Windows won't recognize full hdd space

[DirtyDavinci]

I recently purchased an athlon 64 3500 (939), with a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinumn Mobo. The Hard drive is a SeaGate 200 GB 7200 8mb cache. Upon loading Windows XP, it didn't allow me to load the floppy disk title "Sata Raid Driver", and when it formatted the HDD, it formatted only 130mb instead of the full 200. Once windows opened for the first time, I noticed that the program only recognized 130 mb once again, ignoring the other 70 mb of storage space. What could be the problem, and how would I resolve it? Must I reformat the hard drive. I would think the answer is yes. Any response would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[karamazov]

could be for swap file.. But would you really miss 70mb? I wouldnt if I had a 100gb hdd..

As I sit up in my bed looking at all the stars, I begin to wonder... WHERE THE HECK IS MY ROOF!?

 

[DirtyDavinci]

70 GB for swap file? Wow...that would be alot, wouldn't it? But I have a feeling it isn't that. When the window XP checked the system for the Windows installation, it only formatted 130 GB. Wouldn't it have formatted the whole thing, even for use for swap files?

 

[karamazov]

Oh you meant GB.. Yeah that would be a lot.
Did you partion it correctly when you formatted it?

As I sit up in my bed looking at all the stars, I begin to wonder... WHERE THE HECK IS MY ROOF!?

 

[khha4113]

Is your XP SP1 or later? Today, I just partitioned the Seagate 200GB (ATA version) with my XP SP1, and Windows recognized its full capacity.
<b><A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013&Product=winxp" target="_new"><font color=blue>Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 303013</A></b></font color=blue>

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[Crashman]

XP doesn't support large drives. I think 98SE did...

You need SP1 integrated into the XP installation CD to get full capacity, but I have another solution since you already have it set up: Instal SP1 and use Partition Magic to expand the partition.

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<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[DirtyDavinci]

Sorry, karamazov. I should have clarified better. Yep, I meant 70 GB of the harddrive are lost. As for the partition, never really did it. I went straight to installing windows xp, it wouldn't let me upload the raid driver floppy, and it just formatted the harddrive after it found it.

 

[DirtyDavinci]

Khha4113, I believe its previous to SP1. I'm using one of those educational editions sold to college students, and I'm almost certain this disk is before the SP1 made it out. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

 

[DirtyDavinci]

So I install the SP1, and then use Partition Magic to get the full drive recognized? Question: does Partition Magic allow me to recover and format the 60-70 GB I'm missing from the harddrive? I mean, will it allow me to format the missing GBs after I recover it, so I may use it? I ask because I've never used the program.

 

[RichPLS]

You can create a SP1 or SP2 slipstream CD. That way you make your own install CD with the latest updates.

http://www17.tomshardware.com/howto/20040908/index.html



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[Crashman]

Partition Magic will expand the existing partition to fill the drive and write all the needed format information to the drive. It's a good way to get your space back without starting over with an SP1 integrated copy of XP. But I'd add SP1 to the current installation first, then expand the partition.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[DirtyDavinci]

Fantastic. That will certainly make things very much easier for me...thanks, guys! As always, I appreciate it!

 

[Aterian]

(Posting here cause it's basically the same problem)

I helped a friend build a new computer about a week ago, and he got a 160GB drive, of which only 130 are recognized. The only other difference is that he is using windows 2000 instead of XP.

So my question is will W2k SP4 allow him to repartition the drive to the full 160gb or doe he need to use WinXP to be able to use the full capacity?

 

[Crashman]

I'd try loading SP4 and expanding the partition with Partition Magic, same method.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[chuck1212]

Yep, the old XP is limited to 136gb (same as the xbox for all you modders out there.) And i would agree fully with the solution to simply download SP 1 or 2, and use partition magic. To clarify what it does, partition magic "stretches" the 136gb partition to 200. So all the data you previously had on the old 136 parition will still be there. In fact, the only difference will be the increase in size.