Q: Problem -- Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Desktop (m/n 6Y060L0)

Hi.

I have a recurrent problem with the above-mentioned hard disk.

In its infinite wisdom (not!!), Maxtor decided to maxe the maximum LBA
changeable by software, albeit a CLJ (Capacity Limit Jumper) is
already present in the design!

Problem is that for an unknown and unforeseeable reason, HD reverts to
32 GB (max LBA 66,055,248) instead of the "real" max LBA which should
be -- and remain at -- 120,103,200.

Naturally, I can run MaxBlast and reset it, but this is extermely
annoying, not to mention damageable to the partitions in the 33-60 GB
area of the disk. Don't even get me start on the partition table!
(which I've had to rebuilt a couple of times)

Can anyone suggest a permanent fix?

Personally, I wouldn't mind takin my welding gun out of the closet if
I knew exactly what trace(s) to burn/undo. But as it's unlikely
anyone would have this info, I would settle for a software workaround:

As this PC is up 24/7, a boot-time solution would not be useful. I was
thinking more of a service (PC runs XP) that periodically checks what
the current max LBA is, and rewrites it to the drive as soon as it
reverts back to 32 GB.

Anyone can help me with that?


Thanks in advance.

M.T.

(ps: to reply via email, replace the 5's with 6's)