Western digital hardrive 60gig only shows as 40gig

Discussion in 'Building a new PC' started by killalot, Jul 16, 2009.

  1. killalot

    killalot Active member

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    Build a cheap PC for a friend,the hardrive i fitted was a Western digital 60 gig, so says the sticker on it,problem is the bios only sees it as 40 gig and after installing windows it shows as 40 gig.There is no jumber on the back clipping its size, tried it with out a jumper cap and as slave,master,cable select still the same.Tried two different partitioning programs both say its 40 gig and has no hidden partitions even put it in a usb external case and on two different computers still shows as 40gig any ideas cheers.And western digital's own disk program says its 40 gig.
     
    killalot, Jul 16, 2009
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  2. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    What's the model of the drive?
     
    sammorris, Jul 16, 2009
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  3. killalot

    killalot Active member

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    Let you know in a minute, firewall at work blocking me until midday.
     
    killalot, Jul 17, 2009
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  4. killalot

    killalot Active member

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    killalot, Jul 17, 2009
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  5. killalot

    killalot Active member

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    Last edited: Jul 17, 2009
    killalot, Jul 17, 2009
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  6. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    From what I can gather, the WD600BB used a strange 40GB platter config. It may be that part of the drive is faulty, and the extra 20GB isn't being picked up. For a 6-7 year old drive though, you should be glad it's still in working condition.
     
    sammorris, Jul 17, 2009
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  7. killalot

    killalot Active member

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    If its faulty its not a problem,had it off eBay and the chap only lives a mile away from me.He assured me when he formatted it, it showed as 60 gig,pop it back to him Monday and he can show it me then.Friend only wanted a cheap and cheerful PC just for browsing the internet,when i ran speed fan smart test on it, it reported 94% good health that's why it got me confused,looking at the spec though if its got 3 platters I'm guessing 20gig each platter and if for what ever reason 1 is faulty could explain it showing as only 40gig.
     
    killalot, Jul 17, 2009
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  8. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    It's a weird one, some people insist it's a 40GB platter drive limited to 60GB, I refuse to believe it's a 40+20, so perhaps it's an 80GB with an area locked out, which doesn't make much sense either.
     
    sammorris, Jul 17, 2009
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  9. killalot

    killalot Active member

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    Yes it is weird,never came across this problem before,i even tried it on the old and trusted powerquest partition magic 7 and it said its 40gig,tried it other various disk tools, all said the same, let you know Monday after I've taken it back see what he has to say, cheers for your thoughts on the matter.
     
    killalot, Jul 17, 2009
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