Inspiron E1505 How to make a new hard drive work

Yeah, I came across that after

It looks like it's impossible to do

is my new hard drive ruined?

how difficult will it be to make brand new again

So if I throw the 150$ hard drive away and buy a new one can I just get a new OS to install on it or is media direct something that stays around.

....

Umm, I should probably just buy a new computer now?

There are some utilties that can restore the disc to full capacity:

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/hpa-issues.htm

As for using the drive, you either selectively clone (you'll need Acronis True Image or similar) or you do a clean, ground-up install.  You'll need a set of discs from Dell:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&l=en&s=gen&redirect=1

The low level formatting did not work

I formatted it regularly too after

Acronis doesn't see it at all.  So I couldn't use it again if I wanted to.

So for now, what can I do to get my hard drive back to new again.  I used all software suggested by the first link. 

Even if I get those discs it seems like this hard drive is already destroyed.

Do I really have to go and buy a new hard drive?

I used some low level formitting program, unfortuantely it is now only showing 73Gb instead of 320Gb

There's another program that maximizes the capacity but it won't work with anything connected through USB

I'm hoping I can clone it again without the direct media, pray that it works and then try that maximizing thing once it's running

are they working on a solution to this problem

it's terrible

I know it's way late, but there is nothing wrong with your Scorpio.  Go find "HDD Capacity Restore", and follow the instructions.  Specifically, when the program tell you that you need to power down the system, power it down.  Don't reboot.  I know we merge the two things many times, but it's an important distinction.

 I've restored my original size 4 times now, as I fight through this mess of cloning a drive.  I have managed to get to my 320GB Scorpio, but dang if I can really tell you why it finally worked.

My suspicion is that I started with a trial version of Acronis.  This might be the very thing that starts the woe.

Hey,

You're right

I wanted to come back and say how I fixed it after but my password was saved on my old hard drive and I did not have the interest in getting my password again. 

I actually fixed it not too long after, probably in may.

The HDD capacity restore will work, and it will work incredibly fast and easily.  The difficulty in my case is that it will only work if the drive is connected but not in use.

I have two desktops but they are both IDE.  Nobody in a 30+ mile radius I could find sells these (not a lot of good computer stores anymore).  I found this on ebay and it was only 5$ with free shipping.  It was just a conversion part that lets you connect SATA drives to IDE.  I have a desktop i literally found in the trash next to my work, (nothing great).  I just unplugged the CD drive and used that to connect the drive.  I installed and ran the HDD capacity restore on the desktop's main drive  and instantly I had all the space back.  Then I just put it back in my laptop and went to the disk management and formatted the newly acquired space.

Kind of annoying I suppose, but good to know the solution.  The HDD capacity restore will not run on a drive in use or via usb.  It says that and that's just how it is.  It's free and does a great job under the required set up.

I'm very happy with the drive now.  Was frustrated before.  I knew RAM made my computer faster but I never knew having a better hard drive would make such a difference.  It boots up so fast and never seems to get bogged down having too many applications packed on it.

In my case it is not from Acronis.

I have XP media center edition with a media direct button.  You can not clone this or you end up with my troubles.  You need to have the reinstallation discs sent to you.  It is free and it is overnight.  This media direct/media center is almost like a separate OS and needs to be installed first before anything else, like the XP OS.  I wish I knew that in advance but I learned quite a bit from all this.

Here is my question if i install a new drive in the Dell e1505 why do I need to reinstall media direct ?  there is other software to play media files and dvd's I explored the Dell Winxp reinstallation  I see nothing to suggesting that this disk is nothing more that a reinstall winxp SP3 CD. So why worry about the media direct I am not going to clone the old drive, I have my own cloning software, all the problems I have read is others trying to cone the original drive which I am not going to do.

Dave

I wanted to add this info :)

http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html

Here is a cloning software I been using it is self booting :)  and not through windows I back up all my PC with this even Ubuntu EXT3