[Solved] How do I reformat to full capacity

[Osprey]

I have a 120GB Samsung HDD (Spinpoint SP1203N) which was formatted as 30GB (windows limit at that time)

 

How can I reformat this to full capacity.

Now on W7 .. and will use this drive in an external HDD caddy as an occasional USB back up drive .... so should I use FAT32 (as it currently is) or NTFS as per HDD in main PC.

 

 

I downloaded Minitool Partition wizard .. and it allowed me to delete partition .. but not to format drive.

Are there any free utilities I can use ?

[KenB]

How can I reformat this to full capacity.

If you have the caddy - put the drive in and attach to USB port.

 

The drive should be recognised as such.

 

Start ........type in .....diskmgmt.msc ...........ENTER

Your drive should show up here.

You should be able to right click on the drive and select format.

I would format it NTFS.

[Osprey]

If you have the caddy - put the drive in and attach to USB port.

 

The drive should be recognised as such.

 

Start ........type in .....diskmgmt.msc ...........ENTER

Your drive should show up here.

You should be able to right click on the drive and select format.

I would format it NTFS.

 

 

This does not resolve.

It is in a USB caddy and seen as 30 GB .... it was a 30GB partition, which I deleted.

I created it as simple volume, and then did a 'right click- format' as NTFS

 

But is just formats it as 30 GB .. details here :

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx351/Tafflad/computer%20stuff/disk.jpg

[Osprey]

Found the fix ... under earlier ver of Windows they could not handle GDD > 30GB ... so you fitted a bridge to limit size to 30 GB

 

In case somenoelse needs to know - removed ALL bridges .. so it was a SLAVE ...then it showed as 1 volume with 30GB partition.

 

Used free utility "Minitool Partition Wizard" allows you to drag a slider to increase partition.

Now have 120GB empty disc .. not huge but useful for moving files around.

 

As an FYI .. had a great link this week to a neat IDE/SATA to USB cable & PSU ...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000ZX9COM/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

 

Used it to connect to HDD inside my PVR so I could could all video files and move them to new PVR (which manufacturer said could not be done )

 

Which is where all of this started :-)

Edited May 11, 2012 by Osprey

[KenB]

Hi osprey,

 

many thanks for the update.

 

Good to hear that you were able to solve your own problem :)

[Osprey]

combination of ideas & thoughts from others got to the fix .. thought I'd post details for others