Missing 513 GB on WD 640 Black with new XP install

you need to update windows xp to service pack 3 and then you can do 2 things
windows itself wont expand a boot partition so you have the option of making a second partition for the rest of the space.

or you can use a third party software, to expand the boot partition.

I know that pre-SP1 Windows XP can't recognize hard drives bigger than 127GB. You'll want to update to SP3 for your extra hard drive space, as well as all the security and stability improvements.

Then go ahead and follow rand_79's instructions. You could also slipstream Service Pack 3 onto your XP disc (google for further instructions), and just reinstall with that, but it will be easier to just use partitioning software. Good luck.

Yeah, if you just got started on this recently and have not spent a lot of time installing stuff yet, I recommend you either buy a newer version of XP (that is, one that includes at least SP1), or slipstream your old XP Install up to SP3. "Slipstreaming" is a perfectly legal procedure to update a copy of your original legal XP Install Disk to the latest version, then burn your own new XP Install Disk that includes all the updates. From there you can re-install XP (as you start that, be sure to delete the previously-created 127 GB Partition and use then entire drive to make your new installation). If you ever have to re-install XP again, you will have a completely up-to-date SP3 version to use next time.

Wow, thanks ya'll. I just found info at

http://www.winsupersite.com/xp/sp3_slipstream.asp

I'll give that a try.

Thanks!

FYI, I just followed the instructions on http://www.winsupersite.com/xp/sp3_slipstream.asp and I'm now happily installing WinXP SP3.

It was pretty quick and easy.

Thanks again for your help. I never would have figured this out by myself.

When SP3 is installed, you have to allocate your space. Go to Run and insert diskmgmt.msc, in there you can format your extra space.
Unless you are going for the complete reinstall at the moment?

I did a complete reinstall and got Partition Magic to merge the two partitions. Worked like a charm.

Great!! I'm happy that worked out for you.

I'm not sure how many people are reading this, but I just had a similar problem, I built a new computer and used a very old windows xp disk I had around for an OS until windows 7 arrived. Needless to say I noticed i had the same problem with only 127 GB of my ~640 (I know it's supposed to be smaller but it was a 640 GB caviar black) showing up.

After reading this thread and some other I went through control panel>Administrative tools (had to change control panel to icon view to find this)>computer management>Disk management and directly below there is a great graphic of my hard drive and the extra space. All I had to do was right click on it and an option to "extend volume" popped up. The wizard opened and in about 3 steps and under 30 seconds (29 of that being me reading the wizard) the drive size had been readjusted out to 596 GB, which for a 640 GB drive sounds about right.

I hope this helps anyone else looking for the same issues (as it seems a lot of people have used their old OS's until windows 7 became available). Don't know if it will matter but I did this immediately following a clean windows 7 32-bit install.