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Topic: Size of external HD appears wrong on gparted

My external disk is suppose to be 500 GB but it appears as 1TB.

I have gparted 0.18 on Linux Mint 17

Here is  some output (the problem occurs with dev/sdb):

https://s23.postimg.org/4evmjdjpn/Screenshot_2.png

$ sudo fdisk -l -u

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xdab8e457

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048  1953521663   976759808    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

================================================
$ sudo parted /dev/sdb unit s print

Model: HGST HTS 541010A9E680 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1953525168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start  End          Size         Type     File system  Flags
1      2048s  1953521663s  1953519616s  primary  ntfs

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Re: Size of external HD appears wrong on gparted

Are you sure that /dev/sdb is the hard drive in question?
Next, I would advice to check the latest (actual) GParted version.  0.18 is quite old (almost 3 years old).

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

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Re: Size of external HD appears wrong on gparted

Thank you for your reply class413.
I am positive this the hard drive in question.
Unfortunately I can't get a newer version of GParted because my system is trusty 14.04 and 0.18 is the newest package available.

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Re: Size of external HD appears wrong on gparted

Thank you for your reply class413.

I am positive this is the hard drive in question. It is an external one connected with usb. My other hard drive (SATA) with the linux installation is estimated correctly by GParted.

So now I 'm thinking maybe this is not a problem of gparted and it might be that the HD is corrupted or something.
I wonder if the problem was caused by the format I did, because originally the problematic HD had a windows installation and it was connected by SATA in a laptop (was the original HD I got with the laptop) but then I decided to use it as an external usb disk and I formated it in windows with diskpart.

Unfortunately I can't get a newer version of GParted because my system is trusty 14.04 and 0.18 is the newest package available.

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Re: Size of external HD appears wrong on gparted

However you can use GParted live, from a bootable cd or usb stick. You can find details in this page of the main GParted site.  GParted live contains its own operating system.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

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Re: Size of external HD appears wrong on gparted

@nommoc
All the output from fdisk, parted and GParted is saying the drive is 1 TB in size.

Googling for your hard drive model HTS541010A9E680 finds the manufactures page which reports the drive as being available in sizes of 1 TB, 750 GB and 640 GB.  The "1010" bit in the middle of the model number means it's the 1 TB variant.
Manufactures page https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-driv … tar-5k1000

From the Data Sheet:

How to read the Travelstar model number
--------------------------------------------------------

HTS727575A9E364 = 750GB, SATA 3Gb/s
H  =  HGST
T  =  Travelstar
S = Standard (vs E for Enhanced Availability)
54 =   5400 RPM
10 = Full capacity - 1TB
10 = Capacity this model, (10 = 1TB, 75 = 750GB, 64 = 640GB)
A = Generation code
9 = 9.5mm z-height
E6 = SATA 6Gb/s with 512 emulation
8 = 8MB cache
0 = No encryption (1 = BDE, 5 = TCG Opal Encryption)

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Re: Size of external HD appears wrong on gparted

Hi mfleetwo and thank you very much for noticing! It appears you are right and I still cannot believe how I was so confused. I think it was appearing as 500 GB space on the windows laptop because of some other kind of partitioning and now that I fully formated it, the full space became apparent. In any case you cleared it up for me and thank you because I was going crazy with that HD. Sorry for the dummy problem I posted.