Help Please, Very important!!!

[vadim]

i just got my western digital 250 hd and right now i am about to install OS and on the screen i see 131062 megs.... WHAT!!!!!! its a 250 gigs not130. Why does it read it like this. the HD is SATA. Also in the BIOS it reads it as 250 gigs under Capasity .Please help

[Cricket]

What OS are you using? If WinXP, you need SP1 or SP2 to see hard drives larger than 137GB.

:) Cricket

[vadim]

i am trying to install XP pro. so i do the usual thing, place cd in the drive and after the bios loads up i go to blue screen where i delete. creat, and install partitions, and in that screen i get 131062 megs instead of 238 or something like that how it always is, takes away 10 gigs or so. Also the hard drive is new so there is no OS installed on it yet

[Cricket]

You still need SP1 or SP2 to use hard drives larger than 137GB. You gotta slipstream (http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp1_cd.htm) SP1 or SP2 with WinXP Pro.

:) Cricket

[vadim]

is there a way to avoid it?? on my older pc i use same sata 250gigs and i never had any problems with the size. and i format about 1nce in 3 month

[Lochtsa]

You have to get the service pack update, I ran into the same problem.
It's a hassle, but if you want the full capacity of your drive you must download it.

[EzyStvy]

Or, you can install as is. Load SP2 and then create additional partition(s) with the Unallocated space.

[glc]

Or once SP2 is loaded, you can use Partition Magic to adjust the partitions.