Hard Disk Geometry Error
Unanswered topics [Resolved] Stuck with the wrong HDD geometry GParted forum →GParted →[Resolved] Stuck with the wrong HDD geometry Pages 1 You must login or register to post a reply RSS topic feed Posts: 8 1 Topic by jlebar 2009-01-20 21:03:56 (edited by jlebar 2009-01-21 07:43:08) jlebar New member Offline Registered: 2009-01-20 Posts: 4 Topic: [Resolved] Stuck with the wrong HDD geometry Hi there.In the process of cloning an old 80gb drive onto a new 320gb drive, I've apparently managed to convince the OS that my new HDD is also of size 80gb. Here are the details:* I normally run Windows, so I booted into Linux via Slax on a USB drive.* I used dd to copy my old drive onto my new drive.* I opened GParted, which displayed, as expected, that my new drive contained a small service partition (FAT16, I think) followed by a large data partition (NTFS) followed by a large amount of free space.* I told GParted to resize the NTFS partition from ~80gb to take up all the free space on the drive. This operation completed successfully.* When I try to boot into Windows off the new drive, I get a stop error. Back in Linux, when I run fdisk on the new drive or examine it in GParted, the 320gb drive now shows up as an unformatted 80gb drive.(I used dd instead of GParted to do the actual copying because GParted wouldn't copy the service partition on my old drive. I'm not sure if that service partition is necessary -- I've heard that some Lenovo laptops won't boot without it, but I've never heard that about Dell laptops -- but I figured I might as well try to copy it. In any case, this procedure worked just fine on a friend's Lenovo laptop, with a very similar setup.)It looks like resizing the NTFS partition somehow messed up the operating system's idea of the new hard drive's geometry. To wit, fdisk reports 9546 cylinders, but I expect 16383. Changing the number of cylinders with fdisk doesn't seem to do anything. (If the geometry really is the problem, then more than just the cylinder count is wrong; the drive is 1/4 its expected size, but it's missing fewer than half its cylinders.)I'm perfectly happy to start from scratch with this drive, ignore the service partition, and use GParted to perform the cloning this time. But first, I need to convince the operating system that the drive is actually 320gb in size, and I'm not sure how to do that. I've already tried copying over the new drive (well, the first 80gb of it, anyway) with /d
Tech Talk and Support Disk Geometry Error If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. Results 1 to 4 of 4 Thread: Disk Geometry Error Tweet Thread Tools Show Printable Version Email this Page… Subscribe to this Thread… Search Thread Advanced Search Display Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode October 22nd, 1999,08:48 PM #1 FroggPimp View Profile View Forum Posts Visit Homepage Junior Member Join Date Oct 1999 Location Las Vegas, NV, USA Posts 1 Disk Geometry Error When I run a partition http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=9735 program like Partition Magic 4.0 I get a "Disk Geometry Error." I just bought a brand new Maxtor 20GB Diamond Max Pro hard drive and I can't figure out why this is happening. I've tried everything. Can this be due to the fact that it's ATA/66? HELP ME IF YOU CAN, PLEASE!! Reply With Quote May 25th, 2000,03:15 PM #2 NT View Profile View Forum Posts Junior Member Join Date May 2000 Posts 1 the only thing i can say about this is, that partition http://www.hardwarecentral.com/showthread.php?61478-Disk-Geometry-Error magic CAUSED this problem. it had some #110 error while trying to execute my "orders" in dos-mode and then crashed. since i can't run it. i always get an init 255 error and it tells me the same error es it does to you. i guess it has something to do with the boot-sector, but i'm not sure. it seems that low-level format is the only way to get rid of this but i'm not yet sure about this, because i'll try it with some tools first. I'll be telling u of my progress. Reply With Quote May 26th, 2000,02:08 PM #3 1 View Profile View Forum Posts Senior Member Join Date Sep 1999 Location Lillehammer, Norway Posts 685 Ooooooooollllllld question. Oh well, the search feature has its dark sides. Reply With Quote May 29th, 2000,11:09 AM #4 1 View Profile View Forum Posts Senior Member Join Date Sep 1999 Location Lillehammer, Norway Posts 685 I've received a couple of e-mails from people asking me about disk geometry and Partition Magic 4, so I'll post the reply I sent to NT just in case anyone else is interested. The physical disk geometry is the actual number of Cylinders, Heads and Sectors on the disk. If you have a (very) old HD, this is the only disk geometry your system uses, but new disks have implemented zoned bit recording (ZBR). ZBR abandons the idea of having a fixed number of sectors per track, since the outer tracks on the disk are longer than th