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Win XP Install- how to read all hard drive space

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pcarlson   02-20-2008 at 03:33:37 AM

I just did a fresh install of Win XP on a new system. I have a 500 GB SATA drive. I installed SP2 and SP3. I've enabled the 48 bit LBA. I am now stuck. What should I do? I don't want to buy a 3rd party app to get this read 500GB (nor should I have to). If I look in the Disk Management tool, I can see the space listed as 'free space.' I can't do anything with it though. It's been a while since I've cobbled a system together, so sorry if this is a bush-league question.

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Flakes   02-20-2008 at 02:34:56 PM
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im not quite sure what you mean if theres free space that means you can use it...

unless you mean the space that you loose during conversion of the Megabytes from the manufacter and the software?

HDD Manufacters say that 1MB = 1000Kbs
but software recognises that 1MB = 1024Kbs

so you loose 24kbs to every megabyte when you install an operating system.

hmm i might of just clicked there was a time when windows couldnt recognise a large HDD, but it shouldnt happen in XP. just make it a primary partition and format it using Disk Management if thats the case.


Message edited by Flakes on 02-20-2008 at 02:38:58 PM
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pcarlson   02-21-2008 at 06:22:34 PM
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My understanding is that Win XP prior to SP1 (which is what I have), did not support drives over 137GB. With advent of SP1 (or SP2), WinXP was able to support large drives by enabling 48 bit LBA. In my case, I started with WinXP, and it asked me if I wanted to format HD, but it only recognized the 137GB. I okay'd it, and figured I'd install up to SP3 to sort through the rest of the 363GB 'free space' once XP was up to date. The problem now is that the 'free space' is visible but totally unusable. There is no format option. If I attempt to use a 3rd party utility to format it, it doesn't see it. I know I'm not the only person who has encountered this, but I'm ready to throw in the towel and start fresh with Vista.

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sturm   02-21-2008 at 06:31:15 PM
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Looking under disk management, you can see the drive and the free space. Right click in the free space and make a partition. You can then format the partition. I run into the same problem with the origional xp disk. So far I have had no problems doing this.

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pcarlson   02-21-2008 at 06:50:44 PM
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I've tried this. It gives me the option of making a logical partition. Clicking through 'next' looks promising- size looks right, opportunity to format as NTFS, but it always errors out on me in the end. Is there something else to do aside from sp2, sp3 and ensuring that lba 48 is set properly?

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sturm   02-21-2008 at 06:57:07 PM
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you can try slipstreaming SP2 or maybe even SP3 into your origional xp install. This would enable xp to see all of your drive from the start.
If not this then I would try installing windows again. Install only sp2 and try the formatting again. If this still doesn't work maybe you have a bad drive in that area of the the disk. Might try formatting it on a different computer to check. Yea I know it would take a long time but at least you would know.

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pcarlson   02-21-2008 at 07:41:51 PM
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Slipstreaming? How would one go about doing this? I'm not familiar with this process. Is it an app or just a method?
Thx.

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Flakes   02-21-2008 at 08:23:14 PM
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if theres a bad sector on the disk a chkdsk would soon fix it.... anyway,
slipstreaming http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Win [...] ootcd.html

..

if i were you i would just download an illegal copy of WinXP then use your own WinXP key, therefore you wouldnt be doing anything wrong.

Reply to Flakes
roallin   04-22-2008 at 05:48:09 PM
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It is possible that your hard drive controller is the culprit. Check your motherboard manual to see if it supports large drives. If not, you will have to buy an add-in HDD controller with large disk support.


Message edited by roallin on 04-22-2008 at 05:49:24 PM
Reply to roallin
Zoron   04-23-2008 at 05:06:40 PM
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Or you will have to check to see if there is a BIOS udpate that will enable 48-bit LBA support... some motherboards do have that option.

------------------------------ Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314;
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