[whiic]

888, "If yes then it's a known issue now. I just talked to data recovery people yesterday and they said it's just so when you put another manufacturer's drive into OneTouch II, then it will be automatically set to maximum capacity of 128GB. Additionally, also the "SetMax" command will be disabled with it, so it is not even possible to set the drive back to its original capacity. It is not related to this WD3200 model, not even to WD drives, as they said it was happened with all other companies (except Maxtor) drives put into OneTouch II."

Everyone, take that advice seriously. Those enclosures are Pure Evil. While I said my WD3200 works great in 1st generation OneTouch, not all drives are compatible even with 1st gen. If 2nd gen clips all non-Maxtors, 1st gen appears to clip some non-Maxtors. My WD3200 was spared by 1st gen, but my 7K250 wasn't: it was clipped into 128GiB.

I installed it back to internal PATA and started trying to recover the lost capacity. First I tried MHDD. It has at least following commands that are related to clipped drives: HPA (perform cutting), RHPA (read HPA - show current and native HPA) and NHPA (restore native HPA). Using these commands failed.

MHDD>NHPA
HDS722525VLAT80 LBA:268433408
SN: ************** FW:V360A6MA Size=131071MB
To see enchanced information, use command EID <SHIFT+F2>
Init drive:Done
Do you want to set Native LBA address (y/N)
Read NHPA...
Native Maximum LBA address:488397167
Continue? (y/N)
Working...
Fail. Try to re-power HDD.
Done.
MHDD>_

I tried Hitachi Drive Fitness Test but DFT says it's ok (technical resource code 0x00) with 137GB capacity.

As a last resort I tried Hitachi Feature Tool. FTOOL managed to unclip the HDD! Apparently it re-enabled SetMax before trying to use it... or whatever the reason, it worked. Lucky for me it was one of my Hitachis that got clipped. If my WD was clipped, I am not sure if FTOOL could have unclipped it. FTOOL support changing some features (like AAM) on non-Hitachis, but I'm not sure if they can unclip them.

Be extremely careful with non-Maxtors. Heck, I'd be careful even with Maxtors. I have no idea on what basis they clip the drives. HDD under 137GB (i.e 80GB and 120GB) should be ok. But even then, don't blame me if you lose capacity and possibly data as well. I had very good luck I didn't cripple my drive permanently and thanks go exclusively to Hitachi FTOOL.

[marineseen]

whiic, on Oct 2 2006, 09:25 AM, said:

888, "If yes then it's a known issue now. I just talked to data recovery people yesterday and they said it's just so when you put another manufacturer's drive into OneTouch II, then it will be automatically set to maximum capacity of 128GB. Additionally, also the "SetMax" command will be disabled with it, so it is not even possible to set the drive back to its original capacity. It is not related to this WD3200 model, not even to WD drives, as they said it was happened with all other companies (except Maxtor) drives put into OneTouch II."

Everyone, take that advice seriously. Those enclosures are Pure Evil. While I said my WD3200 works great in 1st generation OneTouch, not all drives are compatible even with 1st gen. If 2nd gen clips all non-Maxtors, 1st gen appears to clip some non-Maxtors. My WD3200 was spared by 1st gen, but my 7K250 wasn't: it was clipped into 128GiB.

I installed it back to internal PATA and started trying to recover the lost capacity. First I tried MHDD. It has at least following commands that are related to clipped drives: HPA (perform cutting), RHPA (read HPA - show current and native HPA) and NHPA (restore native HPA). Using these commands failed.

MHDD>NHPA
HDS722525VLAT80 LBA:268433408
SN: ************** FW:V360A6MA Size=131071MB
To see enchanced information, use command EID <SHIFT+F2>
Init drive:Done
Do you want to set Native LBA address (y/N)
Read NHPA...
Native Maximum LBA address:488397167
Continue? (y/N)
Working...
Fail. Try to re-power HDD.
Done.
MHDD>_

I tried Hitachi Drive Fitness Test but DFT says it's ok (technical resource code 0x00) with 137GB capacity.

As a last resort I tried Hitachi Feature Tool. FTOOL managed to unclip the HDD! Apparently it re-enabled SetMax before trying to use it... or whatever the reason, it worked. Lucky for me it was one of my Hitachis that got clipped. If my WD was clipped, I am not sure if FTOOL could have unclipped it. FTOOL support changing some features (like AAM) on non-Hitachis, but I'm not sure if they can unclip them.

Be extremely careful with non-Maxtors. Heck, I'd be careful even with Maxtors. I have no idea on what basis they clip the drives. HDD under 137GB (i.e 80GB and 120GB) should be ok. But even then, don't blame me if you lose capacity and possibly data as well. I had very good luck I didn't cripple my drive permanently and thanks go exclusively to Hitachi FTOOL.

I have fallen into the same trap and wish I'd read this thread earlier! I have a Maxtore One Touch I and put a new Maxtor 250 GB drive in the case. I attached it to my PC (XP Pro and Service Pack 2) via firewire and the drive was clipped at under 137 GB after 1 hour on the phone to Maxtor tech suppor, they have sent me a new drive. On recieving the drive I put it straight into the Maxtor One Touch 1 case and attached it to my Powermac G5 (via firewire). Even on the apple the drive got clipped again! It must be the Maxtor case doing it.

I've tried FTOOL this recognises the true capacity of the drive but fails to be able to adjust it. Can anyone suggest a Windows or Mac utility that can do the job for me please?

[Virtual Larry]

I seem to recall that the very first external HD enclosures by Maxtor, used some sort of vendor-specific drive commands for 48-bit LBA support, that were pre-standard, and thus only supported by Maxtor HDs and Maxtor enclosure firmware.

So it's not too surprising to me that non-Maxtors in one of those enclosures might only be reported as 128GiB in size.

It's also not surprising that FTOOL was able to remove the soft LBA clip settings of the hitachi HD. As I understand it, the HPA (host protected area) feature is a different animal than the soft LBA clip feature. HPA has nothing to do with what happened here.

But it is pretty strange that placing a non-Maxtor HD into those enclosures results in not only being limited to 128 GiB, but also that the drive's firmware settings would be altered. Very interesting indeed.

[whiic]

Virtual Larry: "It's also not surprising that FTOOL was able to remove the soft LBA clip settings of the hitachi HD. As I understand it, the HPA (host protected area) feature is a different animal than the soft LBA clip feature. HPA has nothing to do with what happened here."

Is there a software utility to remove this "soft LBA clip" on any drive regardless of manufacturer? Can MHDD do it and what is the name of the command?

If not, do WD, Maxtor, Seagate and Samsung support similar utility to unclip their drives?

[Virtual Larry]

whiic, on Nov 13 2006, 12:15 PM, said:

Is there a software utility to remove this "soft LBA clip" on any drive regardless of manufacturer? Can MHDD do it and what is the name of the command?

I found an old thread that mentions a "HDAT2" utility. Could be worth a try.

http://forums.storag...?...f=2&t=17093