# 250gb hdd only showing 128gb? **URL:** \ **Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\ **Created:** [February 19, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348 "2009-02-19T20:31:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/1 "2009-02-19T20:31:05Z")
I’m building a new computer. My 250gb drive shows up as 250gb in my bios, but neither OSX nor ubuntu can format it to greater than 128gb. Do I have a bios setting wrong or something? ---
**Author:** ![aberfitch82](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/aberfitch82/32/5041_2.png) [@aberfitch82](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/aberfitch82)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/2 "2009-02-19T20:39:00Z")
how many partitions do you have? ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/3 "2009-02-19T20:42:45Z")
Just trying to make 1 250gb partition. Ubuntu sees the disk as the right size but won’t make a partition bigger than 128mb. OSX seems to only see the disk as 128mb. Does neither OS support 48 bit LBA or something? ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/4 "2009-02-19T20:47:16Z")
FAT32? ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/5 "2009-02-19T20:51:54Z")
I tried formatting fat32 via Ubuntu, then it dawned on me that that might be the problem? So I tried ntfs, jfs, ext2, etc. All set to 250gb, all were 128gb when the operation finished. Here’s the weird thing, I’m pretty sure when I first started screwing with it that OSX was able to see a 250gb partition and started installing, then the installation failed and thereafter 128gb is the max partition no matter what I do. Which would lead me to believe that I have a bad drive, but 128gb is way to perfect of a number to be a bad drive so I’ve probably got my story mixed up. I’m going to try going through with the OSX install now on the 128gb partition, then maybe through some updates it will be able to see the true size of the disk and I’ll be able to resize the partition? :retard: ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/6 "2009-02-19T20:55:37Z")
so there are multiple partitions as of now? ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/7 "2009-02-19T21:05:08Z")
Naw I’ve got 1 128gb partition that OSX is installing on, and the leftover is free space. Comes to like 107gb or something. ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/8 "2009-02-19T21:07:51Z")
not sure if it is, but the 107GB free space may be in another File System. Probably either FAT32 or RAW. Format the whole drive and start over? ---
**Author:** ![maverick27](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/maverick27/32/4946_2.png) [@maverick27](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/maverick27)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/9 "2009-02-19T21:08:57Z")
it seems like since you started installing, the drive is sending out info saying its only got 128gb of room, even though in reality it should have 250. try a full install at 128, then reinstall again and it may show the actual room… ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/10 "2009-02-19T21:09:50Z")
Hmm. That’s an idea… Maybe when I was using Partition Editor in linux it wasn’t actually formatting or something like that? ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/11 "2009-02-19T21:11:00Z")
> [@maverick27](#): > > it seems like since you started installing, the drive is sending out info saying its only got 128gb of room, even though in reality it should have 250. try a full install at 128, then reinstall again and it may show the actual room… Yeah for now I’m going to finish this install to see if I can even get OSX up and running. If I can then I’ll try and work within the OS to get the damn partition the right size. If not then maybe I’ll see if _gasp_ the windows disk can do something linux can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/12 "2009-02-19T21:11:58Z")
> [@BillysRevenge](#): > > not sure if it is, but the 107GB free space may be in another File System. Probably either FAT32 or RAW. Format the whole drive and start over? this really makes the most sense based on what I’m seeing… ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/13 "2009-02-19T21:20:42Z")
> **[Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN](https://dban.org/)** > > Erase hard drives, desktops, laptops or servers free with a Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) download. Try it now. that will take a while but it will format the shit out of your drive. [http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1756150/199684/](http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1756150/199684/) This looks like it maybe interesting…seems to be a boot disc that can manage your partitions. Might provide a good look at what’s up. ---
**Author:** ![maverick27](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/maverick27/32/4946_2.png) [@maverick27](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/maverick27)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/14 "2009-02-19T21:28:00Z")
> [@BillysRevenge](#): > > [www.dban.org](http://www.dban.org) > that will take a while but it will format the shit out of your drive. > > [http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1756150/199684/](http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1756150/199684/) > This looks like it maybe interesting…seems to be a boot disc that can manage your partitions. Might provide a good look at what’s up. I think I’m going to use that dban on a friend’s laptop that I’m fixing. It’s got viruses all over and everything I’ve tried hasn’t done a damn thing. It needs a fresh start. ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/15 "2009-02-19T21:33:22Z")
> [@maverick27](#): > > I think I’m going to use that dban on a friend’s laptop that I’m fixing. It’s got viruses all over and everything I’ve tried hasn’t done a damn thing. It needs a fresh start. It’s an overnight process. The Gutmann Method (35 Passes) took one of my laptops close to a day to complete. I recommend using the standard DoD method which is 5 passes, which takes any where from 3-7 hours. ---
**Author:** ![maverick27](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/maverick27/32/4946_2.png) [@maverick27](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/maverick27)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/16 "2009-02-19T22:03:31Z")
> [@BillysRevenge](#): > > It’s an overnight process. The Gutmann Method (35 Passes) took one of my laptops close to a day to complete. I recommend using the standard DoD method which is 5 passes, which takes any where from 3-7 hours. thanks for the heads up. where is rep when you need it…🤓 ---
**Author:** ![aberfitch82](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/aberfitch82/32/5041_2.png) [@aberfitch82](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/aberfitch82)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/17 "2009-02-20T00:54:27Z")
fry you dual booting osx on a pc? if so lemme know how you make out ive always wanted to give that a try ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/18 "2009-02-20T05:34:55Z")
Update: I decided to let OSX try to install. I let it run until somthing happened twice and both times the install failed. Fuck it. I’ll mess with that when I know I’ve got my hardware all sorted out. So I booted my XP x64 disk this morning when I was half awake so the details are fuzzy, but the XP disk had to do something like convert the disk from GPT (?) to MBR before it could install, which I made it do by typing “S” and then it quick formatted the whole disk to ntfs and installed no problemo, correct disk size and everything. I didn’t have time to get it all sorted out but it doesn’t look like I have any driver issues, and my XP x64 disk isn’t asking for activation so I’ll probably just go with that. I may mess with OSX in the future. So it looks like all systems are go, but if anyone could shed some light on what I clusterfucked I’d be interested. Aberfitch, I got as far as I did by downloading a “kalyway OSX 10.5.2” ISO from a torrent site. The disk booted and, other than some partition sizing problems, seemed to run OK. I had to grab a USB mouse because it didn’t recognize my PS/2 mouse but otherwise everything looked like it was working and it began installing. The install would have taken about 4 hours, which seems fishy, but it failed like an hour in. I don’t know if the failure was related to my partitioning problem or not. ---
**Author:** ![boardjnky4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@boardjnky4](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/boardjnky4)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/19 "2009-02-20T05:42:16Z")
an os x install on my core2duo machine with a SATA HDD took less than 20 minutes, which tells me that something is seriously wrong there. ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348/20 "2009-02-20T05:52:47Z")
I guess I’m just not meant to be a macfag. Now where’d I put my poorly fitting brown blazer and skinny tie? [Next page](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/250gb-hdd-only-showing-128gb/63348.md?page=2)