HDD partition table doing weird things...

Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT DeputyThe Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited August 2010 in Off-Topic
So I've got this computer from my uncle and they had some trouble with the thing, it's partition table is borked... I fixed it and the HDD seems to work perfectly when inside my own pc. But as soon as I put it into their pc, the computer starts whining about the partition table being broken or it will just hang...


I've been able to setup winXp on it once, but that setup is also weird... The HDD paritions are setup like this:

36Gb and 429Gb (500Gb Sata Samsung spinpoint)

But as soon as it is back in their pc, and either running win98bootdisk or winXp setup it will show 128Gb as the C: drive. I can install it on this drive, but obviously this is a wrong partition table... fixmbr, partition magic, windows diskmanager all say different things...

The computer setups are quite similar as well, only he has a faster cpu and newer motherboard (Asus P5B vs their P5E)

List of things I tried...<ul><li>Data on the thing wasn't that important -> low level format</li><li>fixmbr, fixboot</li><li>BIOS flash, was already running the latest version though</li><li>Bios reset (cmos jumper and battery)</li><li>Partition Table doctor (fix boot and rebuild)</li><li>[booting into DOS with partition magic to see the mbr status (twas broken)</li><li>Fdisk also sees one partition that is 128Gb, while it should be as above (36Gb and 429Gb)</li></ul>

<b>In short:</b>
As soon as I put the working HDD from my pc into my uncle's pc, it goes weird. Once I put it back in my pc, I can fix the stuff and also use and access the HDD partitions... It's just once it goes near the other pc it dies, making me think something it wrong with that motherboard o.O"


Any idea, because I'm running out of them ideas...
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Comments

  • DrfuzzyDrfuzzy FEW... MORE.... INCHES... Join Date: 2003-09-21 Member: 21094Members
    Make a boot disk for PC check and run hard drive tests, its great for making sure the drive is good
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  • ZaggyZaggy NullPointerException The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-12-10 Member: 24214Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Onos, Subnautica Playtester
    <!--quoteo(post=1794766:date=Aug 17 2010, 06:51 PM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kouji_San @ Aug 17 2010, 06:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1794766"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[snip] making me think something it wrong with that motherboard o.O"<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Tried different ports and cables?
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    Changed from sata 1 to 2, haven't yet tried another cable. Not sure if that would cause a MBR failure though...

    @Drfuzzy

    PC check is pretty damn expensive!!! Unless I'm looking at the wrong one (eurosoft?)
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  • Corporal_FortierCorporal_Fortier Join Date: 2005-03-22 Member: 46079Members, Constellation
    As far as I remember, the 128gb has something to do with "large capacity disk" support, which was only implemented with XP SP1 and older. It would make sense why win98bootdisk wouldn't see the whole drive, and maybe your XP CD was issued before any SPs? I know I had this issue at one point, but I don't remember how I fixed it. A quick Googl'ing shows these links might prove useful:

    <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;303013</a>
    <a href="http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/29932970/seagate-400gb-drive-reduced-to-128gb-after-winxp-reinstall.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet...-reinstall.aspx</a> (seems like a nice thread, covers a lot of issues)

    Hope that helps!
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited August 2010
    Oh god how could I forget this stupid ######, 128Gb didn't even ring a bell! I once had this problem ages ago and simply forgot about it, since I never really install windows (I just ghost it <img src="http://members.home.nl/m.borgman/ns-forum/smileys/tongue.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />) Still weird the MBR partition tables do get screwed up though, even when I just boot the damn thing into windows install or dos without doing anything (just checking out the HDD <img src="http://members.home.nl/m.borgman/ns-forum/smileys/shifty.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" /> )
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  • DrfuzzyDrfuzzy FEW... MORE.... INCHES... Join Date: 2003-09-21 Member: 21094Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1794787:date=Aug 17 2010, 03:56 PM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kouji_San @ Aug 17 2010, 03:56 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1794787"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Changed from sata 1 to 2, haven't yet tried another cable. Not sure if that would cause a MBR failure though...

    @Drfuzzy

    PC check is pretty damn expensive!!! Unless I'm looking at the wrong one (eurosoft?)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Yep eurosoft.

    Who buys such business class stuff :)
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