so bummed (hard drive)

[aimeekitty]

I installed my new hard drive but it shows up as 31 gigs, not 120 gigs WTF?

someone please help. I so sad. 31 is better than 20... but. :(

the troubleshooting says that some "older" computers arent compatible with newer drives and will only show 32 gig, 64 gig, etc, instead of the full capacity. and that I might have to upgrade my bios. Well uh. (1) what's a bios. (2) I searched apples website and couldnt find anything about bios upgrades to download, etc.

they also said I could use the tool cd to set up an "overlay" on the drive to support it's full capacity? uh? huh? is that wise?

:( I'm wondering whether I can fix this, or whether I should take the whole thing back and just deal with my tiny 20 gig hard drive. :(
maybe I should break down and finally replace my computer. it is kinda old but... :( it's a 500 mhz G4 fyi...

took me so long to back up all my files too. :(

Comments

[tartetatin.livejournal.com]

This article (http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action.lasso?-database=faq.fp3&-layout=FaqList&-response=answer.faq.lasso&-recordID=33772&-search) says some older Macs have trouble with drives larger than 128GB, but that doesn't quite explain your problem. Maybe you need a new controller card? (wow, what a PC thing to do.)

[shaunpup.livejournal.com]

*puts on Computer Geek hat*

BIOS - Basic Input/ Output System. It tells your OS what hardware you have, how to run it, and other things like that.

*takes off hat*

I'm not sure what advice I could give you about it since I mostly play with computers that run Windows. *shrugs* Maybe give the Mac people a call and see what they say?

[altonwings.livejournal.com]

See, I'm not a computerese speaking kind of person. I honestly thought bios was some kind of porn subset I'd never heard of.

The things one learns..

[strawberrygoth.livejournal.com]

wish i could help...i am not computer literate

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine here had a 120GB drive in his G4, so I doubt it's necessarily anything to do with your machine. I've emailed him and will see if he knows anything or has any suggestions.

BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. It's a reprogrammable chip on your machine's motherboard, which controls things like how the machine boots up. If you've ever heard of someone "flashing" their BIOS or their motherboard, that means reprogramming that chip -- pretty much always with a software image provided by the computer's manufacturer.

What version of OS X are you using?

Did you replace the 20GB with the 120GB, or are you adding the 120GB to the system?

How old is your G4?

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

I'm using Osx 10.2.8. I replaced the 20 gb with the 120 gb, yes. :) (so I have a 10 gb as the master, and the 120 as the slave.)

I got my g4 when I was in college (maybe in 2000 ??)... but I didnt get it new. I bought it from someone else so... the computer could be as old as 2000 or could be 1999? I"m just guessing here.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Okay. Do you happen to know what the specific model of it is? I'm sorry, I should have asked you that last night.

re

[trance-gemini.livejournal.com]

BIOS: what everyone else said.

Mind you like Shaun Iam PC person, but I would think that there are afew things that MACS and PC's have in common.

1) definitely check with Apple about BIOS upgrades, for PC's they are usually a file you have to download and unzip to a floppy (though I think macs did away with floppies, no?)
You reboot from there and run the BIOS Flash from a command line prompt.
With mac I would think it would be a file you could download and run w/o floppies, usually they have instructions.

2)Check you BIOS settings, if you can on the MAC.
On PC's usually harddrives are set to "auto-detect" so the system by default reads the data form the drives rom and set the sector and what not info.
With the MAc, it might be like it w aswith old PC's where you had to manually set the sectors and heads I think, to define the the drives size. It maybe the same with MAC's, so you might want to check to see if yours has that as well.
If you do change anything, makes sur eto write it down, so if you need to change it back you know what to set it back to.

Its just strange that a system would cap at 32Meg, so I would think BIOS setting before anything, but making sure BIOS is up to date is a good things as well.

as to "they also said I could use the tool cd to set up an "overlay" on the drive to support it's full capacity? uh? huh? is that wise?"

The overlay software is like the old stuff we used way back when to fool a system with an older bios into thinking that a larger drive is actually smaller than it appears so the system can access the full drive instead of only the small part it sees do to bios limitations.
With PC's it was always a hassle to deal with, pesonally if I were you, I would look into the first 2 reccomedations, before the software mask/overlay stuff.

You may also if all esle fails ask your dad, he is pretty savvy with techie stuff, if memory serve sme correct.

Good luck

[fancyboots.livejournal.com]

I'm on a creaky beige G3, so I can't tell you exactly, but did you format the new HD using Apple's own tools? I seem to remember that sometimes if you get the problem that you are having, that it can be fixed by formatting using a 3rd party disk drive utility such as Hard Drive Toolkit.

But you might want to post to this Mac forum in link below. I used to ask my Apple q's there & they were always very helpful.

http://forums.dealmac.com/list.html?f=1

[glaubiger.livejournal.com]

Any computer as far as I know, be it windows or Mac which has a bit older mainboard on it cant support more than a certain amount, thats just how the drive shows up. So really if you put in a 40gig ... comes up as 31, an 80 gig, 31 ... O_o

Not good news, sorry, but if your looking for a new computer, then why not have two? ^^;;

[dollseye.livejournal.com]

Knowing the G4, I doubt that your G4 will be compatible with the newer drive. I'd really recommend having a G5 in the house. I use a G4 cube because it's in the living room and it's totally silent. I only have 15 gigs of HD space, but Adrian has a G5 (he needed the bigger one for his audio work) and we have this system where I send all my files through AIM to to the G5 to burn onto DVD's. If we didn't have the G5, there's no way I could manage with my G4. The Panther operating system is fantastic, really fast... but there are some issues with running older programs. Unless you have the latest CS versions of Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc., you might need your G4 as well as a G5! My G4 runs Classic very comfortably, but the G5 doesn't seem to like running Classic.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

basically, I was hoping to eventually get a G5 for my graphics work. before I started working on the simpsons, I would somewhat regularly do pilots for tv shows that would require me to work at home. So having a G5 with all the "fun stuff" would allow me to be a fully functional animation studio. (the only other thing I would require is export to VHS.) I already have most of the updated programs and I no longer use classic on my G4, so that at least wouldnt be a problem. I love mp3s so much too, that that is a major issue, and my SD-photo collection alone is 3 gig.

I guess if I was a good monkey and put everything on cd all the time and then switched cds whenever I wanted something then maybe I could get by, since I probably won't be doing any pilots until I stop working on the simpsons (I could be there for a few years, I dunno.)

obviously getting a new computer would be fun, but they are pricey, and I'd like to stave that off as long as I can. (get more for my money so to speak by waiting for the next thing.)

[jenova-silver.livejournal.com]

That is strange.

First thing, which version of OS X are you using?

Second, You would need to look for a firmware update. (Apple's words for a BIOS update) I think there has been several, and they should've shown in software update under OS 9... and Jaguar or newer would most likely require these updates to have been installed.

Are you booting onto a OS 9 CD or a OS X and trying disk utility from there?

You should be able to use a 120 GB drive in there, and it should show up as that. I have the feeling that the drive isn't what it is supposed to be... was this drive from a reputable dealer? what brand name is it?

(there more that I can think of, some of it costs money.)

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

I'm using 10.2.8

I dont have OS9 on my computer anymore since I wasnt using it (I dont use classic anymore)

I'll try looking into the firmware thing this evening I guess...

I initialized the drive from my computer, not from a cd. (I have drive utilities on my computer.) Both of the utilities on the OS9 and OSX cds were "classic" programs, which would have required me reinstalling OS9. So I didnt bother. :\

the drive is Western Digitial?

[jenova-silver.livejournal.com]

That makes it a puzzler. From what you described, The hard drive should have been recognized for its full capacity. the 500 MHz G4s would be able to handle drives up to 120 GB, but since it is only showing up as 31 GB, makes me wonder if you didn't get what you paid for.

Was the drive bare? (meaning it wasn't in a retail box)
if it came in a retail box, what does it say about the drive?
Do you know the model number or anything else about the hard drive?

[hawkstone.livejournal.com]

I had a similar problem--the 60 MB drive I'd gotten for my beige G3 suddenly became a 37 MB one, during the course of my trying to install OS X on it.

Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility) is your best shot at getting the Mac to properly examine the drive. However, there is no reason a 500 G4 running Jaguar shouldn't be able to read a 120 GB drive, so you don't need to buy a G5, unless you want to.

Also, Macs do not have BIOS. Well, in the strictest sense they do, since the motherboard reads drives, but it isn't anything you could access, corrupt, or flash.

(To make my 60 GB drive work, I stuck it into Taeha's PC and reformatted it. After that it worked at full capacity in the Mac.)

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

well... actually disk utility (the one you mentioned) is what I used. thankfully it shows up normal and everything on the harddrive, but just as a 32 gb drive instead of it's full size... :\...

so then... what should I try now? Do I have to take my computer back apart, take mitch's computer apart, put the harddrive in his, reformat it, remove/replace it...?

[hawkstone.livejournal.com]

It's not a bad idea to try it in Mitch's anyway. That way, if the drive is snookered, you can take it back and nobody will give you that patient condescension reserved for small children and Mac users.

[euqsam.livejournal.com]

Your Mac should support drives up to 128 gigs without issue. Make sure you have the right drive (Easiest way is to google for the model number that's on the drive) and then consult this article:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/IDE/add_2nd_drive/

Make sure you've got it installed properly. Also make sure that you've done the format dance correctly. If this doesn't fix things, let me know.

[Found via friends-of-friends, btw.]

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

OMG. you saved me. That site in their faq, after a bit of searching I found someone having the EXACT same problem as me. It turns out it was an incorrect jumper setting. the instructions for my western digital drive were a bit LACKING, we'll just put it that way :)

thankyou SO MUCH. you saved me a LOT of trouble.

[euqsam.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. Glad it worked out.