Well I did some checking ... I took out the 80G data drive in this machine and connected to the other machine and the bios saw the whole 80G ... and the machine bios I'm running now ...when I put in the IBM drive shows 2.1 G ... so it's the drive. I have no idea why it is doing it ... but it is ... when I did the check with the WD it saw both the 20G and the 2.! G ... really weird ... When I removed the data before formatting it showed 18G ... so I don't get it ... all I know is ...I have to use another hard drive.
PROBLEM AS SOLVED AS IT'S GOING TO GET ... NEW HHD NEEDED
Try doing a low level format, make sure all the partitions have been deleted properly. Get some drive diagnostics utility from the drive manufacturer to make sure everything is clear as far as the partitions and to do the low level format. If you still have trouble you might be able to use a drive overlay to force your computer to see the full size. Really though, if you do a low level format and your cmos is up to date with the correct version, it should detect OK.
BIOS won't Change Max HHD Capacity!
in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP
Posted · Edited by dren
Try doing a low level format, make sure all the partitions have been deleted properly. Get some drive diagnostics utility from the drive manufacturer to make sure everything is clear as far as the partitions and to do the low level format. If you still have trouble you might be able to use a drive overlay to force your computer to see the full size. Really though, if you do a low level format and your cmos is up to date with the correct version, it should detect OK.