Installing XP Pro on a new 300GB drive

[TheLivingNick]

I just built my first computer and am in the middle of setting it up, but I have run into what has the potential to be a big problem. The hard drive on my computer in a 300GB Maxtor drive, and I am trying to install Windows XP Pro on it. Now, since the drive isn't formatted, it will first format it, but since my version of XP is pre-service-pack, it will only format to a max of 137GB. My first thought was that I would simply download the service pack once I was up an running, but I was immediatly hit with the realization that if I had to reformat I would be wiping the OS and just be back at the beginning with the same problem. I might just be showing my lack of experience, but will this be the problem I'm afraid it will be, and if so, how do I work around it?

[doctorgonzo]

Is there any reason why you want to format the entire disk as just one partition? That's not a terribly good use of space. Plus, it makes operations like defragging take longer.

In general, I would recommend a 15 GB or so partition with just your OS on it, then you can partition the rest of the drive to hold your games, music, apps, and so on. Dividing up the hard drive in this way is much more efficient.

[TheLivingNick]

Like I said, I'm showing my ignorance. Thanks, doctorgonzo, I'll try that. I can do that after upgrading to SP2, then do the whole drive partition by partition?

[sgtspector]

That si a steer int he right direction but there is a way around the sp2 problem. There is a procedure called "slipstreaming" that will help you create a new xp disk with sp2 already on it using your original xp disk and the sp2 download. Check here if you are interested: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...slipstream.asp This is just one site with a tutorial. There are others. Just google slipstreaming + xp + sp2