Unrecognized Partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter M F
  • Start date Start date
M

M F

I have installed an 80 gig hard drive as drive :E. However, in My
Computer it is listed as a 38 gig drive. I am assuming that it is
partitioned into two drives and only one is active. How do I get the
other half active?
 
You can't assume that the drive if new was partitioned unless you
did it yourself. You may be having trouble with your
System recognizing more than 132G. If you havent installed SP1
Update that might help.
 
Possibiltties and fixes include:

1. It has unpartitioned space, or non-windows space (like
LINUX). If so, use the XP disk management tool to either
create a new partition (if free space) or remove partition
and then recreate/reformat if non-windows.

2. It has one partition of 80 Gig, but yur motherboard's
BIOS is too old to use more than 32Gig, and the 38Gig you
mentioned is merely one type of flakines that can occur.
If so, look for a BIOS update to fix this problem. If no
BIOS update, think about an ATA/100 PCI adapter card and
hook the disk to that.

3. Drive is really 40 Gig, which rounds out to about 38
Gig depending on whether the definition of your Gig is
octal or decimal based.

4. In any event, consider using a more fundamental tool
than XP to examine the disk to see what is really there
(assuming no BIOS limitation). I like SeaTools by
Seagate, a free download. But, there are other similar
tools for free on the web.
 
One more thought, the rest of the space could be in a
hidden partition. FDISK, GDISK, or partition magic should
be able to see whether there is one of those. Again, if a
BIOS limitation, you must fix that first before any
software can help you.
 
I have installed an 80 gig hard drive as drive :E. However, in My
Computer it is listed as a 38 gig drive. I am assuming that it is
partitioned into two drives and only one is active. How do I get the
other half active?
Click to expand...

Seatools tells me that it is indeed a 80 Gig drive, that partition one
is "unused or unrecognized" but doesn't tell me how to correct the
problem. Any further suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks
 
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