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Old 05-03-2006, 11:34 PM   #1
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Problem with HDD partitioning. Please Help!

I am new to computer building and I just built my first computer.
I followed pcmech's guide to building your own computer or at least I thought I did. I formatted and partitioned the HDD setting up the active drive with 2 GB and the rest of my 160 GB hard drive as an extension with 2GB of that as a seperate drive.

I thought everything was all set so I installed the OS (Windows XP Pro) completely.
Now it is saying that my whole hard drive is only 2GB.

Is there any way I can fix this?

I really am also not sure what the difference is between the FAT16 and 32 or any of it for that matter. If at all possible I would really appreciate it if someone could explain this to me as well.

HDD: Seagate 160 SATA OEM Refurbised
Thank you.
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Old 05-03-2006, 11:44 PM   #2
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Welcome to PCMech. If you're installing XP, you're better off to partition your drives as NTFS. FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, and it's not nearly as stable. Also, I wouldn't go with less than 8GB for your primary partition with XP on it.
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Old 05-04-2006, 01:21 AM   #3
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The BYOPC guide is oriented toward Windows 98. With XP, you do not have to prep the drive at all, just boot with the XP CD and the setup will do it all for you.
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Old 05-04-2006, 10:44 AM   #4
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Thanks for the info and the welcome.

So should I just reformat the drive and re-install the OS?
Is that the best bet?

If so can I do that through Windows, or should I go back to the BIOS and set the cd drive as the boot drive and refortmat the HDD there in DOS?
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Old 05-04-2006, 05:18 PM   #5
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Set your CD-ROM as the boot drive.........Boot from the XP CD........ reformat the drive using NTFS.
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