250GB hard drive not recognised

[Street Hawk]

Hi Guys,

Ok its 1st thing in the morning & my brain simpley just aint into to 5th gear yet so bare with me....

I sent a faulty 80GB WD hard drive off under warranty, they sent me a replacement 250GB (Awsome aye ) anyway...

I have a Dell XPS M170 Gaming Laptop and now want to use that big fat bad boy of a hard drive in my machine & partition it off into 4 parts..

2 x 40GB Partitions for XP & Windows 7
2 x 85GB Partitions for Programs & Apps / Storage Space

Problem!!!

My XPS is showing only 137GB total Hard drive size in the Bios !

So i thought .. lets update the bios with the latest version !! the Bios is upto date no more Versions availible

Anyone have any idea's at all so i can use the full 250GB of this hard drive? or am i basically F****d ? im counting on you guys for my little bit of hope, hope as in you know how to work round it cos its driving me nuts, its like a having a new toy & not being allowed to play with it!

thanks in Advance guys !

[caveman_nige]

have you tried a third party fdisk/formatting app like acronis or partition magic to see what they say about the disk, also i would try the oem disk diagnostic software...

All these apps are available on the Hiren boot cd.

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f90/hiren-bootcd-26544/

[Street Hawk]

Hey nige,
I think im screwed buddy, just got off the phone to dell after tryin to speak with someone that has just alittle bit of sence, apparently my machine will only support a max of 150GB.

now i been working on computers for many years & seem to recall that updating the bios to the latest one, would provide large drive support in the bios fix, as there was a big thing about it early 2000 or 200? anyway flashing the bios resolved the problem during that time. Dell have tryed tellin me, my brand new hard drive is f**ked & the bios is correct, the bios dont lie blah blah blah, when it aint correct .. i had to tell the geek on the phone to put me onto a senior tech so he could understand what i was bloody sayin!

dell had nothing else to say on it.. i even tried to get them to match the chipset to another model like the XPS M1710, but they aint havin none of it. so im basically no further forward and have to simply use my Sad 80gig i had in the 1st place :'(

Partition magic will only recognise what the bios is spitting out on the system info which is 137GB. some times lifes just a bitch! i think im gonna have to sell my machine to get another gaming machine!

[ManofScience]

Dell have always used cheap components, i remember this used to be a problem but like you, thought it was long gone.

nice one Dell

[caveman_nige]

Yeah i remember those days, i used to post on the IBM Thinkpad support forums giving tech support as their own people did not have a clue, they just read from scripts and if you deviate from that they are screwed.. It could be the case that HDD itself is screwed hence my suggestion to test it with a oem diagnostics etc.. I am surprised that there is an issue with what it can see but hey ho that life, now you have the excuse to buy a new machine...

[Street Hawk]

Haha, thats what i have been doing this morning, looking for another machine. i still want another XPS & have my eye on the Dell XPS M1730 looks nice with abit more BHP on the CPU. i think that might be my best bet for some gaming abuse. unles...... anyone else has any idea's on a decent budget gaming laptop?

Probley sell mine on ebay or something, they selling for around ?300 at the min so that could go towards me new machine.

[caveman_nige]

whatever floats your boat mate.. i only buy thinkpads myself (although their batteries are not as good as some) if i want a proper laptop yet I did recenty buy a little dell mini 9 for my pub laptop that i will not cry over if i loose it or gets nicked etc.. I tend to find Dell laptop kit well priced but made of cheaper components and a tad finicky, but they have improved slowly considering some of the shite they have been knocking out over last 10 years...

Its all down to what you are familiar with, i prefer an ultra reliable business laptop with a 3 year warranty over a home style gamers lappy... I do not play games though as i am a boring fart...

[Street Hawk]

true true, i have worked with dell's for quite a while and find them easy to work with, they are like the lego of computers as the parts are easy to change & have good access to various area's, unlike machines such as Toshiba (mega expensive for parts & complicated to strip down & replace bits). gateway's etc Acer are the worst machines i have ever worked with and sitting right next to them on the list of shit machines are packard bloody bell they are a nightmare, & cheap OEM shite. IBM are old school but effective which is great, its like having a choice between a Ford Cortina & a New Ford Focus, the Cortina would get my vote simpley because if you had a crash in a Ford Focus its would be a right off! where as with the good old Ford Cortina if ya crashed? you would just put the bumper back on & away you go haha.