Bad MBR

Kniterider · March 21st, 2007

Hey all, I just bought a WD 250gb internal hd when I installed the drive windows wasn't reporting it properly... only reading 32gb. I checked the drive with partition magic 8 and it keeps saying that there's bad mbr, is this problem fixable or do I need to return the drive?

Any help will be appreciated

KR

Quakindude · March 21st, 2007

Do you plan to use it as a storage drive or to install your OS on?

And this is brand new?

Kniterider · March 21st, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quakindude

Do you plan to use it as a storage drive or to install your OS on?

And this is brand new?

The drive was bought today.... I was planning to put an os on it, but I'm rethinking that and probably will use it for storage

Quakindude · March 21st, 2007

Try formatting it from within Windows to see if you gain the entire drive.

Oh. Please make a signature line with your system specs in it.

Kniterider · March 21st, 2007

I've tried formatting it from within windows and it still reports it as 32gb

**stinger608** · March 22nd, 2007

Is this a IDE drive or a SATA drive?

If it is a IDE drive, check the jumper settings on the back of the drive! Make sure that they even installed a jumper at the factory.

There is 3 main settings, Cable Select or CS, Master, and Slave. There is also a 4th jumper that will, if a jumper is on, do some very strange things. If you are going to use this as a storage drive, you will want to set it to slave. Make sure that you have your drive with the OS set to master.

Kniterider · March 22nd, 2007

I had the pins set right and still nothing. Finally I decided to put it in an external case and try that and still no luck. I'm getting quite frustrated.

KR

screwballl · March 22nd, 2007

Click start -> Run... -> Type: compmgmt.msc -> Under Storage, click on "Disc Management" -> Right click the Disk1 32GB partition and choose "Delete Partition" (provided you haven't saved anything on it or have windows installed on it).
If windows is installed on it then go to the unformated portion and "Create Partition" and "Make Partition Active" and then "Format..."

If even in the comp management area it STILL only shows the entire drive as 32GB then there may be something mechanically wrong with that hard drive. That is unless you are putting it into something like a 333MHz Pentium2 computer then it is likely to be the motherboard limitation...

Kniterider · March 22nd, 2007

thanks for the help. I'm not sure that my motherboard should have any trouble reading this drive. I just upgraded my computer a couple of weeks ago. and as I said I'm running at P4 3.0ghz

screwballl · March 22nd, 2007

since it is the P4 setup there shouldn't be any problems running comp management...
also hopefully you have XP SP2 so that it sees the full 250 and not just 137GB...

March 21st, 2007	#1
Kniterider Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 10	Bad MBR Hey all, I just bought a WD 250gb internal hd when I installed the drive windows wasn't reporting it properly... only reading 32gb. I checked the drive with partition magic 8 and it keeps saying that there's bad mbr, is this problem fixable or do I need to return the drive? Any help will be appreciated KR

March 21st, 2007	#2
Quakindude I'm Diggin it! Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Rucker, AL. Posts: 2,736 Blog Entries: 7	Re: Bad MBR Do you plan to use it as a storage drive or to install your OS on? And this is brand new? Q6600@ 3.2GHz w/ CNPS9700 \| EVGA 780i \| 2Gb Corsair DDR2-800 \| EVGA GTX 280 1Gb Video \| 1x WD 640Gb HDD, 2x Seagate 400Gb HDD, 1x250Gb WD \| 2x Samsung SH-203B Opticals \| Antec 900 \| ABS/Tagan BZ700 700W PSU

March 21st, 2007	#4
Quakindude I'm Diggin it! Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Rucker, AL. Posts: 2,736 Blog Entries: 7	Re: Bad MBR Try formatting it from within Windows to see if you gain the entire drive. Oh. Please make a signature line with your system specs in it. Q6600@ 3.2GHz w/ CNPS9700 \| EVGA 780i \| 2Gb Corsair DDR2-800 \| EVGA GTX 280 1Gb Video \| 1x WD 640Gb HDD, 2x Seagate 400Gb HDD, 1x250Gb WD \| 2x Samsung SH-203B Opticals \| Antec 900 \| ABS/Tagan BZ700 700W PSU

March 21st, 2007	#5
Kniterider Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 10	Re: Bad MBR I've tried formatting it from within windows and it still reports it as 32gb

March 22nd, 2007	#6
stinger608 The Real Final Word Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: In the Zone! Posts: 2,550 Blog Entries: 1	Re: Bad MBR Is this a IDE drive or a SATA drive? If it is a IDE drive, check the jumper settings on the back of the drive! Make sure that they even installed a jumper at the factory. There is 3 main settings, Cable Select or CS, Master, and Slave. There is also a 4th jumper that will, if a jumper is on, do some very strange things. If you are going to use this as a storage drive, you will want to set it to slave. Make sure that you have your drive with the OS set to master.

March 22nd, 2007	#7
Kniterider Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 10	Re: Bad MBR I had the pins set right and still nothing. Finally I decided to put it in an external case and try that and still no luck. I'm getting quite frustrated. KR Asus p5pe-vm motherboard Intel 4 3.0ghz processor 512DDR ram ATI Radeon 9250 video card @ 256mb

March 22nd, 2007	#8
screwballl Colonel Calamity Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Sandy South Posts: 6,279 Blog Entries: 6	Re: Bad MBR Click start -> Run... -> Type: compmgmt.msc -> Under Storage, click on "Disc Management" -> Right click the Disk1 32GB partition and choose "Delete Partition" (provided you haven't saved anything on it or have windows installed on it). If windows is installed on it then go to the unformated portion and "Create Partition" and "Make Partition Active" and then "Format..." If even in the comp management area it STILL only shows the entire drive as 32GB then there may be something mechanically wrong with that hard drive. That is unless you are putting it into something like a 333MHz Pentium2 computer then it is likely to be the motherboard limitation... Thanks HL and Corsair! My opinions are my own and not representative of this site or its members. Last edited by screwballl; March 22nd, 2007 at 05:59.

March 22nd, 2007	#9
Kniterider Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 10	Re: Bad MBR thanks for the help. I'm not sure that my motherboard should have any trouble reading this drive. I just upgraded my computer a couple of weeks ago. and as I said I'm running at P4 3.0ghz Asus p5pe-vm motherboard Intel 4 3.0ghz processor 512DDR ram ATI Radeon 9250 video card @ 256mb

March 22nd, 2007	#10
screwballl Colonel Calamity Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Sandy South Posts: 6,279 Blog Entries: 6	Re: Bad MBR since it is the P4 setup there shouldn't be any problems running comp management... also hopefully you have XP SP2 so that it sees the full 250 and not just 137GB... Thanks HL and Corsair! My opinions are my own and not representative of this site or its members.