Hey

Got my new pc all rigged up. One slight (but uhh.. important) problem though - it is recognizing my 400 gig hard drive as only being 127 gigs large. Is this because of the way I hooked it together (used the correct power supply cord and used a SATA L shaped connector to hook it into the SATA 1 slot on the motherboard, although another 4 pin slot stayed untouched). Any help appreciated. I will find the HD on newegg and edit it in momentarily...


here is the HD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148137

Are you using XP SP2? You should be.


http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...ng large hard drive&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=29&gl=ca

Some hard drives require you to install service pack 2 to get the hard drives full space capacity. I had exactly the same problem. My 160gb hard drive would only use 127gb. After service pack 2 was installed, i formatted and partioned it and now im using its full capacity.Hope i helped

So I need to reformat the entire HD for it to become 400 gigs?

OK, so I booted it with the OS cd. I deleted the old partition but it still only shows up at 131070 MB in the screen where I can choose to create a new partition.

Did you boot with the SP2 CD?

You don't have to reformat to get the disk space that was not seen after the initial partitioning. After installing SP2, you can resize your existing partition(s) to fill the free space or create more partitions there.

I do not have a SP2 CD sadly just a regular one, can I do it with it?

What Nodsu is saying is to continue with SP1, then add your chipset drivers and video drivers and ethernet drivers, then IMMEDIATELY download SP2 and then the Windows security updates and then put on your Antivirus and then, finally, change the partition.

I never partition other than full SO I won't try and offer assistance there. When you are ready, post again.

I have done just that and am currently running SP2 with all drivers on a 126 gig HD, not sure how to re-partition it though

Have a look here; I think this is what you want:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_05.htm

Thanks, great find, ill check out that program


Ack, sadly it seems the programs he mentions by name are all pay services. I am trying to avoid that if possible, if you happen to come across or if anyone knows of any reliable free programs that will resize partitions for me i'm all ears heh

Actually, you are in the IDEAL position to learn a new thing - Slipstreaming!!!!


You can create a Slipstreamed version of your SP1 CD with SP2 integrated that will then become your pride and joy and enable proper partitioning.


I did it so it can't be too hard!

http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm


http://www.maximumpc.com/article/How-To--Slipstream-your-XP-installation

The free partitioning tool would be gparted or qtparted available on the Knoppix CD for example.

Mind you, you need this advanced thing only if you actually want to enlarge your C: drive. You can just as well create a D: drive in the unused space with Windows tools.

Uhh.. I'd be fully willing to make a D drive, CCT I don't exactly understand what you are saying, but if possible I want to leave what I've done to the C drive alone if possible



This is going to sound even stupider but would trying to use the control panel to uninstall programs become confusing if they aren't installed into the C drive? I have avoided installing into my external to avoid confronting this lol

The uninstall works no matter where you install the programs as long as the drive letters and paths don't change.

This then is what you want I believe:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000

Ummmm.....Question....

For full capacity drive recognition, doesn't the BIOS need to be enabled for 48 bit LBA as well?

If the motherboard has SATA, it is new enough to have 48-bit LBA support.

Some S-ATA mobos DO have a LBA/Large (auto) bios setting (auto or disabled) -

AFAIK LBA/Large refers to hard drives over ~8GB in size, which is the size limit for the traditional CHS addressing. I would be very interested in being proved wrong of course..