additional hard drive (ide) could not get full capacity

You don't have to install anything.

Hit start, run "compmgmt.msc" goto storage then discmanagement. right click on the drive and "import" it.

That should do.

If your running windows xp you must have sp1 or sp2 installed to see the full capacity of the drive. If you have that then right click on my computer and select mange goto the new hard drive and then format it/ partition it to your desire.

First thing to do is install Service Pack 2 (or SP1 if you can still find it and don't want SP2). Then right click on "My Computer", choose "Manage", go to disk management, and set up a full sized partition on the drive.

If you can't install a full-sized partition on the drive, you likely need to update your motherboard BIOS.

I had this exact same problem when I bought my 300 Gb SATA, what I ended up learning was that there was a driver that it first needed which was on a floppy that came with my motherboard, the first time without the driver XP Pro would only recognize it as a 130 Gb hard drive but after i loaded the additional drivers from the floppy it recognized it formatted as about 280 Gb. If you have a floppy great but if you don't then go to the motherboard manufacturer's web site on another computer and download the drivers then write them onto a floppy to use.