windows xp will not recognize my 160 gig hd

[mainmimi]

I got info that I should check Windows knowledge base but darned if I can get it to be specific.

[primesuspect]

Do you have Service Pack 1 installed?

[mainmimi]

Yes, I installed it as soon as I finished installing xp and got internet access. However, the problem occurred before I got sp1 and now that I have it,I don't know how to "redo It". Thanks a lot for your very speedy response!!

Mainmimi

Do you have Service Pack 1 installed?

[mainmimi]

Guess I should say: I just finished building this computer. The hard drive was brand new and I had to format it in order to put xp on it. Then had to get sp1 and now I'm realizing that it still isn't recognizing the entire hard drive---more like 131 gig.

[primesuspect]

Sounds like you've run into the 128gb barrier.... What motherboard and BIOS revision do you have? You may need a BIOS update.

[mainmimi]

Sounds like you've run into the 128gb barrier.... What motherboard and BIOS revision do you have? You may need a BIOS update.

[mainmimi]

MSI K7N2 Delta Nvidia nForce 2 chipset based
Phoenix Tech.ltd 6.00PG 11/7/2003
sm bios 2.3

thank you again

[primesuspect]

Well I couldn't find a motherboard that was called EXACTLY the "K7N2 Delta" - looks like there was two different revisions of it. Not sure exactly which one you have, so what I would do is run MSI's "LiveUpdate 3" utility to identify if there are any BIOS updates available for your computer:

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_liveupdate.php

[mainmimi]

I flashed my bios and they are now ver 5.60 as stated at bootup. I'm still showing the 128, instead of 160---any suggestions?

Thanks again.

mainmimi


Well I couldn't find a motherboard that was called EXACTLY the "K7N2 Delta" - looks like there was two different revisions of it. Not sure exactly which one you have, so what I would do is run MSI's "LiveUpdate 3" utility to identify if there are any BIOS updates available for your computer:

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_liveupdate.php

[cybermatic]

It wouldn't have anything to do partitions would it (FAT32 or NTFS)?

What are you currently running?

[Straight_Man]

Um, see if you can look at the drive with fdisk. Do not reformat it or change things, just look. Do you see unallocated space????

If no unallocated space, you have run into a BIOS size barrier. IF, however, there is unallocated space then XP decided not to make a partition bigger than what you see in XP.

XP has an IDE drive partition size limit, about 137 GB in terms of 1 GB=1,000,000,000 bytes-- not a drive limit, a partition limit. Make another partition. Note, if you have FAT32 and many small partitions already, you will lose usuable space shown in XP to "partition overhead." That could be about 10% of drive, more normally is about 5-7% of drive lost to "overhead, boot sector(s), $MFT, partition boot records, and the overhead in making an extended partition for more than one logical drive on a physical drive, plus the swap file which may not show in XP and could be a Gig or two". So, if free and used space add up to about 93-95% of stated drive size, that is normal. If you have really less than 90% shown as used and free when added, then you really are running into partition or BIOS limits, or BOTH.

John D.

[mainmimi]

NTFS

It wouldn't have anything to do partitions would it (FAT32 or NTFS)?

What are you currently running?

[primesuspect]

That partition limit went away with SP1.

[mainmimi]

I am ready to reformat and start over fresh. How can I get xp to recognize my 160 gig hd?

[mainmimi]

Just found this information..... 25.39 gig not allocated. Anyone know how I can get this 25 gig to show up?

[Enverex]

Give it a partition. To allocate the space to an existing partition, you need to use something like Partition Magic which will let you do anything you want without losing data,

If you just want to allocate it as another partition, right click on 'My Computer' and click ' Manage' then click 'Disk Management'.
Now find the drive on the diagram below and you should be able to right click the space on it and choose to create a new partition.

[mainmimi]

Ya'll are so smart and I'm so thankful!! I know now why Partition Magic is called "magic". I'm all fixed. First, flashed my bios, then used Partition Magic to create another partition out of the unused area, then "merged" the two partitions.

Viola!! One hard drive with 158 gig showing up. That suits me just fine. Never thought I'd see the day that 2 gig loss wouldn't bother me.

Thanks, folks!

mainmimi