Newbie with issues (not me, my computer :)

[P71_CrownVic]

Hello All,

Well, heres my problem:

I have just built a computer. I have the Intel 915PBL MB with a LGA775 P4 HT 3.4 processor. I also installed a 250 Gig Hitachi hard drive. The problem is that windows only sees 127 GB. In the bios it says 250.0. I have updated to SP1 (Win XP Pro) and it still does not recognize my whole drive. I have searched the internet for hours trying to find an answer. I even updated the BIOS. is there anything else I am missing. The program SpeedFan sees it as 250 but Acronis Partition Expert sees it as 127. I am at a loss. Thanks in advance for any help.

[ktkendall]

Go into winxp disk management and you'll get the whole scoop there as to what XP has done, it sounds like it only created a partition with half the drive when U installed windows.. You will have to check Microsoft to see if you may need to update to SP2, but I don't think you should have to, maybe you inadvertently told it to only create the boot partition containing windows using only half the drive..

[P71_CrownVic]

Hey Thanks...

Heres what came up:

It says that there is "127.99 GB NTFS", then next to that it says, "104.89 GB Unallocated"

So, how do I go about putting that 104.89 into my 127.99?

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by P71_CrownVic Hey Thanks... Heres what came up: It says that there is "127.99 GB NTFS", then next to that it says, "104.89 GB Unallocated" So, how do I go about putting that 104.89 into my 127.99?

It sounds like your original Windows XP CD does not have any integrated updates. If you slipstream SP1 or SP2 into it and burn a new CD, you will be able to reformat and setup will see all 250 GB. To do so, you can get nLite, which will also allow you to create an unattended install and to customize some aspects of the process. Of course, you will need a CD burner to burn the resulting CD image.

[ktkendall]

Without a 3rd party disk partitioning program, or doing a complete unpartition, then repartition and reformat, then reinstall windows you can not make whole disk 1 partition, but what I would do is just right click over that unallocated space and then click partition, and let windows partition and format the rest of the drive for U, then you can use the whole drive but it will just be split into 2 partitions, thus 2 drive letters. Many people actually prefer to do it that way and keep that other partition for their data so if windows ever gets totally hosed you can do whatever you want to the windows partition but not disturb your other partition with your valuable data on it..

[P71_CrownVic]

Awsome, thanks

BTW, is there a way to merge the two drives into one? if not, I can sure live with two partitions.

[ktkendall]

So what U R saying fulton is that there was a limitation 0f 128G partitions with the original XP??? IF so P71, then unless you do as he suggested you won't get the whole disk as 1 partition even if you redo everything, I would just go ahead and run 2 partitions if it were me and I had already installed XP and done all my updating, tweaking, and loading of my programs...

[ktkendall]

Originally Posted by P71_CrownVic Awsome, thanks BTW, is there a way to merge the two drives into one? if not, I can sure live with two partitions.

A third party disk partitioning program like Partition Magic can do that for U..

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by ktkendall So what U R saying fulton is that there was a limitation 0f 128G partitions with the original XP??? IF so P71, then unless you do as he suggested you won't get the whole disk as 1 partition even if you redo everything, I would just go ahead and run 2 partitions if it were me and I had already installed XP and done all my updating, tweaking, and loading of my programs...

Well, since he's upgraded to SP1 he now has the 48-bit LBA compatibility, which allows him to use the entire disk. He could theoretically use PartitionMagic at this point to combine the partitions, but that is always a bit risky. Personally, I like having a slipstreamed, customized version of XP anyway, but some people don't like doing clean iinstalls.