Please, I have spent DAYS looking online for an answer to this;

I have a 400GB WD Sata 3Gb/s Hard Drive, which I run on Windows XP (SP2) on a Biostar NF520-A2 motherboard. My HD only shows 127Gb. Now, I have found the "EnableBigLba" threads, doesn't work. I have tried the "diskpart /extend" thing, doesn't work. I have even tried a software "EnableBigLba" and it gives me the message that since I already have SP2 it is supposed to be showing the full size of hard drive. HELP !!! What else can I try ? Thanks !!!!!

The additional space is probably there. Your partition was set at 127GB and that does not change. Right click on my computer and click on manage. Click on disk management and notice the Black space on the drive graphic. Right click on the graphic and partition and format the unused space. You will have a second partition to use.

Thanks Zorg, but let me ask you one question; This partition was created at the set-up of Windows XP when I formatted the hard drive. Now, I know for a fact that there is a limitation on Windows of 127Gb. I also know that as soon as I install SP2 the HD is able to work at full size fine. But the problem is that I installed the SP2 separately after installing windows. So, I did not "loose" all that HD space right ? It is still there, right ?

You didn't lose it, when you buy a hard drive it does not come with any partitions. You can create however many you want at whatever size you want. So it sounds like you have a 127 GB first partition as your C drive. If you add another partition it will show up as D or whatever the next available letter is.

You didn't lose it, when you buy a hard drive it does not come with any partitions. You can create however many you want at whatever size you want. So it sounds like you have a 127 GB first partition as your C drive. If you add another partition it will show up as D or whatever the next available letter is.

But I am lost because this is what I did;

When I installed Windows that blue set-up screen where you format the drive said that the Hard Drive had only 127GB available to be formated. (Hence it had NO FILES and NO PARTITIONS, therefore should be showing the full 400GB).

Ok now, after that I found in NUMEROUS forums that Windows XP has a Hard Drive size limitation, not only that, but also that if I installed SP2 it would enable the LARGE HARD DRIVE feature. So I installed SP2.

I restarted the computer and nothing changed. It still showed 127GB. Therefore I guess my straight question would be:

Once I install SP2, and that feature is already enabled, what would be my next step(s) to show/use my full Hard Drive's 400GB capacity ???

Thanks !!!

Um... do us a favor. Follow Zorg's instructions:

Right click on my computer and click on manage. Click on disk management and notice the Black space on the drive graphic.

In disk management it will show you any free space left on a drive. You cannot simply install a service pack to get more space as partitions are fixed in size as far as the OS is concerned, you need to either re-allocate the drive using something like PartitionMagic, or simply use Disk Management to create a second partition and use that for additional storage.

Yea, what everyone else said - REPARTITION!!! Delete current partitions and re-do it. Partition magic will work.

It would be easier if you could stick the drive in another computer and partition it from there (easier when you don't have a running OS on the same drive).

If it's giving you troubles just reformat and start over. It will work.

OK, I'm on Linux now so forgive me if I don't get this exactly right but here is what I can remember off the top of my head. Go into the Control Panel where you will find an icon that says Administrative Tools or something like that. Open it then you select computer management. It will pull up a little program that controls some of the computer functions. One of them is disk management. That's where you go to look at your drives. If large drives really are enabled (I didn't even realize that XP had this limitation, I've been working with SP2 for so long), you will see a list of all drives including the optical drives. Find you hard drive and there will be a horizontal bar next to it that has information about the partitions. It should show one 127 GB partition and then the rest will be unallocated. Right click in the unallocated space and you should be able to set up a partition. One word of advice, do a quick format unless you have a few hours to kill.

Hope that gets it.

Thanks guys, will try all that tonight and let you know by tomorrow how it went. Thanks a lot for the quick answers !!! VERY VERY much appreciated.

To install XP on a harddrive over 127 gig you need to slipstream xp sp2. To do so get Nlite and download the SP2 admin install. go to http://www.msfn.org/ for a guide.

1Haplo

1haplo, what exactly do you mean by "slipstream xp sp2" ? I just downloaded Nlite. Thanks !!!

fantastapotamus, Zorg, p05esto and kamel5547. Thanks a lot !!! Will try today and will let you know the results tomorrow !!!

Once in disk management use format in the unallocated space if you want two partitions. If you want one big C: drive click on extend volume for the unallocated space.

Yes, your space is there, or you have major problems. As I said, the original partition will not change it's size. The additional space is not partitioned so it will not be visible except on the manage->storage screen. just follow the steps in my original post.

You are better off with two partitions anyway (C: drive and D: drive). XP might assign a different letter. If you corrupt your OS then you can reinstall it and it won't affect the files that you have saved on the second partition (D: drive). Also, any backup software will need the second partition to save the image to. So just partition the unused space and format it.

He should not delete any partitions, simply add one or more using the unused space.

He also doesn't need to stick the drive in another computer. All he needs to do is follow the steps in my original post.

If he starts over without slipstreaming SP2 onto the disk he will be right back where he started.

It takes 10 seconds to go into diskmanagement and format the unused space or allocate it.