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drive capacity

plantsman
Grafter
Posts: 36
Registered: ‎23-04-2008

drive capacity

Hi, can anyone advise me on how to make my O/S XP pro recognise the full capacity or a Hitachi HDD. This will be a new drive and I will be loading it with the above O/S. I have service pack 2 on a separate disk but  of course this can't be added until after the bios has already seen the drive.
This situation occured on a different computer and it only recognised a small amount of the capacity but I just accepted it and did not enquire further as to why that  was., This time I don't want to lose drive space.
Peter

My site
http://www.raffia.plus.com/
19 REPLIES 19
Strat
Community Veteran
Posts: 31,320
Thanks: 1,609
Fixes: 565
Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: drive capacity

What's the size of the drive?
Windows 10 Firefox 109.0 (64-bit)
To argue with someone who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead - Thomas Paine
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: drive capacity

It shouldn't be a problem.
Unless the drive has jumpers that allow you to restrict it's physical capacity - check on its label.
Or it's a very old motherboard  Undecided
plantsman
Grafter
Posts: 36
Registered: ‎23-04-2008

Re: drive capacity

It's a new motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 and the drive is Hitachi 320GB.
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: drive capacity

Split it into two partitions - one for your chosen OS and one for your data.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: drive capacity

I have a low end laptop XP SP3  with a 500G USB hard drive - not partioned - no problem
Strat
Community Veteran
Posts: 31,320
Thanks: 1,609
Fixes: 565
Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: drive capacity

...but, with respect sir, it's usually a good idea to keep OS and data on separate partitions.
Windows 10 Firefox 109.0 (64-bit)
To argue with someone who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead - Thomas Paine
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: drive capacity

so - the original question was, I cant read all my disc only 320Gb
Strat
Community Veteran
Posts: 31,320
Thanks: 1,609
Fixes: 565
Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: drive capacity

Not quite Pierre but at least we are back on topic Wink
Windows 10 Firefox 109.0 (64-bit)
To argue with someone who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead - Thomas Paine
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: drive capacity

Quote from: plantsman
It's a new motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 and the drive is Hitachi 320GB.

how do you mean not quiet
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: drive capacity

You need to slipstream SP2 or 3 into the cd or it wont see it you can get software for your drive that may get around the problem
see
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/139796-32-windows-disk-size-limit
to slipstream the sp3 see
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/slipstream-xp-service-pack-3.shtml
This assumes you mb can see greater than 137 meg which being new it should does the bios correctly identify the drive?
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: drive capacity

137GB is equivalent to 28bits (if used to address 512 byte sectors)
A modern OS would use 48 bit addressing - which is ample for any conceivable disk.
I don't understand why 32 bit addressing was ever used though.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

artificer
Grafter
Posts: 1,850
Registered: ‎11-08-2007

Re: drive capacity

an alternative to slipstreaming a service pack is to install xp, then install sp2 if you have it on cd.  you can then access disk management and expand the partition to fill the rest of the disk, or make a new partition.
plantsman
Grafter
Posts: 36
Registered: ‎23-04-2008

Re: drive capacity

Sorry for the delay gentlemen - many thanks, problem solved
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
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Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: drive capacity

Quote from: plantsman
problem solved

How?