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DeFrag detecting 128/300GB of my hard drive

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - DeFrag detecting 128/300GB of my hard drive

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scshadowblade   08-15-2008 at 04:09:31 AM

Well I just checked, and when I go to Windows DeFrag, it says that my Hard drive is only a 128GB capacity drive. Then I checked the BIOS and it said I have a 300GB drive.


I do in fact have a 300GB 10,000RPM drive. Do I actually have the 300GB available right now, or only the 128? How would I fix this? What is wrong?


Message edited by scshadowblade on 08-15-2008 at 04:10:00 AM
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bdcrlsn   08-15-2008 at 04:19:21 AM
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This was an issue with pre-Service Pack 2 Windows XP, so you might be running XP without SP2.

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Digitalmicron   08-15-2008 at 04:27:09 AM
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Do you have the whole HDD partitioned into one partition or does it have multiple logic partitions?

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scshadowblade   08-15-2008 at 04:30:32 AM
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I don't think my hard drive is partitioned, no. It would come up as two drives on DeFrag I believe, and it doesn't.

I am running XP SP2.

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aevm   08-15-2008 at 04:41:53 AM
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Right click My Computer in the desktop, select Manage, then Disk Management. What does it show for that disk?

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scshadowblade   08-15-2008 at 04:56:15 AM
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It says 279.46GB total and then 127.99GB in C: and 151.47 in unallocated.


No idea what that means?

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aevm   08-15-2008 at 05:10:23 AM
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It means you need to make a partition D: to use the 151.47. Everything is all right, no worries. I don't have any unallocated space so I can't test now, but I think if you right-click the rectangle with the unallocated space you will get a menu where you can create a new partition.

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aevm   08-15-2008 at 05:18:52 AM
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Oh, by the way, 279.46GB total is normal too. Your Velociraptor is marketed as 300GB but it really has 300,000,000,000 bytes. That's
300,000,000,000/1024/1024/1024 GB i.e. 279 GB. It's a known issue, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's happening to all disks from all manufacturers AFAIK.


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roadrunner197069   08-15-2008 at 05:31:27 AM
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You can make a partition or you can right click your C: and choose extend to make 1 partition will all of your space.

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scshadowblade   08-15-2008 at 06:03:24 AM
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When I right click my C drive, I don't get the option to expand or anything like that (I want one big drive, not partitioned).

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by scshadowblade on 08-15-2008 at 06:03:50 AM
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SomeJoe7777   08-15-2008 at 03:59:59 PM
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scshadowblade wrote :

When I right click my C drive, I don't get the option to expand or anything like that (I want one big drive, not partitioned).



You are probably running Windows XP. Only Vista has the expand option.

If you want one big drive, you have 2 choices:

1. Create a Windows XP CD-ROM that is slipstreamed with SP1 or later. (Use nLite to do the slipstream). Reinstall Windows with this CD, which will then let you specify a partition that uses the entire drive.

2. Use a 3rd-party partition resizing tool like Partition Magic or the GParted Live CD.

------------------------------ - SomeJoe7777

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 Reply to SomeJoe7777
dandy   08-15-2008 at 04:40:44 PM
- 0 +

Just follow somejoe7777 2nd option.use partition magic or the Gparted live CD.but scare will be too hard for u.Or u try use(partition manager)easier to use for beginner.anyway is up to u.sorry cant giv u so much help^^

Reply to dandy
aevm   08-15-2008 at 06:15:37 PM
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Maybe you should make an extra partition after all. It's easier, and you'd have the operating system separate from other things. That's good practice, and I'm sure that's why you got that 128GB partition in the first place.

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Bronze Storage badge Paperdoc   08-16-2008 at 06:23:40 AM
- 1 +

Windows (at least, recent versions up to XP - I'm not sure about Vista) would let you expand a partition to use unallocated space, but NOT the BOOT PARTITION! So if expanding is your choice, 3rd party stuff like Partition Magic is needed. But BEFORE you do that you must update your version of Windows. I'm pretty sure Vista never had this trouble, so you must have XP original version, or something earlier. This problem was fixed for XP in the 1st Service Pack, but most people would download and update with SP2 now. (Well, SP3 is out, but some people advise leaving it alone until a few more bugs are fixed.)

To "start fresh" you could download all the OS updates and the tools needed, then create and burn your own new version of a Windows Install Disk - that's what they mean with the jargon "Slipstream". It is legal and can be done if you follow all the steps carefully and have a CD burner. But it will get you to the point where you can start over from scratch and re-install an updated Windows, then install all your applications. Then your data, which we all would hope you backed up WELL before starting down this path. Of course, it almost sounds like you have no apps and data yet - if you're just starting with a new drive and fresh install, maybe you won't have any recovering to do.

But if you do not like trying to re-install everything and restore data, maybe your best choice is to use Disk Management to create a second Partition in the unallocated space and just use it as another drive. BEFORE doing this, update your Windows anyway to SP2. Otherwise you will continue to be limited to partitions of 128 GB or less, and you'll have a little left-over unallocated space to make a small third partition in.

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