is unused space within a partition.

Unallocated space is that which is NOT partitioned - but can be, or can be
added to an existing partition

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:%23N6w$...
> Hi, Koflach.
>
> You do mean Disk Management, right? My favorite way to run DM is to press
> Start, type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter. When I enter Disk Management
> through Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk
> Management, not only does it take more effort, but then its display has so
> much other information using up the screen real estate that I feel like
> I'm working laparoscopically - or through a keyhole. :>(
>
> You know, of course, that 1 TB does not equal 1,000 GB. Because of
> rounding and converting binary and decimal numbers, my 1 TB Seagate starts
> out with 931.51 GB, per DM. How many GB did your drive start with? That
> number should be in the left-hand column of the Graphical View in DM.
>
> Tell us about existing partitions on that HDD: How many partitions and
> how large? Were they created and formatted in WinXP, or in Vista? Do
> they show anything in the Status column other than "Healthy"?
>
> Is the color bar over the 859 GB colored Black for Unallocated, or Green
> for Free space? The terms sound synonymous to me, but DM seems to
> indicate that there is a difference - although I haven't found the
> difference explained in the Help file. I note that the only "Unallocated"
> space shown in my system is the 8 MB at the end of my USB ReadyBoost flash
> drive, which I understand is reserved for system use. All the areas
> outside any partitions on my HDDs are labeled "Free space". So, just in
> case it does matter, what does DM say about your 859 GB?
>
> The Help file in Disk Management has a full page on "Move Disks to Another
> Computer". Perhaps something in this page will hold the clue to your
> "can't format" problem.
>
> Please post back and let us know how this works out for you.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100
>
> "Koflach" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>>
>> I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
>> showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
>> Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
>> installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
>> I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
>> 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
>> a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>>
>> Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>>
>> Thanks everyone.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Koflach
>

Hi, Richard.

I agree with you - but my Disk Management doesn't.

Or maybe it does, now that I take another look. My Green-bar Free space is
all within the Extended partition (on each drive), but outside any logical
drives in that EP.

Thanks for the reminder. I'm sure that I USED TO know that. ;^}

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100

"Richard Urban" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Free space is unused space within a partition.
>
> Unallocated space is that which is NOT partitioned - but can be, or can be
> added to an existing partition
>
> --
>
> Richard Urban
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Desktop Experience
>
>
> "R. C. White" <> wrote in message
> news:%23N6w$...
>> Hi, Koflach.
>>
>> You do mean Disk Management, right? My favorite way to run DM is to
>> press Start, type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter. When I enter Disk
>> Management through Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer
>> Management | Disk Management, not only does it take more effort, but then
>> its display has so much other information using up the screen real estate
>> that I feel like I'm working laparoscopically - or through a keyhole.
>> :>(
>>
>> You know, of course, that 1 TB does not equal 1,000 GB. Because of
>> rounding and converting binary and decimal numbers, my 1 TB Seagate
>> starts out with 931.51 GB, per DM. How many GB did your drive start
>> with? That number should be in the left-hand column of the Graphical
>> View in DM.
>>
>> Tell us about existing partitions on that HDD: How many partitions and
>> how large? Were they created and formatted in WinXP, or in Vista? Do
>> they show anything in the Status column other than "Healthy"?
>>
>> Is the color bar over the 859 GB colored Black for Unallocated, or Green
>> for Free space? The terms sound synonymous to me, but DM seems to
>> indicate that there is a difference - although I haven't found the
>> difference explained in the Help file. I note that the only
>> "Unallocated" space shown in my system is the 8 MB at the end of my USB
>> ReadyBoost flash drive, which I understand is reserved for system use.
>> All the areas outside any partitions on my HDDs are labeled "Free space".
>> So, just in case it does matter, what does DM say about your 859 GB?
>>
>> The Help file in Disk Management has a full page on "Move Disks to
>> Another Computer". Perhaps something in this page will hold the clue to
>> your "can't format" problem.
>>
>> Please post back and let us know how this works out for you.
>>
>> RC
>>
>> "Koflach" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>>
>>> I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is not
>>> showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a 1
>>> Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
>>> installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
>>> I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
>>> 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to create
>>> a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>>>
>>> Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>>>
>>> Thanks everyone.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Koflach

Please disregard my last post.

Going back to my notes I see that I did, in fact, create the single
partitions on each of the 3 drives as logical.

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:56ECFCB5-A986-4553-BBBA-...
> Hi, Richard.
>
> I agree with you - but my Disk Management doesn't.
>
> Or maybe it does, now that I take another look. My Green-bar Free space
> is all within the Extended partition (on each drive), but outside any
> logical drives in that EP.
>
> Thanks for the reminder. I'm sure that I USED TO know that. ;^}
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
> Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100
>
> "Richard Urban" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Free space is unused space within a partition.
>>
>> Unallocated space is that which is NOT partitioned - but can be, or can
>> be added to an existing partition
>>
>> --
>>
>> Richard Urban
>> Microsoft MVP
>> Windows Desktop Experience
>>
>>
>> "R. C. White" <> wrote in message
>> news:%23N6w$...
>>> Hi, Koflach.
>>>
>>> You do mean Disk Management, right? My favorite way to run DM is to
>>> press Start, type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter. When I enter Disk
>>> Management through Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer
>>> Management | Disk Management, not only does it take more effort, but
>>> then its display has so much other information using up the screen real
>>> estate that I feel like I'm working laparoscopically - or through a
>>> keyhole. :>(
>>>
>>> You know, of course, that 1 TB does not equal 1,000 GB. Because of
>>> rounding and converting binary and decimal numbers, my 1 TB Seagate
>>> starts out with 931.51 GB, per DM. How many GB did your drive start
>>> with? That number should be in the left-hand column of the Graphical
>>> View in DM.
>>>
>>> Tell us about existing partitions on that HDD: How many partitions and
>>> how large? Were they created and formatted in WinXP, or in Vista? Do
>>> they show anything in the Status column other than "Healthy"?
>>>
>>> Is the color bar over the 859 GB colored Black for Unallocated, or Green
>>> for Free space? The terms sound synonymous to me, but DM seems to
>>> indicate that there is a difference - although I haven't found the
>>> difference explained in the Help file. I note that the only
>>> "Unallocated" space shown in my system is the 8 MB at the end of my USB
>>> ReadyBoost flash drive, which I understand is reserved for system use.
>>> All the areas outside any partitions on my HDDs are labeled "Free
>>> space". So, just in case it does matter, what does DM say about your 859
>>> GB?
>>>
>>> The Help file in Disk Management has a full page on "Move Disks to
>>> Another Computer". Perhaps something in this page will hold the clue to
>>> your "can't format" problem.
>>>
>>> Please post back and let us know how this works out for you.
>>>
>>> RC
>>>
>>> "Koflach" <> wrote in message
>>> news:...
>>>>
>>>> I recently installed Vista Home Premium and one of my hard drives is
>>>> not
>>>> showing all the space that it use to. The hard drive in question is a
>>>> 1
>>>> Tb hdd and was working fine in XP as were the other HDD's. When I
>>>> installed Vista, all the other disk's worked fine except for this one.
>>>> I have gone into Computer Management and it shows the drive as having
>>>> 859 Gb of unallocated space that I cannot format. I am unable to
>>>> create
>>>> a New Simple Volume or any other volume types for this drive.
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone help me with this? Do you need more info from me?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks everyone.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Koflach
>