160gb Maxtor reading 136GB in BIOS & 127gb in XP home

  • Thread starter Thread starter mooky
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mooky

I have a 160 gig hard drive that reads 128 gigs in XP home and 136 in
the BIOS....I have 24.67 unallocated space on it....how can I merge it
with the 128 gigs and not lose any data? Also....I get a
kernel_data_inpage_error with atapi.sys at the bottom...I found a site
with a fix for it and it seems to work for a while, but it does it
again...also got a kernel_stack_inpage_error earlier...I read the
atapi.sys error had to do with the sp2 version of the file and to use
the sp1 version and install a hotfix, reboot, then install the sp1
version of the atapi.sys in 3 locations on the drive and apply a reg.
fix...I have read where it works for others and wonders why I have that
problem again after applying the fix...I have XP home 512mb(just put 2
new 256mb sticks in) and it's a p3 I've had a few years....I have a new
Maxtor 160gig hard drive that's no more that a cpl. years old I
think...maybe less than that, not sure at the moment....anyone have any
suggestions for my problems?
 
I have a 160 gig hard drive that reads 128 gigs in XP home when I click on drive c in my computer and 136 in
the BIOS....in disk manegment , the c: drive (drive 0)shows 152.66gb I have 24.67 unallocated space on it....how can I merge it
with the 128 gigs and not lose any data? Also....I get a
kernel_data_inpage_error with atapi.sys at the bottom...I found a site
with a fix for it and it seems to work for a while, but it does it
again...also got a kernel_stack_inpage_error earlier...I read the
atapi.sys error had to do with the sp2 version of the file and to use
the sp1 version and install a hotfix, reboot, then install the sp1
version of the atapi.sys in 3 locations on the drive and apply a reg.
fix...I have read where it works for others and wonders why I have that
problem again after applying the fix...I have XP home 512mb(just put 2
new 256mb sticks in) and it's a p3 I've had a few years....I have a new
Maxtor 160gig hard drive that's no more that a cpl. years old I
think...maybe less than that, not sure at the moment....anyone have any
suggestions for my problems?
Click to expand...
 
also....In disk manegment it shows the c: drive (drive 0) has 152.66
gigs...next to that says 128 gigs(healthy system) and 24.67
unallocated...
 
mooky said:
I have a 160 gig hard drive that reads 128 gigs in XP home and 136
in the BIOS....I have 24.67 unallocated space on it....how can I
merge it with the 128 gigs and not lose any data? Also....I get a
kernel_data_inpage_error with atapi.sys at the bottom...I found a
site with a fix for it and it seems to work for a while, but it
does it again...also got a kernel_stack_inpage_error earlier...I
read the atapi.sys error had to do with the sp2 version of the file
and to use the sp1 version and install a hotfix, reboot, then
install the sp1 version of the atapi.sys in 3 locations on the
drive and apply a reg. fix...I have read where it works for others
and wonders why I have that problem again after applying the
fix...I have XP home 512mb(just put 2 new 256mb sticks in) and it's
a p3 I've had a few years....I have a new Maxtor 160gig hard drive
that's no more that a cpl. years old I think...maybe less than
that, not sure at the moment....anyone have any suggestions for my
problems?
Click to expand...

Your hardware was not designed to handle hard drives above 128GB.
It's that simple.

Your hardware doesn't see it correctly - so other than a BIOS upgrade
(unlikely) or using a drive overlay application (from the hard drive
manufacturer - and not recommended) then you likely should either buy a PCI
controller card with its own BIOS or buy a smaller hard drive (120GB) or
upgrade the entire computer.
 
mooky said:
also....In disk manegment it shows the c: drive (drive 0) has 152.66
gigs...next to that says 128 gigs(healthy system) and 24.67
unallocated...
Click to expand...

That indicates that your computer is seeing the entire capacity of the
drive (drive manufacturers use decimal gigabytes (1 billion bytes) for
their capacity data but Windows uses binary gigabytes (2^30 bytes)
when reporting the drive data. So Windows will always report slightly
less total capacity than the manufacturer. In your instance, Windows
says 128 + 24.67 = 152.67 bnary gigabytes which is about right for a
160 decimal gigabyte drive.

What you can do at this point is to:

1. Use Disk Management (start - run - DISKMGMT.MSC) to create a new
partition using the 24.67 gb of unallocated space. This will have a
different drive letter but will be fully usable for saving files etc.
provided you use the correct drive letter designation when saving the
files.

or

2. Use a partitioning utility such as Partition Magic (Symantec) or
BootIt Next Generation (www.bootitng.com) to increase the size of the
existing partition so as to incorporate the unallocated space and use
the entire capacity of the drive. Note that partitioning work such
as this, while normally problem free, does present some degree of risk
and therefore you need to ensure that all important data etc. is
backed up before you proceed to make changes to the partition
structure.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
drive (drive manufacturers use decimal gigabytes (1 billion bytes) for
their capacity data but Windows uses binary gigabytes (2^30 bytes)
when reporting the drive data. So Windows will always report slightly
less total capacity than the manufacturer. In your instance, Windows
says 128 + 24.67 = 152.67 bnary gigabytes which is about right for a
160 decimal gigabyte drive.

What you can do at this point is to:

1. Use Disk Management (start - run - DISKMGMT.MSC) to create a new
partition using the 24.67 gb of unallocated space. This will have a
different drive letter but will be fully usable for saving files etc.
provided you use the correct drive letter designation when saving the
files.

or

2. Use a partitioning utility such as Partition Magic (Symantec) or
BootIt Next Generation (www.bootitng.com) to increase the size of the
existing partition so as to incorporate the unallocated space and use
the entire capacity of the drive. Note that partitioning work such
as this, while normally problem free, does present some degree of risk
and therefore you need to ensure that all important data etc. is
backed up before you proceed to make changes to the partition
structure.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Servicehttp://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the info...if I partition the 24.7 gigs, should I
make it a primary partition or extended partition?
 
Thanks everyone for the info...if I partition the 24.7 gigs, should I
make it a primary partition or extended partition?
Click to expand...

I would make it an extended partition. Multiple primaries can cause
confusion under some circumstances, although XP is pretty good in that
regard.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
are there any freeware programs to merge the unallocated space to the
128 gigs on the drive? on many sites I read to use partition magic, but
don't have the extra cash to spend...I am worried about losing data if
I do that though, but would like to know of any freeware programs that
do this..Also been having some hard drive corruption I guess because
I'm getting a kernel_stack_ipage_ error...I posted on g4tv.com's tech
forums and got this response a few moments ago....

It almost seems like you have a drive over 128GB in size (160GB) and
installed an unpatched copy of windows on it and it ran into the drive
limit and did a really crappy job of partitioning and format. What you
should have done was move the jumper on the drive to limit the drive
size
There are many cases where when a drive with over 128GB(Sometimes
referred to as the 137GB limit since 128 x 1024^3=137x 1000^3) was used
and non patched XP installed and then SP2 update was installed it
results in just the type of drive corruption you report.

He then went on to say backup data and then do a clean install with an
xp sp2 disk...I don't wanna go that route...only copy of xp I have is a
windows xp upgrade cd that I got when xp came out...
 
mooky said:
are there any freeware programs to merge the unallocated space to the
128 gigs on the drive? on many sites I read to use partition magic, but
don't have the extra cash to spend...I am worried about losing data if
I do that though, but would like to know of any freeware programs that
do this..Also been having some hard drive corruption I guess because
I'm getting a kernel_stack_ipage_ error...I posted on g4tv.com's tech
forums and got this response a few moments ago....
Click to expand...

BootItNG (www.bootitng.com) is not free but there is a fully
functional 30 day trial version that is quite adequate for a one-shot
job such as this.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
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