unitedflow

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May 20, 2007
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i have a wd raptor installed with windows xp.so i installed xp i think i might of missed up it boots but says my drive is 127 which i though it was 150gb.so i go into disk management and my drives pop up.my main drive with file system on it which is the raptor says c:127 gigs with 11.78 unallocated.now i have no clue what this unallocated means.is there a way to add that 11.78 gigs to my 127 main gig space?i know i can partition that space but i would like that as one drive.any help would be cool thx!
 

g-paw

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Jan 31, 2006
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Formatting the unallocated space should make it usable but not sure how you'd add it to your current partition. I use a program call Partition Magic to handle hdd management like partitions. With Partition Magic you can just extend the drive into the unallocated space.
 

unitedflow

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May 20, 2007
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can you just do that when you install windows?and does a drive come like that new?i brought it from best buy new.plus when i reinstalled windows it seems my second drive is not showing up after install so i have to go into dish management and format that means i lose all my stuff.is there a way around that?
 

g-paw

Splendid
Jan 31, 2006
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I'm confused :oops: First, if do a clean install of Windows off the CD, i.e., format the hard drive, you will what ever is on it. As to the 2nd hdd, if it's PATA, make sure the jumpers are correct, if it's the only driver on the cable, sould be Cable Select and if 2 drives either Master or Slave depending on where it is on the cable. Also, go into the BIOS and make sure that if it set up to recognize the drive. DO NOT format it or you will lose what ever data is on it. As for the unallocated space, once the second drive it recognized back up everything to the 2nd drive and format the unallocated space
 

Thunderfox

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Sep 3, 2006
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Are these SATA or PATA interface drives? If they are the older PATA interface, you will need to set the jumpers correctly for both drives to appear. It is not necessary to reformat the old one, and there should be no reason to do so.

What version of XP are you using? The original version (no service packs) can't use drives larger than 137 gigs. If your install disc has no service packs built into it, you will have to create a slipstream install disc to format the drive to its full capacity when installing Windows.

If you don't want to reinstall Windows, you could probably add service pack 2 now, and then use Partition Magic or something like it to expand your main partition over the empty space.

Also, be aware that hard drive manufacturers use a different definition of Gigabyte than Windows, so your drive is actually only about 139 gigs.