Windows only recognizes portion of my terabyte

[Guest]

I recently had a horrible virus on my HP Media Centre PC (running windows XP) so decided to buy a new hard drive and start again as most of my files were backed up. Ater numerous issues a friend finally managed to get me up and running again but the driver for my Realtek audio does not seem to exist anywhere so I have no sound (loaded boot disk and even bought driver detective which failed to locate it)! Also, when I checked in my computer the drive is showing up as 127gig instead of the terabyte that it should be! I really don't want to have to wipe and start over again and wondered if there was a way to fix these issues without having to do this?
Thanks Lisa

 

[hell_storm2004]

Welcome to the Forums!

Do you have service pack installed? You need service packs to make
Windows XP recognize large HDD's!

 

[foscooter]

All MS OS's before Windows XP Service Pack 1 do not support hard drives over 127GB.

Once you install SP1, I'm not sure what you do. I think you can go into "Disk Management" and "Expand Volume" to it's true size.

As for your sound, you will have to download the driver from the manufactures website (either motherboard or Realtek). Buit once you have WinXP SP1 up, it may download the driver via Microsoft Updates itself.

 

[Paperdoc]

It sounds like the Win XP you installed was the original version with NO Service Packs included. That version only allows HDD volumes up to 128 GB max. You must have at least SP1 in Win XP to use a larger HDD.

Now, you can and should update your Win XP to the latest version, SP3. However, that will not change what you have in your C: drive of 127 GB. Even with the updated XP that can use large HDD's, you can NOT expand the bootable Partition that contains your OS - Win XP will not attempt to tamper with that key Partition. So you have a few choices available.

1. This one is free. Leave your C: drive as it is - a 127 GB bootable Primary Partition on your 1 TB HDD unit. Update your version of XP to SP3. After that is done you can use Windows' built-in tool Disk Management to Create one or more additional Partitions out of the Unallocated Space still available on your 1 TB unit, and Format them. Each such Partition will be given its own letter name and Windows will treat it as a completely separate "drive", even though it is on the same HDD physical unit. The new "drive(s)" can be used for any data you like. You can adjust Windows to place key system folders on it (them) like My Documents, etc, and you can install new application software on it (them). You will want to do this so that you avoid filling up the 127 GB C: "drive".

2. This will cost you money. Start again by updating to SP3. Then buy a 3rd party utility like Partition Manager that WILL allow you to expand your existing "C: drive" on the only Partition to add all the rest of the space on the HDD unit. NOTE that you MUST upgrade first so that your Windows will know how to use this larger Partition. OPTION: you may be able to find freeware that can do this job - I don't know.

3. This one's free, too, but makes more work for you. You do need a CD burner for this. After some preparation you will have to completely re-install Windows XP and all your application software. If you already have data files on the C: drive they will be destroyed, so you will have to back them up first on some medium and restore them later.
The process is called Slipstreaming. It is a completely legal way for you to take your existing licensed copy of the original-version Win XP Install CD, update it to include the latest SP3 version, burn your own new Win XP Install CD, and then re-install Win XP (this time the SP3 version that has all the latest stuff).
To do Slipstreaming, start by looking up the term at the Microsoft website, then elsewhere on the web. Microsoft's website is the source for the free downloadable updating tools you will need. Elsewhere you can find free downloadable instructions step by step (print them out and follow carefully) and some software tools to do certain parts of the task. You may need CD burning software like Nero that can make a bootable CD from an .iso file.
In basic outline, this is the process:
(a) Create a couple of folders on your C: drive to store specific things in.
(b) Use software to make a complete copy of everything from your existing Win XP Install CD to one of those folders.
(c) Use the updating tools to change the appropriate files in that folder to the latest versions. the conversion is almost automatic. The result is a folder that essentially contains what you would have on a new Win XP SP3 Install CD.
(d) Burn that new version to your own CD. Now you have your own permanent Install CD that can be re-used if ever needed for fixing things.
(e) Use that new Install CD to re-install Win XP on your HDD. This time you will first Delete the existing Partition on the HDD (which is how all its data gets destroyed!), then have it do its normal thing of Creating a new Primary Partition (probably you want it to use ALL of the HDD's pace this time).
(f) Install all your application software on this new large C: drive.
(g) Restore all the backed up user data files you made.

As I said, the last option takes time to do, but you end up with a clean Win Xp installation with SP3 that uses all your HDD space, and you have your own latest-version Win XP Install Disk as a backup, all for no cash.