External Hard Drives - Page 6

Mark · 09-01-2009, 17:39

That could account for USB but not eSATA. An unformatted hard disk connected via eSATA should still show up in the BIOS, and in Windows.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wossi

Forgot how long it takes to format a 1TB disk

That's what the 'Quick Format' option is for.

Some of the bigger retail external drives actually malfunction if you don't select that option. Never had that happen with a caddy though (but it could).

lostkat · 09-01-2009, 17:48

Forgot to mention that if I connect it via eSATA and start it up (it spins up etc. fine), it freezes my computer. That's what lead me to think it might be the problem I referred to earlier about patching the bios.

lostkat · 09-01-2009, 17:51

Oh, if I connect it via USB and do the disk management think it comes up as "unknown", says it's 476GB and say it's not initialised. It's the only 500GB drive I have in there, so will try and initialise it.

lostkat · 09-01-2009, 17:53

Me again. It now says it's online, but as there are no partitions, I can't see how I can format it as it's still not visible in My Computer. Should I create a partition and then format that? Also, it's only saying 476GB. How can I get the full 500GB or is that not possible?

Daz · 09-01-2009, 17:54

That's just marketing people being picky with their numbers (they round a kilobyte to 1000 bytes, whereas it's actually 1024 - so by the time you scale up to 500GB those 24 bytes per kilobyte add up to 25GB!). 476GB is the actual usable size.

Right click the drive, create partition, and it will take you through everything else from there (formatting, drive letter etc)

lostkat · 09-01-2009, 17:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daz

That's just marketing people being picky with their numbers (they count 1000 bytes as a kilobyte, whereas it's actually 1024 - so by the time you scale up to 500GB those 24 bytes per kilobyte add up to 25GB!). 476GB is the actual usable size.

Right click the drive, create partition, and it will take you through everything else from there (formatting, drive letter etc)

Magic. I now have a K Drive

Thank you

Look in your bin cupboard when you get home btw

Kainz · 09-01-2009, 17:57

Right, what OS are you on lostkat? A hard disks quoted capacity will always be lower when the OS see's it so that 476GB is normal.

My 5x eSATA externals always freeze my PC's also for a couple of seconds, and that is quite normal, so don't worry too much.

If you're on XP or Vista, you need to get into Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management. Arf, nevermind

lostkat · 09-01-2009, 17:58

Ah bugger, it now says "K Drive is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect"

I'm on XP

It froze for about 5 minutes until I gave up and re-booted. I've reconnected it via USB but obviously want to get the eSATA working

Daz · 09-01-2009, 17:59

Is it still formatting? Disk management will tell you (and give you a progress percentage)

lostkat · 09-01-2009, 18:02

Ahhhhh! *BLONDE* I thought it'd done it, but my window wasn't big enough to see the "formatting" status at the bottom. It's 5% done. I'll leave it to do its business. I didn't tick quick format as I usually do because I thought it was best to do it properly. Not sure what the difference is.

I'm sorry for all the silly questions. I know just about enough to build a computer and set it up, but any problems and I'm completely lost. It's all a learning curve still. At least my Mum's computer is the same motherboard and OS so I'll know what to do. My Dad's Mac... well... he's on his own with that

09-01-2009, 17:48	#52
lostkat Good Cat Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,550	Forgot to mention that if I connect it via eSATA and start it up (it spins up etc. fine), it freezes my computer. That's what lead me to think it might be the problem I referred to earlier about patching the bios. __________________ Oooooh Cecil, what have you done?

09-01-2009, 17:51	#53
lostkat Good Cat Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,550	Oh, if I connect it via USB and do the disk management think it comes up as "unknown", says it's 476GB and say it's not initialised. It's the only 500GB drive I have in there, so will try and initialise it. __________________ Oooooh Cecil, what have you done?

09-01-2009, 17:53	#54
lostkat Good Cat Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,550	Me again. It now says it's online, but as there are no partitions, I can't see how I can format it as it's still not visible in My Computer. Should I create a partition and then format that? Also, it's only saying 476GB. How can I get the full 500GB or is that not possible? __________________ Oooooh Cecil, what have you done?

09-01-2009, 17:54	#55
Daz The Stig Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Swad! Posts: 10,713	That's just marketing people being picky with their numbers (they round a kilobyte to 1000 bytes, whereas it's actually 1024 - so by the time you scale up to 500GB those 24 bytes per kilobyte add up to 25GB!). 476GB is the actual usable size. Right click the drive, create partition, and it will take you through everything else from there (formatting, drive letter etc) __________________ apt-get moo

09-01-2009, 17:57	#57
Kainz Long Island Iced Tea Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Hiding outside Nokkon's bedroom window Posts: 129	Right, what OS are you on lostkat? A hard disks quoted capacity will always be lower when the OS see's it so that 476GB is normal. My 5x eSATA externals always freeze my PC's also for a couple of seconds, and that is quite normal, so don't worry too much. If you're on XP or Vista, you need to get into Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management. Arf, nevermind __________________ Abit AW9D-MAX \| Conroe E6600 @ 3.7Ghz \| 4GB GeIL DDR2 PC6400C4 \| Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 \| ATI Radeon 4870 1GB \| 2x WD RaptorX 150GB SATA \| 7x Samsung F1 1TB \| Coolermaster Stacker 830 \| Windows 7 \| www.kainzy.org \| x360 GT: Kainz UK \| Excited Wombat!

09-01-2009, 17:58	#58
lostkat Good Cat Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,550	Ah bugger, it now says "K Drive is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect" I'm on XP It froze for about 5 minutes until I gave up and re-booted. I've reconnected it via USB but obviously want to get the eSATA working __________________ Oooooh Cecil, what have you done?

09-01-2009, 17:59	#59
Daz The Stig Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Swad! Posts: 10,713	Is it still formatting? Disk management will tell you (and give you a progress percentage) __________________ apt-get moo

09-01-2009, 18:02	#60
lostkat Good Cat Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,550	Ahhhhh! BLONDE I thought it'd done it, but my window wasn't big enough to see the "formatting" status at the bottom. It's 5% done. I'll leave it to do its business. I didn't tick quick format as I usually do because I thought it was best to do it properly. Not sure what the difference is. I'm sorry for all the silly questions. I know just about enough to build a computer and set it up, but any problems and I'm completely lost. It's all a learning curve still. At least my Mum's computer is the same motherboard and OS so I'll know what to do. My Dad's Mac... well... he's on his own with that __________________ Oooooh Cecil, what have you done?