HP/Compaq HDD Capacity Lock
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Thread: HP/Compaq HDD Capacity Lock

  1. #1
    Registered User TheCardMan's Avatar
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    HP/Compaq HDD Capacity Lock

    Curious question:

    I RMA'd a Compaq 10 Gig Drive, they sent me back a Western Digital 40gig drive that comes up a a 10gig drive in Bios and other HDD check utilities. They somehow locked the capicity to 10 gig instead of 40 which is what the drive is. Is there any way to unlock the capacity to take advantage of the full storage capicity of the drive?
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    Banned TripleRLtd's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheCardMan
    Curious question:

    I RMA'd a Compaq 10 Gig Drive, they sent me back a Western Digital 40gig drive that comes up a a 10gig drive in Bios and other HDD check utilities. They somehow locked the capicity to 10 gig instead of 40 which is what the drive is. Is there any way to unlock the capacity to take advantage of the full storage capicity of the drive?
    Compaq didn't lock the capacity.
    What model Comcrap and what OS?

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    Registered User TheCardMan's Avatar
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    I believe it is a Deskpro EN 933Mhz P3. We use Win XP Pro.
    Doesn't matter what machine it's in, it always comes up as a 10gig drive. I tried it in a Dell as well as a custom built machine I have. Fdisk sees it as 10 gig only, no partitions, etc.
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  4. #4
    Registered User DocPC's Avatar
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    Most drives have a GB limitation jumper.....check it out.
    Follow this link to chat for a quicker answer!

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    Intel Mod Platypus's Avatar
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    It is possible it could be an exchange drive that has been "refurbished" by having faulty platters excluded with a firmware patch. I have a Fujitsu MPC3043 4.3GB drive this appears to have been done to - by all diagnosis it resolutely appears as 2.1G (there is no 2.1GB model in the series). If you force the correct parameters in the BIOS and try to LLF the drive etc, there is 100% failure reported beyond 2.1G.

    Ruslan would probably be the best one to comment on this, but if this is what has been done, I would think even though technically it could be reversed with a re-flash of standard firmware, it would probably yield a faulty drive.

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    Senior Member Garak's Avatar
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    Got a picture of the drive from top, connection side and controller?

    Just thinking, 40gig drives, even with the limitation jumper usually only limit down to 32gig don't they? Oh, if you have the model number handy, please post also.
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    Intel Mod Platypus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Garak
    the limitation jumper usually only limit down to 32gig don't they?
    That's what you'd expect. 10G doesn't seem to be a very helpful size for a limit jumper, as the major size limit below 32G is of course the 8.4G CHS translation limit. I guess anything's possible though.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Garak's Avatar
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    Compaqs "nothing for nothing" policy
    All sorts of wonderful things in life.

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    Banned TripleRLtd's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Platypus
    It is possible it could be an exchange drive that has been "refurbished" by having faulty platters excluded with a firmware patch. I have a Fujitsu MPC3043 4.3GB drive this appears to have been done to - by all diagnosis it resolutely appears as 2.1G (there is no 2.1GB model in the series). If you force the correct parameters in the BIOS and try to LLF the drive etc, there is 100% failure reported beyond 2.1G.
    Wow, is that something.
    So is this what Compaq and others are doing now?
    Compaq didn't lock the capacity.
    What model Comcrap and what OS?
    I stand corrected.
    Who would have thunk such a thing.
    Compaq never fails to surprise or disappoint.

  10. #10
    Registered User Ruslan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TripleRLtd
    Compaq didn't lock the capacity.
    Sorry, but it is not completely true - I have seen a lot of refurbished Compaq drives with limited size... mostly with reduced number of logical cylinders to hide errors in the end of the disk... I sometimes even been able to restore full capacity and remap those bad sectors...

    Also many of HDD manufacturers during factory repair electrically (by reflashing firmware from lower model) "disconnect" faulty heads/platters, reducing drive's size...
    Your "10 gig" drive could be one of them... I did it also many times, by the way - I used especially designed software/hardware for that...

    For quick check of your harddrive you can use mentioned many times at Windrivers forums (by me ) MHDD test/repair utility from http://www.mhdd.com/products_en.shtml

    Just create DOS bootable diskette (just only command.com, himem.sys, and few other basic files (like autoexec.bat ) are needed) and unpack all the files to this diskette... the diskette should not be write-protected!... it needed for creating LOG report files... How to work with that MHDD you can find in my posts regarding this utility...

    I just would like to add to my posts, what MHDD util can also hide/unhide some parts of the disk (from the end of the disk to be exactly)... It called work with "Host Protected Area" - HPA... If you will see yellow "HPA" mark between status register and errors register "LEDs"- it means, what HDD manufacturer used HPA method for hiding errors... and it also means what you can unhide it back and restore full size of the drive...
    BUT! where are absolutely no warranty what it will be possible to fix these bad sectors...

    Good luck! As always, I'm open for questions...

  11. #11
    Banned TripleRLtd's Avatar
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    I stand corrected.
    Who would have thunk such a thing.
    Compaq never fails to surprise or disappoint.
    I already said as much Ruslan.
    What I mean is I am really disappointed by Compaq...as always, only it's getting worse.
    RMA a 10- gig drive, and of course they don't have any anymore, so give the dupe a 40 gig which is failing, and hide the bad parts and hope the warranty runs out before it fails completely.
    This is what they are doing, is it not?
    It's a damn shame, too.
    I don't care what you want to do to a failing hard drive, what utilities you want to use, in my xp once it starts going bad, it is on it's way out.
    There are times when you will find a bad section of a hard drive which was caused by power failure or whatever just when the head was writing to a particular sector, and then are marked as unusable, and the drive will last, but, is this what Compcrap is doing now?
    No, they receive bad drives and give them back as RMA replacements with the bad parts hidden and unusable.
    An absolutely horrible business practice, if you ask me.

  12. #12
    Registered User TheCardMan's Avatar
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    My initial thought was that 10gig drives were no longer available so they instaed use 40gig drives at probably the same price point as the 10gigs were and lock out the size somehow. It would bother me that they would do such a stunt as your saying with used faulty drives. I am going to see if there is a date stamp on the original WD label on the replacement drive. I know the model said WD400.
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  13. #13
    Banned TripleRLtd's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheCardMan
    My initial thought was that 10gig drives were no longer available so they instaed use 40gig drives at probably the same price point as the 10gigs were and lock out the size somehow. It would bother me that they would do such a stunt as your saying with used faulty drives. I am going to see if there is a date stamp on the original WD label on the replacement drive. I know the model said WD400.
    Yeah, there will be, and let us know.
    Really really disappointing.

  14. #14
    Registered User Ruslan's Avatar
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    WD400 is actually 40 Gig harddrive... I would check this drive with another, "standard" (i.e. custom buit) system surely supporting large harddrives... Besides, make sure you're using fresh enough version of fdisk - older versions (from win95, for example) could work incorrectly with large drives...

    And probably worth to check this drive also with DLGDIAG utility from Western Digital - it should show the size of the drive...

    If it factory (WD) repaired drive, don't blame just only Compaq for doing that - almost every major PC manufacturer do it as well... (IBM, for example)... If you will try to RMA an old drive to Maxtor, for example, you will receive (most likely) factory repaired drive with just a bit extented warranty (it is Maxtor's policy)... I did RMA recently to Maxtor 60 gig HDD and received back "re-certified to Maxtor's specifications" drive... another time I RMAed another 30gig Maxtor drive and received brand new 40 gig drive instead... So, you never know...
    But every HDD manufacturer has something to do with drives coming back...

  15. #15
    Banned TripleRLtd's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ruslan
    WD400 is actually 40 Gig harddrive... I would check this drive with another, "standard" (i.e. custom buit) system surely supporting large harddrives... Besides, make sure you're using fresh enough version of fdisk - older versions (from win95, for example) could work incorrectly with large drives...

    And probably worth to check this drive also with DLGDIAG utility from Western Digital - it should show the size of the drive...

    If it factory (WD) repaired drive, don't blame just only Compaq for doing that - almost every major PC manufacturer do it as well... (IBM, for example)... If you will try to RMA an old drive to Maxtor, for example, you will receive (most likely) factory repaired drive with just a bit extented warranty (it is Maxtor's policy)... I did RMA recently to Maxtor 60 gig HDD and received back "re-certified to Maxtor's specifications" drive... another time I RMAed another 30gig Maxtor drive and received brand new 40 gig drive instead... So, you never know...
    But every HDD manufacturer has something to do with drives coming back...
    Yeah but.
    I have been in this business for years, too, Rus.
    And, I have never experienced that:
    bad drives with hidden platters/sections as a replacement!!!
    Come on now.
    If that is there "policy" I will take my business elsewhere thank you.
    I am sorry, but this is the first I have heard of or seen this "practice" in action...and it is horrible.
    And, almost against the law.

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