Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

The subj HDD was installed in a newly built PC but despite being 200GB
(detected by BIOS at startup) is only showing as ~128GB by XP both in My
Computer and Disk Manager. The latter shows it as a single partition/
healthy HDD but with teh 128GB capacity . Retailer suggested a software
problem fixed by reinstalling SP2 (no joy) or by running Windows repair
(where/ how?). Beyond that he suggested backing up and reinstalling windows
or reformating the hard drive (both of which I am reluctant to do).

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

SJR wrote:
| The subj HDD was installed in a newly built PC but despite being 200GB
| (detected by BIOS at startup) is only showing as ~128GB by XP both in My
| Computer and Disk Manager. The latter shows it as a single partition/
| healthy HDD but with teh 128GB capacity . Retailer suggested a software
| problem fixed by reinstalling SP2 (no joy) or by running Windows repair
| (where/ how?). Beyond that he suggested backing up and reinstalling
windows
| or reformating the hard drive (both of which I am reluctant to do).
|
| Any suggestions gratefully received!


Prior to Service Pack 1 Windows XP only supported partitions of about 128
GB.

After Service Pack 1, larger partitions are supported.

You have three choices:

.. Reformat and reinstall with an XP CD that has at least SP1 slipstreamed.

.. Use a 3rd party program, such as Partition Magic, to resize your
partition.

.. Use Disk Management to format the blank space on the disk into a second
partition.

Jef

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Jef, Many thanks, understand the problem and now part of the way to the
solution. Not keen on yr 1st suggestion, but would be very grateful for more
info on the second 2 suggestions - How!? (Now passed the extent of my
unsupervised computer maintenance).


"Lurking Rat in 'Da Hood®" wrote:

> SJR wrote:
> | The subj HDD was installed in a newly built PC but despite being 200GB
> | (detected by BIOS at startup) is only showing as ~128GB by XP both in My
> | Computer and Disk Manager. The latter shows it as a single partition/
> | healthy HDD but with teh 128GB capacity . Retailer suggested a software
> | problem fixed by reinstalling SP2 (no joy) or by running Windows repair
> | (where/ how?). Beyond that he suggested backing up and reinstalling
> windows
> | or reformating the hard drive (both of which I am reluctant to do).
> |
> | Any suggestions gratefully received!
>
>
> Prior to Service Pack 1 Windows XP only supported partitions of about 128
> GB.
>
> After Service Pack 1, larger partitions are supported.
>
> You have three choices:
>
> .. Reformat and reinstall with an XP CD that has at least SP1 slipstreamed.
>
> .. Use a 3rd party program, such as Partition Magic, to resize your
> partition.
>
> .. Use Disk Management to format the blank space on the disk into a second
> partition.
>
> Jef
>
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

>> SJR wrote:
>> | The subj HDD was installed in a newly built PC but despite being 200GB
>> | (detected by BIOS at startup) is only showing as ~128GB by XP both in
>> My
>> | Computer and Disk Manager. The latter shows it as a single partition/
>> | healthy HDD but with teh 128GB capacity . Retailer suggested a
>> software
>> | problem fixed by reinstalling SP2 (no joy) or by running Windows repair
>> | (where/ how?). Beyond that he suggested backing up and reinstalling
>> windows
>> | or reformating the hard drive (both of which I am reluctant to do).
>> |
>> | Any suggestions gratefully received!



"Lurking Rat in 'Da Hood®" <jefn_LurkingRatInDaHood_@sbcglobal.net> wrote in
message newsBX_e.1251$Y_5.429@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...
> Prior to Service Pack 1 Windows XP only supported partitions of about 128
> GB.
>
> After Service Pack 1, larger partitions are supported.
>
> You have three choices:
>
> . Reformat and reinstall with an XP CD that has at least SP1 slipstreamed.
>
> . Use a 3rd party program, such as Partition Magic, to resize your
> partition.
>
> . Use Disk Management to format the blank space on the disk into a second
> partition.
>
> Jef


"SJR" <stuartroyston@hotmail.com(nospam)> wrote in message
news:E164AEBC-E225-49B5-BB0E-46218C29FDFB@microsoft.com...
> Jef, Many thanks, understand the problem and now part of the way to the
> solution. Not keen on yr 1st suggestion, but would be very grateful for
> more
> info on the second 2 suggestions - How!? (Now passed the extent of my
> unsupervised computer maintenance).


SJR:
The problem is the 137 GB (roughly 128 GB binary) barrier. There are two
basic requirements for the XP operating system to recognize hard drives
whose capacity is greater than 137 GB (128 GB)...
1. The motherboard's BIOS must support this capability (we'll assume yours
does), and;
2. SP1 and/or SP2 has been installed at the time the large-capacity disk is
installed.

So if you install a 200 GB drive in an XP OS sans SP1 or SP2, the system
will only recognize the smaller capacity as above. It's as simple as that.

Now when you subsequently install SP1 or SP2, the system *will* recognize
that additional disk space, but it will be "unallocated space" which you
obviously have to partition & format if it's going to be of any use to you.
For this you use XP's Disk Management utility. It's a relatively simple
process. (Do a Google search on XP Disk Management if you know nothing about
it).

So you *must* install SP1 or SP2 if the full capacity of your 200 GB disk is
to be recognized. I assume you already have SP2 installed on your machine
because you refer to reinstalling it. There's no need to reinstall SP2 under
these circumstances. So if SP2 has been installed on your machine, access DM
and partition/format the "unallocated space". There's plenty of information
on the net re using XP's DM.
Anna

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

SJR wrote:
|
| Jef, Many thanks, understand the problem and now part of the way to the
| solution. Not keen on yr 1st suggestion, but would be very grateful for
more
| info on the second 2 suggestions - How!? (Now passed the extent of my
| unsupervised computer maintenance).
|

Anna has pretty much covered it.

For a 30,000 foot flyover:

Right-click on My Computer and select Manage from the drop-down menu.

In the Computer Management window, select Disk Management.

Right-click the unallocated space of your 200GB hard disk. From that
drop-down menu, choose the option to create a partition in that space and
format it.

Take care to right-click the unallocated space. While you won't be able to
re-partition your active Windows XP partition, no sense adding confusion.

Jef