60 gb = 20gb

[howto]

Please be aware I am 12 hours behind (currently) from thailand as I live in Chattanooga TN USA

[Metropolitian]

8 hours ago, Metropolitian said:

What info does the bios give you about the harddisk?

 

 

8 hours ago, Heppinger said:

very little.  diskpart using command prompt is all you need.

Not really, although diskpart has many functions and can tell you a lot.

 

Bios gives the model name of the disk, and that's just the one I was looking for.

In this info, which doesn't contain the information like heads and cylinder as these are mostly set on auto detection in the settings.

But the model name,  mostly tell you how big the actual drive is.

And we can compare that with what is printed on the sticker, if that doesn't match then we know what time it is.

 

And then if it's really an 60GB drive, then we can proceed to look at the settings.

 

[elfpattaya]

Try this.

 

[dimitriv]

12 hours ago, Heppinger said:

I would have to say its a faulty disk, where did you get it?

 

It must have been a museum.

 

The photo shows that the disk was made in June 2006. A 15 year old hdd isn't worth anything.

 

 

[Confuscious]

6 hours ago, dimitriv said:

 

It must have been a museum.

 

The photo shows that the disk was made in June 2006. A 15 year old hdd isn't worth anything.

 

 

Again (for the slow readers or readers with a slow understanding) :
The age of the disk or the size of the disk is nothing of my concern.
I want to know how it's possible to alter the BIOS information on a HD/USB drive/MC to show a different capacity as the real one.
Purely as a hobby and to learn.

 

[Confuscious]

I used the program TestDisk to alter information on USB disk and MC before with success.
This program let an user change the number of Heads/Disks. etc, from a DOS window.
But for some reason, the altered information is not accepted on this drive.

 

 

[Metropolitian]

1 hour ago, Confuscious said:

Again (for the slow readers or readers with a slow understanding) :
The age of the disk or the size of the disk is nothing of my concern.
I want to know how it's possible to alter the BIOS information on a HD/USB drive/MC to show a different capacity as the real one.
Purely as a hobby and to learn.

 

What is the model of your computer and do you know the name of your BIOS and version?

 

There are a few out there and all with different screens.

Once we know which BIOS you have we can continue.

 

example:

[fdsa]

21 hours ago, Confuscious said:

"unless your doing this for a hobby and learning process of course" = exactly.

I see many sellers in Facebook and Lazada who uses the same trick to sell 64GB memory cards which are in fact only 8 gb.
They change the information at the low-level to display 64gb when inserted in your computer, but with programs as Testdisk it show that they are only 8gb memory cards.
 

If chinese guys flashed the correctly hacked firmware to the flash controller then all programs will show 64 GB while there is actually 8 :) 

The forged firmware knows the real capacity (e.g. 8 GB) and instructed to report a fake capacity (e.g. 64 GB) and to write the data over after the real capacity finishes - if you write a 9 GB file to the fake disk the first 8 GBs will be written correctly but then the 8001st megabyte will be written to the very first sector, 8002nd to the second, etc, and 9th GB will overwrite the 1st GB thus breaking the file.

To find the real capacity of the flash drive you will need to use a program (e.g. https://github.com/AltraMayor/f3 for Linux) that writes a large file to the disk and then reads it back, checking if it was written correctly or got broken.

 

As for HDDs I've never met a disk with fake capacity yet so I think it's much harder to make, and I'm sure that your disk either got broken or was incorrectly formatted, rather than has a fake capacity.

To check if it is broken you need to read its S.M.A.R.T status, looking for "reallocated sectors" or "remapped sectors" or something like this. If there are hundreds of reallocated sectors - just throw the disk away. I don't know any good Windows program for this except Victoria http://hdd.by/victoria/ but it's in Russian language.

 

If SMART is ok then the partition table may be broken, and possibly it will help to convert it from MBR to GPT, or vice versa.

For "diskpart" you will need to add a command "convert gpt" or "convert mbr" after the "clean" command, in the list posted above.

[Confuscious]

1 hour ago, Metropolitian said:

What is the model of your computer and do you know the name of your BIOS and version?

 

There are a few out there and all with different screens.

Once we know which BIOS you have we can continue.

 

example:

I use an old notebook for experimenting in order to avoid serious mistakes (IYKWIM).
Type: Lenovo  Z370 (32 bit)
BIOS: Phoenix SecureCore (tm)
NOS: 4ACN33WW
 

[Bender Rodriguez]

what does the BIOS say ?

[maxpower]

[Metropolitian]

2 hours ago, Confuscious said:

I use an old notebook for experimenting in order to avoid serious mistakes (IYKWIM).
Type: Lenovo  Z370 (32 bit)
BIOS: Phoenix SecureCore (tm)
NOS: 4ACN33WW
 

 

Entering the BIOS

 

The PhoenixSecureCore has a few different firmwares too.

When you open the BIOS, do you see 'InsydeH20 Setup Utility'  or  ' Phoenix SecureCore Technology' in the title bar?

 

And what do you see under the 'Boot' tab at the field Legacy/SATA HDD if InsydeH20 in the title

or Boot/Boot Pirority order/ HDD field in case of Phoenix SecureCore in the title?

 

Video: Replacing the harddisk video, which you already knew I assume. ????

 

[Metropolitian]

You also can get the info from the main screen in your BIOS.

Can you take a picture for us?

[Daffy D]

Active@ KillDisk:-  https://www.killdisk.com/killdisk-freeware.htm

 

Active@ KillDisk will remove all partitions and return the disk to the original state.

 

Be careful to select the right disk, you don't want to nuke the wrong disk 

 

 

[Heppinger]

7 hours ago, Confuscious said:

Again (for the slow readers or readers with a slow understanding) :
The age of the disk or the size of the disk is nothing of my concern.
I want to know how it's possible to alter the BIOS information on a HD/USB drive/MC to show a different capacity as the real one.
Purely as a hobby and to learn.

 

You cant alter your motherboard BIOS info, you can change settings, but you cant trick it into displaying false info.

[Heppinger]

17 hours ago, Metropolitian said:

 

Not really, although diskpart has many functions and can tell you a lot.

 

Bios gives the model name of the disk, and that's just the one I was looking for.

In this info, which doesn't contain the information like heads and cylinder as these are mostly set on auto detection in the settings.

But the model name,  mostly tell you how big the actual drive is.

And we can compare that with what is printed on the sticker, if that doesn't match then we know what time it is.

 

And then if it's really an 60GB drive, then we can proceed to look at the settings.

 

Yes really, diskpart can most certainly give you the info. such as model name, serial number, partitions etc.

Everyone here who is recommending to download all of these programs doesn't understand the features that windows has.  Device Manager, Administrative Tools, CMD, regedit etc etc do everything you need.  He is doing this as a learning process if you want to learn about PC's then you need to know Windows inside and out.

 

If the disk is labeled 60gb but only says 20gb after a clean in diskpart. Then either the label is wrong or the disk is faulty.

 

Here is the full command list for diskpart from Microsoft.  Diskpart is an extremely powerful tool when it comes to HDD, hence the name i guess.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/diskpart

 

EDIT: diskpart also has repair commands

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Heppinger
info

[Metropolitian]

1 hour ago, Heppinger said:

Yes really, diskpart can most certainly give you the info. such as model name, serial number, partitions etc.

 

Which is TRUE.

 

Assuming that the OP has actually windows running on the machine, and not already accidentally deleted it while playing around with diskpart (or any programs)

 

For the OP , and others who are interested to obtain the information about your disk

 

 

The steps to get the information is :

start diskpart by going into the command prompt, or in the run section in start:  DISKPART [ENTER]

 

What you will see is an dosbox

DISKPART>

 

Then diskpart want to know on which media/harddisk you want to work on.

Doing so by entering select disk and the disk number, mostly 0 which is the primary disk

DISKPART>select disk 0  [enter]

 

Then to see the information, like model type and so on you give the command detail disk

DISKPART>detail disk

 

In my stituation it gives me:

 

 

Another option beside diskpart and when you run windows is by executing the following command in the prompt

 

wmic diskdrive get model,serialNumber,size,mediaType

 

Which in my computer gives me this:

 

 

Ahh.. I get flashbacks to the old DOS period ????

 

[Confuscious]

Just now, Metropolitian said:

Ahh.. I get flashbacks to the old DOS period ????

 

Here are the pictures, but I fail to see how that is going to help me in altering the disk size.

 

[Metropolitian]

46 minutes ago, Confuscious said:

Here are the pictures, but I fail to see how that is going to help me in altering the disk size.

 

It's not helping in altering the size now, but it is in identification.

I can see that your internal harddrive is an 500GB Seagate Harddisk and another one Samsung 250GB.

 

But the '20GB'  Hard disk..  according to the model information it is an ACER Harddisk while your first post shows an Fujitsu 60 GB.

So this means that the information is masked or overridden by the USB HDD adapter/casing.

Have you tried using the harddisk in another manner instead of that external enclosure?

[Metropolitian]

What output do you get with this command:

wmic diskdrive get model,index,deviceID,firmwareRevision,status,manufacturer,interfaceType,totalHeads,totalTracks,totalCylinders,totalSectors,partitions

 

?

[Confuscious]

1 hour ago, Metropolitian said:

It's not helping in altering the size now, but it is in identification.

I can see that your internal harddrive is an 500GB Seagate Harddisk and another one Samsung 250GB.

 

But the '20GB'  Hard disk..  according to the model information it is an ACER Harddisk while your first post shows an Fujitsu 60 GB.

So this means that the information is masked or overridden by the USB HDD adapter/casing.

Have you tried using the harddisk in another manner instead of that external enclosure?

The 20 GB (60gb) hard disk shows as an Acer which is the legacy of the USB adapter.
I also mounted the disk as an internal boot drive, but no difference.

 

[Metropolitian]

26 minutes ago, Confuscious said:

The 20 GB (60gb) hard disk shows as an Acer which is the legacy of the USB adapter.
I also mounted the disk as an internal boot drive, but no difference.

 

We should need to know the model number in the harddisk firmware anyhow, which starts with MJ or MH mostly.

The only solution is mount the harddisk as internal drive and check again.

 

[Metropolitian]

Are you checking the information on a regular desktop computer with the harddisk in an usb enclosure? 

And you want to use the harddisk as harddrive in the Lenovo Z370 laptop?

 

Put it back in the laptop and write down what the BIOS tell you about the harddisk.

Model and additional info.

 

Another solution would be running an Linux or Windows PE version on an USB stick and run the diskpart command from there if that's included in the PE version.

(Parted / GParted in case of Linux)

 

[howto]

There are numerous reasons not to change C/H/S.

- in the computer bios

- in the OS (diskpart)

It LOCKS that HDD to that computer and/or that OS.

If you move that HDD to another computer/OS, the changes DO NOT FOLLOW.

A easier way is called "short-stroak".

THIS WILL FOLLOW ALL COMPUTERS AND OS'S.

- confirm the full size of HDD is seen by computer BIOS.

- create partition only to the size you want (remainder unallocated)

- format that new partition (I prefer NTFS, 4K sectors)

 

[maxpower]

2 hours ago, Metropolitian said:

Are you checking the information on a regular desktop computer with the harddisk in an usb enclosure? 

Possibly a Acer 20GB USB 2.0 Pocket hard disk with a Fujitsu 60GB drive stuffed in it and the controller is upset by the intrusion.

[Confuscious]

Found why the hard-disk is only accepting 20GB formatting.
The hard-disk consist of the hard-disk hardware AND the PCB board.
In this particular case, the HD hardware is a 60GB hd, but with a PCB board with only 20GB capacity.
In other words, the hard disk is refurbished and downgraded to a 20GB hd to dissimulate the bad sectors.
Thanks to all to try to help in this.
In the future, if anyone get a "x GB" hard disk but is not capable to format to the full capacity, check the PCB board data.

https://www.hddzone.com/fujitsu_60gb_hard_drive_pcb.html

 

Fujitsu 60GB Hard Drive PCB You can quickly search by PCB's "Model Number", "SN" or "Part Number" on your Fujitsu 60GB hard disk drives. Below is a lists of hard drive PCB circuit boards for Fujitsu 60GB 2.5" & 3.5", IDE, SATA, SAS & SCSI hard drives. The hard drive PCB, also called "hard drive circuit board", "hard drive controller board", "hard drive logic board" or simply "hard drive board (card)" is screwed to the back of the hard disk drive (HDD).   Donor PCB for data recovery purpose, you can repair your failed hard disk (disc) drive through a change or replacement of PCB boards.

 

[fdsa]

Doesn't really seem the cause to me, please show disk's SMART status.

 

BTW i've just checked and found out that Victoria got English language support: http://hdd.by/Victoria/Victoria528.zip

Edited September 3, 2020 by fdsa

[Confuscious]

1 hour ago, fdsa said:

Doesn't really seem the cause to me, please show disk's SMART status.

 

BTW i've just checked and found out that Victoria got English language support: http://hdd.by/Victoria/Victoria528.zip

Most of these utilities, including "Victoria" are bundled in the "Hiren's Boot CD".
"Hiren's Boot CD" is one of the most used software bundles to rescue all PC problems.
I've used most of these utilities before starting this thread.
BTW, you can read the "SMART status" with almost EVERY program.  

[Confuscious]

To close this thread, follow these instructions at your OWN FREE WILL.

- Make a bootable USB stick (Ex.: RUFUS) with MS-DOS on it (I like to use the old DOS 5.5.).
- Switch your computer OFF and take all the hard-disk, memory sticks, SD cards, etc out of your computer/notebook.
- Mount the faulty hard-disk as the main disk.
- Boot the computer from the memory stick.
- At the "C:" prompt, issue the DOS command "Debug 0800:0005" (this is the RAM area where the  hard-disk ROM is copied to).
- You will see that the hard-disk in RAM memory is the DATA from the PCB and not from the sticker (ie 20 GB).
Now you have 3 possibilities:
1. Alter the data in RAM and transfer in to the ROM from the hard-disk with the DOS Command "Debug -w 0800:0005" and reboot.
   Depending on your computer hardware, the hard-disk will be "Bricked" or display the correct size but will be only capable to read 20GB as the FCB can not access the Data after the 20GB. 
2. Find a program to FLASH the ROM on the hard disk with the correct data and reboot.
Here again, the hard-disk will be "Bricked"or the hard-disk will not be able to access the excess data.
3. Find the original FCB and mount it on the hard-disk,
    Reboot.
    You will now be able to access the full capacity of your hard-disk, but 40GB will show "Bad Sectors".

Enjoy your life....

[Metropolitian]

4 hours ago, Confuscious said:

To close this thread, follow these instructions at your OWN FREE WILL.

- Make a bootable USB stick (Ex.: RUFUS) with MS-DOS on it (I like to use the old DOS 5.5.).
- Switch your computer OFF and take all the hard-disk, memory sticks, SD cards, etc out of your computer/notebook.
- Mount the faulty hard-disk as the main disk.
- Boot the computer from the memory stick.
- At the "C:" prompt, issue the DOS command "Debug 0800:0005" (this is the RAM area where the  hard-disk ROM is copied to).
- You will see that the hard-disk in RAM memory is the DATA from the PCB and not from the sticker (ie 20 GB).
Now you have 3 possibilities:
1. Alter the data in RAM and transfer in to the ROM from the hard-disk with the DOS Command "Debug -w 0800:0005" and reboot.
   Depending on your computer hardware, the hard-disk will be "Bricked" or display the correct size but will be only capable to read 20GB as the FCB can not access the Data after the 20GB. 
2. Find a program to FLASH the ROM on the hard disk with the correct data and reboot.
Here again, the hard-disk will be "Bricked"or the hard-disk will not be able to access the excess data.
3. Find the original FCB and mount it on the hard-disk,
    Reboot.
    You will now be able to access the full capacity of your hard-disk, but 40GB will show "Bad Sectors".

Enjoy your life....

4. Don't change the data on the PCB firmware and stunt with the settings in the BIOS.  But instead get a sharpie and change the '60' on the sticker into '20' and enjoy a working 20Gb harddisk

 

????