Computer not recognizing FULL hard drive...

[g33tar]

Hey guys..I finally got my parts from newegg today in the mail. I picked out all the parts suggested to me by you guys on here...Im a newbie and have NEVER done this so I was really nervous about hooking everything up correctly.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, I yanked all the innards out of an old tower we had laying around, put all the new stuff in and LOW AND BEHOLD...it worked...I couldnt even believe my eyes. I really felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. I was pretty proud of myself until I installed windows, checked out the C drive properties and it says Ive only got 170 GB or something like that. I ordered a 320 GB sata drive, it definately says 320GB right on the top of it.

What did I do wrong and how do I fix it? I feel like im so close.

This thing is BLAZING fast compared to what im used to. I can drag a window all over the screen a fast as I can and my CPU usage goes up to like...3%. Rediculous. I really want to thank all of you guys on here that have helped me out over the past week.

 

[g33tar]

Pardon me, I just checked again and it says 127GB. Thanks guys.

 

[cjl]

Let me guess.

XP, pre SP1 or 2000 pre SP3?

Install the latest service pack - you need 48 bit LBA support. Once you've done that, the full hard drive size should be recognized. The volume will still be 128GB though - you'll need to resize the partition to get the full amount usable.

 

[2flow]

I remember that one. thats the 48 bit LBA. Im surprised youre having that problem since its been resolved in XP SP1. Practically all bios 1-2 year old already have 48bitLBA accounted for and since you say you install a new motherboard, it probably isnt the bios. Your probably using a pre-SP1 XP CD. The easiest is to get an XP SP1 or greater CD and install.

Lets say you only have the preSP1XP, youll have to update first. Next use partition magic or similar to expand that drive.

OR you can clone your new HD back to your old drive using the free cloning software from your diskdrive manufacturer. Boot it off the old HDD with your new HD as a secondary. In windows format that new drive. Then again use the cloning software to transfer back to the new hhd. Does that make sense?

 

[g33tar]

Yea that makes sense....My brother said he has a slipstreamed copy of SP2 somewhere..Im pretty sure its a pre SP1 version of XP because i tried to install some motherboard hardware and it told me it was unable to due to not having SP1.

The computer is brand new so...do you reccomend just deleting the old partition, reformatting it and then using the slipstreamed SP2 cd? All ive really got installed are some graphics card drivers. Would this work?

Thanks for the help guys...

 

[g33tar]

Would a slipstreamed SP2 copy of windows and a HD reformat and deleting the old partition work?

 

[jsc]

Sure. If you do not have much on it, just wipe it and reinstall.

 

[g33tar]

Ok waitup. Tell me more about this partition magic thing...

Will it increase the partition size without creating a new one? I want this to be as clean as possible and not mess this thing up with all kinds of sloppy partitioning as ive done in the past. I would just like 1 partition. Easy and simple.

 

[montyuk]

as its a brand new installation and you havent done anything much with it, go for the slipstream....