70 GB disc space disappeared after partitioning and formatting new 200 GB HDD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Per Magnus L?vold
  • Start date Start date
P

Per Magnus L?vold

Hi, all!
I just purchased a new HDD; a Seagate Barracuda 200GB.
I put it in my Shuttle barebone PC, and started installing Win XP on
it.
I created a new primary partition (NTFS) at 40 GB for the operating
system.
After installing XP, only the OS partition appeared. So I entered disk
manager tool, and created a new primary partition of the rest of the
space on the disc. In the disc manager tool this appeared as only
~87GB, but I hoped it would realize there was more space while
formatting or something, so I set it to format "the rest of the HDD
space".
But now it is all finished, and I only have about 130 GB HDD space(!).
Disc manager tool tells me that there is no space left on the HDD...

I couldn't find any posts on this subject (only one in chineese
letters). Anybody got an idea of what could be wrong?
Both partitions are defined as primary partitions, and formatted as
NTFS.

Hope someone can help me with this!

Regards, PML
 
The problem is most likely to be the motherboard BIOS - ones older than a year
or two often do not support more than 132 GB disk size. There is sometimes a
firmware download available that will fix this, if the board is not too old.

Check in the BIOS (before it boots Windows) for the disk size. If it does not
show the full size there, Windows will not see the full size, either.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013&Product=winxp

Cari (MS-MVP Windows Client - Printing, Imaging & Hardware)
www.coribright.com
 
The original Win XP came with a limit of 137GBs, updating with Service Pack
1 will fix that limit.
Also any bios more then 18 months old may not be able to see a hard drive
bigger then 137GBs
Updating your motherboard bios may fix that limit.
 
Thanks!
THe problem is fixed now. :-)

I beleive I've done most of the things suggested in this post exept
from updating the BIOS:
* I downloaded the service packs from windowsupdate
* Installed some new drivers for the mainboard (chipset drivers for
Shuttle mainboard)
After this, the disc manager discovered the extra space on my HDD! :-)
I removed the second partition I had created, and created a new one
for the rest of the HDD space.
So all is well now. Thanks a lot!

-P

Not Me said:
YOU MUST have SP1 or above [you should have SP2 by now] installed for XP
to recognize any size exceeding 137GB. Once you accomplish that, Maxtor
has a small free utility you can download named "Big Drive Enabler"
which will ensure that all the necessary registry changes are/have been
accomplished to recognize sizes above 137GB. You can get that
here:http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...tware Downloads/ATA Hard Drives&downloadID=11
Gene K
Hi, all!
I just purchased a new HDD; a Seagate Barracuda 200GB.
I put it in my Shuttle barebone PC, and started installing Win XP on
it.
I created a new primary partition (NTFS) at 40 GB for the operating
system.
After installing XP, only the OS partition appeared. So I entered disk
manager tool, and created a new primary partition of the rest of the
space on the disc. In the disc manager tool this appeared as only
~87GB, but I hoped it would realize there was more space while
formatting or something, so I set it to format "the rest of the HDD
space".
But now it is all finished, and I only have about 130 GB HDD space(!).
Disc manager tool tells me that there is no space left on the HDD...

I couldn't find any posts on this subject (only one in chineese
letters). Anybody got an idea of what could be wrong?
Both partitions are defined as primary partitions, and formatted as
NTFS.

Hope someone can help me with this!

Regards, PML
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