I'm sorry you had to wait this long for my answer, but my account "expired" and I couldn't log in with it anymore, so I had to make a new useraccount, which I did not want the previous time I tried to reply.

Hi, Last month I bought the same Western Digital WDC WD2500BEVE-00WZT0 "250GB drive" for my Dell Latitude D610.  I also have bios A06, Windows XP Professional and 2GB memory.

So we have basically the same system. This should rule out unknown factors in the equation.

All was well for a few weeks until one morning the notebook wouldn't start (black scren with flashing underscore cursor).  After some investigation and trying various ways to get it started it reported an MBR (Master Boot Record) error.  Hoping this was a one off I rebuilt the system from scratch and it worked OK until a few weeks later the same problem occurred. I've just returned the disk under warantee as suspected faulty and have received a replacement.

Questions: was I just unlucky that my new disk was faulty?

is there perhaps a problem with the disk size after all?  (I had mine partitioned as 220GB with a 12GB partition containing a ghost image so I could restore easily, the MBR problem meant this wouldn't work!)

Juamez, I'd be interested to know if your disk is still working.

Is a possible work around to partition the 250GB disk into several 100GB logical drives?

Are there any similar limits if I put the 250GB disk in a USB caddy (not my preferred solution)?

I hope I've been helpful.

Thanks for the reply, Juarmez.

Here's an answer I found in a review at Newegg for the WD2500BEVE drive.

Flashing cursor

Vaya. I wouldn't have guessed that word would be banned. Thanks for reposting.

Is there any risk to my current data if I add partitions to a hard drive? I've resisted making partitions because I wanted the paths on my drives to be similar, but I could create partitions on all of them.

Is there freeware that can safely do the partitions on an existing drive?

There is Ubuntu which is completely free and freely downloadable, and which has a quite good partition editor program called GPartEd (in full Gnome Partition Editor or something like that). Ubuntu loads right off the cd (LiveCD) while booting your computer, and once GPartEd is started, it can:

1. delete existing partitions: DELETES ALL THE DATA on said partition
2. make new partitions in unpartitioned space which can be formatted with a certain filesystem like NTFS or FAT32 to a usable partition
3. move existing partitions: for NTFS partitions of considerable size (several tens of gigabytes) this could take a while, like hours. KEEPS DATA INTACT (although there is a distinct chance that the operation will fail and render your data useless)
4. resize (shrink of grow) existing partitions: same story as with moving partitions, it should keep the data intact, but it sometimes fails to do so

Personally I have already shrunk and moved several NTFS partitions on at least three different computers in this way, and all turned out well. There is a chance things will fail, but I never encountered it. I saw some remarks on a forum though, so you are warned. A thumbrule in toying around with disk partitions is: always keep a backup of your data, always expect a worst case scenario. Be prepared!

Guides on how to do these operations explain all the necesary steps in a detailed manner, and are easily found on google.

I hope you are set to go with this information. If not, just ask away.

I didn't realize Ubuntu comes with partition tools, too. That's pretty impressive. The online guides make it look very easy.

How do you decide how much space to allot for the OS ( XP and Vista on different computers)?

Would you put all of your program files in that same partition with the OS?

By the way, I see that Western Digital now offers a 320GB Scorpio Blue PATA 2.5" drive, WD3200BEVE.

I wonder if it'd work as well as the 250gb?

It's listed on these pages:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Internal_Hard_Drives/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A2465446

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=599

Dell's price is about the same as everyone else's, except for shipping and tax.

I partitioned my 250GB WD harddisk into several partions:
- Primary partition (20GiB) for Windows and applications
- Extended (rest=213GiB) for  Ubuntu Linux and Data with these logical partitions:
  + Logical (2.5GiB) for linux swap
  + Logical (16.5GiB) for Ubuntu Linux
  + Logical (35GiB) for Games (installation directories)
  + Logical (159GiB) for Data (films, music, photo's, documents, iso's, etc)

I don't know about the compatibility of the new 320GB WD in this laptop, but I suppose if it has a parallel ATA interface and is built following the standards, it should work just fine, no? Just like this 250GB disk. 

Do you know if I can move the entire WinXP "Documents and Settings" folder over to a new partition, or perhaps my user folder "Art" that's just inside that folder?

I was hoping to move my email, favorites, desktop, and other files over but don't want to have to move them one by one.

By the way, I'm in the process of partitioning the drive and moving data over, so I'll know soon how well the 320GB drive works. So far so good.

I think I've succeeded in upgrading to a 320GB WD3200BEVE in my Dell XPS M140 laptop. My situation was more complex because I had to deal with MediaDirect2. Dell installed that in a maner that involved a hidden partition which limits hard disk size. If you do a normal image and restore or clone, that hidden partition will keep your drive at the old drive's non-hidden capacity. And if you do this not knowing about the problem (as I did), you'll have to wipe the drive before trying again. For 320GB that took about 30 hours! I was lucky; evidently some Seagates can't be fixed and have to be exchanged through the manufacturer.

I basically followed these instructions:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-178680.html The4Bs - June 28th, 2007, 01:02 AM Here's a suggestion, if you've got an external hard drive, that is simpler. But you will lose your Dell Restore, Dell Utilities, and MediaDirect. We also have a Dell Inspiron 6400 (Canadian version of the 1505) with MediaDirect. After going through many of the noted links in the past we came up with this method for disaster recovery, which seems to have found acceptance on this forum. It has worked for others too. Be warned: we've not actually done this yet but this is what I will do in the future when we move from our 100 GB hdd to 160 GB hdd. 1. Make an image (not a clone) of your of your entire original disk to an external hard drive. 2. Shut down and insert your new larger hard drive. 3. Boot from the TI CD and select Recovery 4. Restore only your c: partition - no other partitions nor the MBR & track 0. 5. Along the way you can select to resize the partition and you may have the option here to resize up to the full size. 6. When done reboot into Windows. TI will create a generic MBR with this process. You will lose all the extras mentioned above, which may or may not be an issue for you. If you can't get the full disk size back with this method, once you're done the restore you can activate the Acronis Secure Zone and then right away remove it again. When removing you can attach the remaining disk space to your c: partition.

I didn't see options to resize the drive. I had to use the Hitachi Feature Tool to resize the hard drive to its full capacity:

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool

So far, it seems to be working fine. I never use the Dell features I eliminated (Dell Restore, Dell Utilities, and MediaDirect), so it was a good solution for me.

After I got the new drive working, I partitioned it with GParted and followed these instructions to move my C:/Documents and Settings/USERNAME folder to a separate partition:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1409/move-your-documents-and-settings-username-profile-off-of-the-c-drive/

I'd add one more number to Step 2 (#0.) those instructions:

Step 2
0.  Create a new Admin User Account.  Log out or your User Account and Log into the new Admin User Account.
1. Now ....

Other helpful pages I used include:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=176163

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/supportfiles/gh_acronis_partition_resize.pdf

Hi folks,

I actually registered just to post in this thread.  First, thank you all for your help guidance on this matter.  I just upgraded the hard drive in a Latitude D610.  I thought that I'd tell you all how it went, just for the record.

This was a Latitude D610 (BIOS ver A06) with an 80 GB PATA HDD.  It had a recent clean install of XP Pro SP3 OEM.  I needed to upgrade the HDD to a 160 GB.  I purchased the 160 GB from an online vendor.  The new Seagate HDD model number was "ST9160821A SED." 

First, I took an image of the 80 GB using an Acronis boot disk.  I saved the image across the network onto separate PC.

Then, I physically replaced the 80 GB with 160 GB drive.  The silly thing that tripped me up was the adapter for the pins.  I'm not sure what you call it, but I've seen these enough times to know that I needed to move it from the old HDD pins to the new HDD pins.

Next, I booted again to the Acronis CD.  I used the restore function to place the image on the new 160 HDD which at that point was completely free of any partitions.  This created an ~80GB primary partition on the new drive matching the old one.  I also took note of the fact that it copied the master boot record.

Next, I rebooted to the hard drive.  Success!  Windows!

After saying a quick prayer of thanks, I checked Control Panel \ Adminstrative Tools \ Computer Management \ Disk Management.  I had the ~80GB primary partion and ~80GB of unallocated space.  At this point, I decided to stick with two partitions as I often do.  I created an extended parition and then a logical partition inside that, again ~80GB.  As I often do, I called C: System and D: Storage.

Now, this is for another end user.  He may ask me to delete D: and strech out C:.  If that happens, I'll let all you fine people know how it goes.

Lastly, that begs the question...what would have happend if I had tried to go for the full 160GB?  I would have done the following, but please note that this is hypothetical...

1) boot to Partition Magic (can't remember which version I have).
2) extend the ~80GB NTFS partition to full size (~160)
3) reboot
4) pray that Windows starts

In closing, thanks again to you all.  I hope this information adds to and doesn't detract from your discussion.

-jds / SDG

I also have a Latitude D610, 2GB RAM, 250GB HD WD2500BEVE, A06, XP Pro.

Everything also worked fine for a number of weeks and then the system would not boot.

As previously mentioned (and as expected) , the BIOS reported the drive as 137GB but Windows saw the entire 250GB drive.

The only known problem when using drives larger than 137GB is if the initial boot loader ever tries to read NTLDR (or some other initial OS files) from beyond the 137GB point. This is the only time that Windows relies on the BIOS I/O routines and the only time there is a risk of boot failure. If this initial boot never tries to reach beyond the 137GB wall, there should not be any issue.

That said, I would love to know why the system has failed to boot.

I believe that the problem can be corrected by reducing the boot partition below 137GB. I will try this using an Ubuntu Live-CD.

If anyone knows of a risk using Ubuntu to resize the partition (e.g. Ubuntu uses int13 I/O?) or whether this will be sufficient to restore Windows boot capability (e.g. once the blinking cursor appears, the O/S needs to be resinstalled?) I would love to hear about it.

Sorry to hear of the problem, Jacques. Please let us know how it works out after your resize the partition. If there is space, I think it'll work. I resized partitions in my transfer to a larger drive (but I used a different program). I've not had any trouble yet with my 320GB drive (knock on wood!), but I've not been using that computer regularly.

Well, You can put in any size disk but only use the first 131GB !

Windows let you make partitions as large as the disk is,

as it uses its own drivers. I used a 160GB and that worked for a year.

Then the disk went fuller ans fuller and there came mister

Microsoft with yet another update of one of the many programs

needed at boot time. Too bad, it ended up behind the magic

131GB barier and the _ (dash) was waiting and waiting.

Trowing things off (disk placed in a USB holder and access it with another computer)

and then making sure everything is below 131GB solved the problem.

SO, whatever G or M value you use, do NOT go over 131 (128) GB for the first partition

XP SP2 pro on Dell D610 and 600's

Gerard.

Using Ubuntu parted, shrunk partition under the 137GB barrier. Created new data only partition using rest of 250GB drive space.

The Ubuntu live CD has saved my life a couple of times now.

System now boots fine, because the boot process never needs anything past 137GB. Data reads fine beyond 137GB because it's always using the Windows drivers by that point.

I'd love to see Dell list these caveats somewhere in support, as most of the issues only arise long after the model is discontinued, but long before people stop using it. While these forums are useful to discover these issues, it would be more helpful to codify this information somewhere after it's deduced here.

Same thing with which models support which CPUs.

I had the same issue with a 160G hard drive in a D610, but I didn't get the "blinking cursor after BIOS screen" until after more than a year of using the hard drive. So if you have put in a > 137G HD in one of these machines, and it is working, you are living on borrowed time.

I also used an Ubuntu CD to boot from, and used its partition utility to shrink the main one down to 135G. This allowed windows to start, but it immediately blue screened, presumably because some system file was beyond the 137G border, and had been lost in the shrink. I guess I could have avoided that with a defrag before shrinking, oh well. I repaired/re-installed XP from the CD, and it worked out, nothing was lost.