I have Dell GX 150. System did not detect the correct hard disk capacity and also manufacturar, i.e. the partition can not defined in DOS. and system can not run windows. Please provide me the releateed information that how we can update BIOS from DOS. Thanking you very much. Best regard

check the jumper settings of the hard drive
The drive is larger than 32GB, but the operating system only recognizes 32GB. If the operating system, BIOS or DiscWizard can only recognize 32 GB of the drive it may be caused by one of the following:

1. Drive Jumpers: Applies to Mac and Window users. On drives that are larger than 32 GB there is a Capacity Limitation Jumper (CLJ), also known as the Limit Capacity Jumper or the Alternate Capacity (AC) Jumper setting. This jumper will limit the capacity of the drive to 32 GB and should only be used when the BIOS hangs when trying to auto-detect the drive. If you have two jumpers shunts on the drive you will need to remove the CLJ or AC jumper. If you format the drive with the CLJ or AC jumper then the drive capacity will be limited to 32GB. After removing the CLJ or AC jumper the drive will still be recognized as 32GB. You must reformat the drive without the CLJ or AC jumper to gain the full capacity of the drive. The other option is to create a second partition with the remaining unallocated disc space.
2. BIOS: On older systems (pre- November 1998) the BIOS may not support drives that are larger than 32 GB. In the BIOS setup please set the drive type to AUTO detect. If the BIOS detects the full capacity of the drive then the BIOS will support the capacity of the drive. If not please perform one of the following:
   1. Check with the system or motherboard manufacturer for any BIOS upgrades for the system.
   2. (Recommended) Purchase a PCI ATA controller card that will support the capacity of the drive. The two benefits of ATA controller cards are:
      • The ability to support large capacity drives
      • The ability to support the faster transfer rates of the drive.
3. Operating System: Windows have a 32 GB format limitation for FAT 32. That means if you formatted the drive in FAT 32 with Windows, the largest partition supported is 32 GB. You will need to format the drive in NTFS if you want to partition the drive larger than 32 GB. The other option is to create a second partition with the remaining unallocated disc space.
4. Incorrect Reporting to the BIOS: The drive itself may be reporting the incorrect size to the BIOS. In order to correct this, you will need to download SeaTools for DOS, boot into the SeaTools disc, and run the Set Capacity utility. It is recommended that you only have the hard drive reporting the incorrect capacity connected to your system while performing the following steps. Any other hard drives should be disconnected.
   It is recommended that you back up any important data on the hard drive before using SeaTools to set the drive size. This is a potentially data destructive procedure. Seagate is not responsible for any lost data.
   After correcting the drive capacity, the drive may still show a partition size of 32GB but with unallocated space. You must delete its current partition then repartition and format the drive to gain the full capacity of the drive. The other option is to create a second partition with the remaining unallocated disc space.
   
   
   1. Insert the SeaTools for DOS CD or floppy disc into the appropriate drive, and restart your computer. When SeaTools boots up, carefully read the license agreement, and press Y if you accept it.
   2. Select the correct drive from the list using the mouse or keyboard.
   3. Choose Advanced Features .
   4. Choose Set Capacity to Max Native.
   5. Once the capacity has been set SeaTools has returned to the main screen, take the SeaTools disc out of the drive and completely power down the system. The system needs to be shut down so any cached information is cleared. If you simply reboot or reset your computer without completely powering it down first, the corrected capacity setting will not take effect.

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Hello Anirudh,

To run the hard drive in Linux

Connect to the Internet. You will need access to the Internet to download the install files.
Open your Terminal in Ubuntu. This is the screen with the prompt where you can type commands.
Type "sudo apt-get install Gparted." Type in your root password and answer "Yes" to any prompts.

Type "sudo GParted." This will open GParted.Click the GParted menu and select "Devices." Select your external hard drive from the list. It is important that you choose your external hard drive and not the drive that has your system installed on it. One way to ensure this is to check the capacity on this drive; for example, if your internal disk is 80 GB and your external disk is 40 GB, choose the disk that is 40 GB.Click the "Devices" menu and click "Create Partition Table." Click "Advanced." From the New Partition Table menu, choose an option, depending on your system. For example, if you are dual booting Windows and Ubuntu, you may want to choose MS-DOS. If you are only running Ubuntu, choose GPT.Create a partition. Select a section of unused space and click "New."Set up your partition. For partition size, set the size of your partition--for most purposes, you can make the partition the entire capacity of the disk. Next, choose a partition type; primary is suitable for most purposes. Next, choose a file system. For sharing across a Windows system, use Fat32. For sharing with an Apple system, use HFS or HFS+. For use with an Ubuntu system only, use EXT2, EXT3 or EXT4.Click "Apply." The operations will run and your hard disk will be ready to use.

Hello Andreas,

Connect to the Internet. You will need access to the Internet to download the install files.
Open your Terminal in Ubuntu. This is the screen with the prompt where you can type commands.
Type "sudo apt-get install Gparted." Type in your root password and answer "Yes" to any prompts.

Type "sudo GParted." This will open GParted.Click the GParted menu and select "Devices." Select your external hard drive from the list. It is important that you choose your external hard drive and not the drive that has your system installed on it. One way to ensure this is to check the capacity on this drive; for example, if your internal disk is 80 GB and your external disk is 40 GB, choose the disk that is 40 GB.Click the "Devices" menu and click "Create Partition Table." Click "Advanced." From the New Partition Table menu, choose an option, depending on your system. For example, if you are dual booting Windows and Ubuntu, you may want to choose MS-DOS. If you are only running Ubuntu, choose GPT.Create a partition. Select a section of unused space and click "New."Set up your partition. For partition size, set the size of your partition--for most purposes, you can make the partition the entire capacity of the disk. Next, choose a partition type; primary is suitable for most purposes. Next, choose a file system. For sharing across a Windows system, use Fat32. For sharing with an Apple system, use HFS or HFS+. For use with an Ubuntu system only, use EXT2, EXT3 or EXT4.Click "Apply." The operations will run and your hard disk will be ready to use.

If there are files on the drive that you need to recover, then do not format it. It sounds as though the computer that you put the drive into has an issue where the bios perhaps does recognize the drive correctly. Perhaps that can be corrected by updating the bios in the computer, and trying the drive again. Or you may want to put it back into the original computer, back up the files to other media, and then put the drive in the computer and re-partition.

What does the FDISK - "DISPLAY PARTITION INFORMATION" utility report? Do you have a copy of FDISK? If the partitoins in FDISK add up correctly, then it could just be that the data is corrupt, and windows is just unable to read. If that's the case, you should try a recovery application to restore your data..

If the bios does not see it at anything bigger than 9MB then the system will not do anything more than that. Did you install the drive on the same cable as your primary drive? If so make sure that the jumpers are correct. Try puting the drive on the secondary cable with nothing else on the cable. If you do have it on the secondary cable Im going to guess that you have a CD rom or DVD rom on the cable. You might try puting the jumpers on cable select for both devices remembering that the one on the end of the cable will normally end up being the master. Try just working with the secondary cable so that you dont have any issues with drive conflicts with the Primary master drive. Once you see the full drive amount in the bios then you can format the new slave. Fat 32 is the flie system of choice for Win ME so try the newer file system after you see the full drive size in the bios. I use a program called casper XP but you can get a free program from most drive manufacturers. I like the Western Digital Lifeguard program. Its easy to use and works on almost any drive. Hope this helps... Dale

see after teh utility named Partition Magic, It will solve these typoe of errors. Another cheap option is to try to format it with a vintage computes BIOS, HDD Formattion option, Not available in newer BIOS.
Tyr aldo Fdisk /mbr in the DOS PROMPT , booting with D.O.S. Ver. 6.0 Anyone remember this Operating system?
And the last option is to format the drive undel LINUX and thern get it back to Windows XP.

This is caused by :-
1. Your hard disk has failed.
2. Your BIOS settings for the hard drive has been altered
3. Your hard drive has been wiped or someone or a virus program that has deleted critical files.

Go into your BIOS setup to check the hard disk settings, if possible see if it will auto detect the hard drive.

Also boot up with a DOS disk run FDISK to see if you can detect a hard disk, partitions etc.

If the hard disk appears OK you may be able to do a disk repair, most likely you would need to re-install the operating system and the laptop drivers for video, audio, LAN, modem etc.

Basic Troubleshooting Tips after Installing a New Hard DriveBased on Seagate IDE hard drives.

If you have installed your drive and it does not function properly, perform the following basic checks:

Additional Troubleshooting Tips

If you have performed the preceding basic checks but the problem persists, follow these guidelines for troubleshooting specific cases: 
After you install your new drive, your computer will not boot, and no error message appears on the screen.
The screen remains blank when you power up the system. 
The system does not recognize the drive. 
The dealer partitioned and formatted the drive for you in the store, but the drive does not respond when you install it. 
The system hangs in FDISK or fails to create or save the partition record. 
The system error message, "Drive not Ready," appears. 
The FDISK error message, "No Fixed Disk Present," appears. 
The drive does not format to full capacity. 
The DOS message "Disk Boot Failure," "Non-System Disk" or "No ROM Basic - SYSTEM HALTED" appears. 
The system error message, "HDD controller failure" appears. 
After you install your new drive, your computer will not boot, and no error message appears on the screen.

Check your computer manual or BIOS manufacturer to determine whether your BIOS supports drives that have more than 4,092 cylinders. If your system has this limitation, use the following procedure to configure your computer:

Turn off your computer, open the case, and remove your new drive.

CAUTION: To avoid electrostatic discharge damage to your computer or hard drive, make sure you are well grounded before touching the drive, cable, connector or jumpers.

Move the jumper on the alternate-capacity jumper, as shown in Figure 6. This causes the drive to appear to your BIOS as having a 2.1-Gbyte capacity (4,092 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track). You may need third-party partitioning software, such as Disk Manager, to achieve full capacity of the drive. 
Remount your drive in the computer and replace the computer cover. 
Insert a bootable system diskette into drive A and turn on the computer. It should boot from drive A and automatically detect the new drive as a 2.1 -Gbyte drive. 
Insert your DiscWizard diskette into drive A and type A:XDM. Then press ENTER. This runs the Disk Manager program. 
Follow the Disk Manager instructions to install the dynamic drive overlay and to partition and format your new drive to its full capacity. 
After Disk Manager is done, reboot your system. You should see the Disk Manager banner and be able to access the full capacity of your new drive. 

The screen remains blank when you power up the system. 
If the steps listed above do not remedy this problem, try the following: 
Make sure the monitor is plugged in and turned on. 
Check all cards. 
Make sure the video card is seated in its slot and secured with mounting screws. 
Turn off the computer and remove the drive host adapter. If the screen turns on after you reboot, the host adapter may be incompatible or defective. If so, see your dealer. 

The system does not recognize the drive. 
Check all cables. 
Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs. 
Reboot the computer and listen to make sure the drive motor starts up. If the drive is very quiet, it may be difficult to hear its discs reach operating speed. If the drive motor does not start up, recheck all drive cables. 
Verify that for each drive, a drive-type is listed in the system setup program. 
Try rebooting your computer by pressing the CTRL, ALT and DELETE keys simultaneously. If the drive is recognized after you reboot the system, the computer BIOS test may be completing before the drive is ready. 
One solution is to slow the processor speed during startup. If your computer has a turbo switch, set it to slow speed before turning the computer on. If there is no turbo switch, you may be able to use keyboard commands; see your computer manual for details. After the computer is up and running, return the processor to the fast speed. 
Another solution is to warm-boot your computer after every power-on. 
Check for I/O address conflicts. To isolate the conflict, verify that the drive and host adapter are compatible with your computer. Turn off the computer and remove all the peripheral adapter cards except for the video card and host adapter. If the computer recognizes the drive when you reboot the computer, turn off the computer. Reinstall the other peripheral cards, one at a time, until the conflict reoccurs. After you have isolated the source of the address conflict, you can resolve the conflict by changing the 1/0 address of the peripheral that appears to cause the conflict. 
If Disk Manager has installed the DDO on your hard drive and you have booted directly from a diskette, the information in the boot record for the drive may not have been loaded. Make sure there is no diskette in drive A and reboot. If you want to boot from the diskette, follow the "Booting with a Diskette" instructions under "Advanced Disk Manager Options" on page 20. 

The dealer partitioned and formatted the drive for you in the store, but the drive does not respond when you install it. 
Reboot the computer and make sure the drive spins up. 
Check all cables. 
Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs. 
Make sure the DOS or Windows version the dealer used to partition and format the drive is the same version you have installed in your computer. If it isn't, see your dealer. 
Verify the drive-type values in the system setup program. You must install the drive using the same drive-type values your dealer used to partition the drive. 
Check for 1/0 address conflicts between peripheral cards. 
Check for viruses. 

The system hangs in FDISK or fails to create or save the partition record. 
Check all cables. 
Your setup system diskette may be corrupted. Try using a backup diskette. 
Make the partitions smaller. 
Change the interrupt jumper setting on the host adapter. 
Some BIOS have a Track 0 protection feature that protects Track 0 from viruses. This may cause FDISK to hang the system. You must disable this feature in the system setup program before you can use FDISK. See your computer reference guide for assistance. Be sure to re-enable this important feature when FDISK is done. 

The system error message, "Drive not Ready," appears. 
Check all cable connections. Make sure pin 1 of the drive is connected to pin 1 of the hard-disc controller or host adapter. 
Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs. 
Reboot the computer and make sure the drive spins up. 

The FDISK error message, "No Fixed Disk Present," appears. 
Make sure the power supply is adequate for system needs. 
Verify the drive-type values in the system setup program. 
Check for 1/0 address conflicts. 

The drive does not format to full capacity. 
Verify the drive-type values in the system setup program. One of the following problems may have occurred: 
The values may be set with an incorrect translation characteristic. 
You may have entered a parameter value that exceeds the physical capacity of the drive. 
You entered a translation characteristic that does not take full advantage of the drive's capacity. 
The drive's physical specifications exceed the translation limits imposed by the BIOS.

CAUTION: If you change the drive-type values in the system setup program, you must partition and format the drive again. This erases data on the drive. 

If you have partitioned the drive into individual logical drives, you may need to make the partitions smaller to access the full drive capacity. 
If your computer supports LBA mode, you may need to enable LBA mode in the system setup program to access the full capacity of the drive. Refer to your computer's reference guide to find out how to enable LBA. 
Your computer may not support drives that have more than 4,092 cylinders. Follow the instructions on page 25 for After you install your new drive, your computer will not boot, and no error message appears on the screen. 

The DOS message "Disk Boot Failure," "Non-System Disk" or "No ROM Basic - SYSTEM HALTED" appears. 
Reinstall the DOS system files using the DOS SYS utility. 
Check all cables. 
Use FDISK to verify that the primary partition is active. 
Check for viruses. 

The system error message, "HDD controller failure" appears. 
Confirm the jumper settings on the drive. 
Verify the drive-type settings in the system setup program.
If a problem persists, please search for a solution or post a question in our tech support forum in our Help Desk.

Some of the following answer assumes a windows operating or possibly DOS based operating system. If your original OS was not Windows or DOS -- there may be different considerations.

1) Did you lose the contents of both partitions?
That depends were they soft or hard partitions.
Soft partitions are created as files inside of other partitions
If that is what you had allocated in the formatted partition
you have lost their data content.
Hard or physical partitions allocated using FDISK and some other utilities the second partition would still exist.

2) Where are/were your system files. Often but not always they appear as the first partition of the master drive on the primary IDE controller all assuming a PC (based on the master slave comments you have indicated.) (sometimes the second when diagnostics are loaded on the first partition)

a) if the partition on the drive you formated contained the system files yes they must be installed to access anything on the disk for the most part. A significant exception may be utilization of a DOS boot diskette might permit DOS access to the other partitions if they are formatted with the FAT file system.

NTFS partitions and possibly FAT32 partitions may not be accessible to all versions of DOS -- there may be some bootable CD's that would allow access to NTFS partitions without installing an operating system.

Question back from the DOS and older version of windows days and even some more modern operating systens in subsequent actions with the disk did you use FDISK or another utility to rewrite the boot blocks to point to a different partition?

Question this was not a dual boot machine was it?-- if so disregard anything that follows.

Question did the machine boot after formatting the partition and before you started moving the drives around? If so the operating system is probably on a drive you have removed from the machine. It needs to be replaced onto the same cable position it was originally located upon -- probably on the Primary IDE cable master position or jumper setting.

If not reinstallation of the operating to the formatted partition is probably the correct next step. Be careful in doing this because if you choose one of the other partitions that were not formatted it could wipe out the data in them based on the installation process chosen.

What system is the laptop? File differences is the ext-hard drive FAT32 or DOS? Therefore XP [NTFS] is not 'seeing' its content. On the XP machine go to start/Control Panel/Admin tools/computer management/storage/removable storage/and check the file type