Amanda said:
Hi, I had a hard drive crash on a computer running XP SP2. This was an old
drive, less than 137GB. The new drive is 320 GB. My windows XP CD is an
older
one, does not incorporate SP1. When I set up the new drive and installed
windows on it, I thought the Western Digital instructions were telling me
to
let windows format the drive so I did that, then installed XP to the new
drive. I then upgraded to SP 2 with windows update after it finished
installing windows. SO of course it only shows 127 gb. So far I have done
this:
1-upgraded to SP2
2-downloaded and installed an Intel utility to enable the 48 pin support
on
the motherboard and verified it had put the right drivers in for the
controller.
3-I found a windows KB article that described installing SP 1 as the fix,
but what am I supposed to do AFTER getting SP 1 or higher, reformat? That
doesn't make sense.
I want to know how to get windows to recognize the larger drive, without
reformatting the drive.......if I reformat I no longer have SP2 to do a
fresh
installation.
Thanks
Amanda
Amanda...
There are two basic requirements for the Windows XP OS (operating system) to
recognize the full
capacity of large-capacity hard drives (HDD), i.e., drives having a capacity
greater than 137 GB...
1. Your mainboard's (motherboard) BIOS must support large-capacity disks,
and,
2. The XP operating system must contain SP1 and/or SP2, and/or SP3 at the
time the large-capacity HDD is installed.
1. Assuming your mainboard's BIOS supports large-capacity disks, i.e., hard
drives greater than 137 GB, the Windows XP OS that does *not* include either
SP1 or SP2 or SP3 at the time the large-capacity HDD is installed will
recognize *only* a maximum capacity of 137 GB (actually 137 billion bytes
which translates into approx. 127GB/128 GB). Should the disk have a greater
capacity, the remaining disk space will *not* be recognized by the XP
operating system. If, on the other hand, the XP OS installation disk
contained SP1 or SP2 or SP3 at the time of the OS installation, then the
full capacity of the HDD would be recognized.
2. Keep in mind that in any event, your mainboard's BIOS *must* support
large-capacity disks. If it does not, then installing SP1 or SP2 or SP3 will
*not*, in and of itself, provide this support. Virtually all mainboards
manufactured over the past six years or so support large-capacity disks. If
the mainboard is an older one frequently a BIOS upgrade to provide
large-capacity disk capability is available from the mainboard's
manufacturer.
3. We'll assume your mainboard supports large-capacity disks...
If, as you indicate, you installed an XP OS that did *not* include SP1
and/or SP2 and/or SP3 at the time your 320 GB HDD was installed, the system
recognized only up to 137 GB of that HDD. (In your case that actual disk
space recognized was 127 GB). The remaining disk space contained on that HDD
became invisible to the OS.
When you later installed SP2 (and hopefully you will be installing SP3 at
some later date) the OS now recognized the full capacity of that 320 GB HDD,
i.e., about 298 GB in binary terms. However, the remaining disk space of
approx. 171 GB would be considered "unallocated space" -- disk space that
you can subsequently partition/format using XP's Disk Management utility
(Start | right-click My Computer | Manage | Disk Management). However, note
that this will be a second partition on the disk. Assuming you can live with
a two-partitions HDD - the first partition of 127 GB; the second partition
171 GB, fine. Or you could use the Disk Management utility to manipulate the
size of partitions you would want to create of that "unallocated space"
assuming you would desire to create more than one partition out of that 171
GB disk space.
If, on the other hand that be unacceptable to you, i.e., having two
partitions on your HDD or you would wish to change the partition size of
each partition (including the original 127 GB partition), there are two
basic ways you could accomplish this...
1. After installing the XP OS with your original installation CD and then
installing SP2, you could download/install the EASEUS Partition Manager
program (it's a freebie). That program will allow you to merge the two
partitions into one or manipulate the size of each partition should you
desire more than one partition on your HDD. The program is quite simple to
use and you should consider it. See...
http://www.partition-tool.com/
2. Another better option would be to create an XP OS installation CD
containing SP2 (or SP3) through what's known as the "slipstream" process.
Basically you would be combining SP2 (or SP3) into your current XP OS
installation CD that presently does not contain a SP. In so doing you would
be creating another CD. So you would use that "slipstreamed" installation
CD to install the XP OS onto your 320 GB HDD thus recognizing the full
capacity of that disk and you could manipulate partitions as you will
assuming you would desire more than one partition on the drive.
A rather simple way to achieve this "slipstreaming" is to use the
Autostreamer program (also a freebie). Again, quite simple to use and most
effective.
Download AutoStreamer from:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Autostreamer.shtml
Download the SP2 file and save it to your Desktop or C:\ root directory.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
(Also consider downloading the SP3 file instead, or at a later date should
you prefer).
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en
Step-by-step instructions for using AutoStreamer can be found at
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/slipstream.htm
and,
http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/using_autostreamer/using_autostreamer.shtml
Anna
