Reset disk geometry in MBR not working

[dpr99]

I have a old Maxtor 120 GB disk that I am trying to use. Somehow, I've managed to set the disk size to be 10MB. This means the largest partition I can create is 9MB and not very useful! I think I can use TestDisk to change the disk size in the MBR. The number of cylinders is showing as 1. (heads are 16, 63 sectors per track and 512 sector size). I've tried changing it to 12,000 and the size increases to 98 GB. I write the mbr and then shutdown the pc and reboot. The size of the disk is unchanged - still 10mb.

I'm on Windows 10, 64 Bit. I have tried the disk connected on an IDE port and also on usb via an adapter. I've tried version 7.2 and 7.0.
Should this work? Am I misunderstanding how to fix the problem?
Thanks for any help and advice
dpr

Here's the log file from 7.2:
(disks 6,7,8 and 9 are removable memory card drives)

Tue Jul 11 10:00:32 2023
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 7.2-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, February 2023
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Windows 8 (9200)
Compiler: GCC 11.2, Cygwin 3001.4
ext2fs lib: 1.45.3, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: 20140608, curses lib: ncurses 6.1
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive0)=500107862016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive1)=500107862016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive2)=500107862016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive3)=750156374016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive4)=500107862016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive5)=1500301910016
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive6) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive6) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive6
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive7) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive7) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive7
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive8) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive8) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive8
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive9) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive9) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive9
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive10)=10240000
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\C:)=107374182400
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\D:)=1500299265024
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\E:)=500096991744
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\F:)=500096991744
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\G:)=500096991744
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\H:)=500096991744
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\I:)=85899345920
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\L:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\L:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\M:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\M:
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\N:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\N:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\N:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\P:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\P:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\Q:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\Q:
Hard disk list
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive0 - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63, sector size=512 - ST3500630AS, S/N:6QG1FVNJ, FW:3.AAK
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63, sector size=512 - ST3500630AS, S/N:5QG0XNSC, FW:3.AAK
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive2 - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63, sector size=512 - ST3500630AS, S/N:5QG0WKN6, FW:3.AAE
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive3 - 750 GB / 698 GiB - CHS 91201 255 63, sector size=512 - SAMSUNG HD753LJ, S/N:S13UJ1MPC12571, FW:1AA01107
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive4 - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63, sector size=512 - ST3500630AS, S/N:6QG1FZRT, FW:3.AAK
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive5 - 1500 GB / 1397 GiB - CHS 182401 255 63, sector size=512 - ST31500541AS, S/N:6XW04SNE, FW:CC32
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive10 - 10240 KB / 10000 KiB - CHS 1 255 63, sector size=512 - Maxtor 6 Y120P0, S/N:9321638E2222, FW:1BW0

Partition table type (auto): Intel
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive10 - 10240 KB / 10000 KiB - Maxtor 6 Y120P0
Partition table type: Intel
New geometry
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive10 - 98 GB / 91 GiB - CHS 12000 255 63 sector_size=512
A new copy of MBR code has been written.
You have to reboot for the change to take effect.

TestDisk exited normally.

[recuperation]

I have a old Maxtor 120 GB disk that I am trying to use. Somehow, I've managed to set the disk size to be 10MB.

What did you do exactly?

This means the largest partition I can create is 9MB and not very useful! I think I can use TestDisk to change the disk size in the MBR. The number of cylinders is showing as 1. (heads are 16, 63 sectors per track and 512 sector size). I've tried changing it to 12,000 and the size increases to 98 GB. I write the mbr and then shutdown the pc and reboot. The size of the disk is unchanged - still 10mb.

I'm on Windows 10, 64 Bit. I have tried the disk connected on an IDE port and also on usb via an adapter. I've tried version 7.2 and 7.0.
Should this work?

If your mainboard has an IDE port it might provide you with settings to change the drive geometry. This is about geometry translation and does not affect the available total size of the disk.

Am I misunderstanding how to fix the problem?

Maybe you are trying to correct a physical error with your disk in software. Hopefully your IDE port is connected directly to your mainboard.
If so, go in there and take a picture of your Maxtor disk being listed in your BIOS und upload the picture using the attachment tab on the bottom of this page. Try to deliver a perfectly centered picture not wasting any image space !!!

[dpr99]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

dpr99 wrote: ↑11 Jul 2023, 12:04
I have a old Maxtor 120 GB disk that I am trying to use. Somehow, I've managed to set the disk size to be 10MB.
What did you do exactly?

This disk was used in a Tivo DVR a few years ago, so had the Tivo filesystem on it. I put it in my windows PC and used the 'Disk Management' utility to try to create a new partition for windows...

This means the largest partition I can create is 9MB and not very useful! I think I can use TestDisk to change the disk size in the MBR. The number of cylinders is showing as 1. (heads are 16, 63 sectors per track and 512 sector size). I've tried changing it to 12,000 and the size increases to 98 GB. I write the mbr and then shutdown the pc and reboot. The size of the disk is unchanged - still 10mb.

I'm on Windows 10, 64 Bit. I have tried the disk connected on an IDE port and also on usb via an adapter. I've tried version 7.2 and 7.0.
Should this work?
If your mainboard has an IDE port it might provide you with settings to change the drive geometry. This is about geometry translation and does not affect the available total size of the disk.

I tried to do this on both this PC and another old one. None of them has a way to display the disk geometry in the bios. But, I did find an identical model disk. I put that in my PC and ran TestDisk on that. It reported that disk:

#1689193120 Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive10 - 122 GB / 114 GiB - CHS 14946 255 63
1 : start= 63, size= 39375252, Id=0C, *
2 : start= 39375315, size=200732175, Id=0F, E
5 : start= 39375378, size=118768482, Id=07, L
6 : start=158143860, size= 81963630, Id=05, X
6 : start=158143923, size= 81963567, Id=0B, L

The other disk is still 10mb. There's no data on it that I care about. If I assume its in good condition and doesn't have any physical errors. How can I reset it with the geometry from the other disk - the number of cylinders?