windows xp will not recognize my 160 gig hd

mainmimimainmimi Texas
edited April 2004 in Science & Tech
I got info that I should check Windows knowledge base but darned if I can get it to be specific.

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Do you have Service Pack 1 installed?
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    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
    primesuspect wrote:
    Do you have Service Pack 1 installed?
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    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.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Sounds like you've run into the 128gb barrier.... What motherboard and BIOS revision do you have? You may need a BIOS update.
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    Sounds like you've run into the 128gb barrier.... What motherboard and BIOS revision do you have? You may need a BIOS update.
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    MSI K7N2 Delta Nvidia nForce 2 chipset based
    Phoenix Tech.ltd 6.00PG 11/7/2003
    sm bios 2.3

    thank you again
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    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
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    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

    primesuspect wrote:
    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
  • cybermaticcybermatic Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
    edited April 2004
    It wouldn't have anything to do partitions would it (FAT32 or NTFS)?

    What are you currently running?
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    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.
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    NTFS
    cybermatic wrote:
    It wouldn't have anything to do partitions would it (FAT32 or NTFS)?

    What are you currently running?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    That partition limit went away with SP1.
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    I am ready to reformat and start over fresh. How can I get xp to recognize my 160 gig hd?
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    Just found this information..... 25.39 gig not allocated. Anyone know how I can get this 25 gig to show up?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    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.
  • mainmimimainmimi Texas
    edited April 2004
    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
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