new SATA HDD showing incorrect capacity

indigoflow_asindigoflow_as Westerville, OH
edited July 2005 in Hardware
i just recieved my new Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200 RPM HDD today....

i decided to go ahead and install windows onto it but it only shows the unpartitioned (partition1) capacity at 131gb or so. there is only one partition (from what i can tell), and i cannot delete this one partition that is showing up so i imagine it is simply the unpartitioned HDD.

this HDD is clearly supposed to have some 233gb available for me to use and on top of that, my bios is reading it as a 250gb Maxtor HDD, i imagine that the bios is reading some signature and not the true capacity...while thw windows install is reading the available capacity.

i can try to clarify anything if something is incoherent.

...so my questions are...
- am i doing something incorrectly in the windows xp install/partitioning?
- is something wrong with the HDD? (should it being OEM be an issue?)

Comments

  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited July 2005
    Welcome to SM.

    What version of windows did you install? You'll need windows XP SP1 or greater (or 2000 SP3 iirc) to properly use a drive greater than 137 GB (counted the HD manufacturers way) I'm 99% sure this is the problem, you could:

    1) reinstall with a version of XP with the service pack slipstreamed

    2) use a 3rd party tool to repartition the drive (ie turn it into 1 partition) after you install service pack 1

    3) just live with 2 partitions (multiple partitions are often a good idea although 130 GB is pretty big for a system partition ;D )

    4) be really lucky and somehow windows xp is able to just "grow" the partition.

    Someone else might have an easier answer though ..

    Oya and just in case could you list your Motherboard + manufacturer + bios version as well as the HD model? It will help us solve the problem if it is more complicated.
  • indigoflow_asindigoflow_as Westerville, OH
    edited July 2005
    much thanks on the speedy response and the welcome...

    i contemplated giving ya'll my system initially, but here goes:

    - asus a8n-sli (bios version 1011. should be the newest bios since i flashed it as soon as i got it)
    - HDD model = Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L250S0 250GB SATA

    to answer the version of XP i was installing:

    curious, the version of XP i have is SP1, i had installed it on my old PC. thankfully i just learned about slipstreaming yesterday so maybe that could help.

    throw some more feedback at me if you have any ideas...along with a suggested partitioning application (partition magic comes to mind). thanks in advance.
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited July 2005
    Just to check, did you install the correct drivers for the location of your hdd upon the XP install? For example, I needed to install the NVraid drivers and the NV ide drivers for the 4 SATA II drive, 320 Gig array I installed XP on. Used an upgrade copy of XP SP1 as my install disk. Just formatted the array as 1 big disk and never looked back. (resisting the one big disk joke) I posted this as I appear to have the same board as you've got and those are my experiences with it.

    Good Luck,

    Flint
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited July 2005
    Are you using fat32 or ntfs because fat32 is limited to 132gb.
  • indigoflow_asindigoflow_as Westerville, OH
    edited July 2005
    aha, good catch mr. grayfox...

    i dont have access to my PC right now, but ill definitely look at that, could be more than just a coincidence that im only at 131gb.

    much thanks

    flintstone:
    i turned off the NvRaid and other Raid options in my bios cause im only using one SATA drive...not sure whether installing the NvRaid drivers affect me but surely it wont kill.

    in all reality, ill have to be infront of my pc before i can say much more, ill seek more assistance as soon as i get off work at 12:30. in the mean time, shoot off more possibilities...chances are one of these will be correct. much thanks.
  • indigoflow_asindigoflow_as Westerville, OH
    edited July 2005
    alright, so i got the whole incorrect capacity issue figured out...now, what do you folks suggest as a proper partitioning of a 250gb hdd or hdd of the like?
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited July 2005
    Just to make sure, was it formatting NTFS that fixed it? In this day and age you definitely want to always go NTFS unless you have a specific reason for going to FAT32 (one reason is being able to share the partition with linux without a gross hack).

    My personal preference requires some modification of windows so that the default programs file directory / docuements + settings / swap file is somewhere else. Its very convenient _once its setup_ though:

    c: system only 4-5 GB
    d: swap file ~1 GB
    e: documents + settings ~ 3 GB (single user increase if you store a lot of docs here .. i don't)
    f: program files 10-50GB (depends on you)
    g: tmp (~2 GB)

    Then a set of music / movie / etc drives as you see fit. You can also mount the partitions such as documents and settings in the directory "c:\documents and settings" so you don't end up with 1000000 drive letters floating around.

    If you search the forums for partition schemes or something like that I'm sure you'll find a ton of different setups and be able to copy one that'll work for u.
  • indigoflow_asindigoflow_as Westerville, OH
    edited July 2005
    much thanks with the assistance.

    responding to qparadox:
    i did format as ntfs, but i also did throw in a copy of educational license xp pro that had service pack 2 on it. so maybe one or both of those variables allowed for all of my capacity to show.

    i thank all for solutions that would likely baffle one on the other end of a phone line. i am learning a whole lot.
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