SATA HDD size reporting issue

[Noahtuck]

To make a long story short, i had to install a new copy of XP pro W/SP2 on a friend of a friend's PC.

It has a 320gb WD sata hdd & it shows up in bios as a 320gb but in windows it only shows up as a 127gb ?

I have updated everything, triple checked everything but no go.

I never had this problem before and it's about ready to make me very angry!!!


Any idea's on what i am missing right in front of my face ??

Need any specifics lmk.

Thanks!

[minidv2dvd]

have you checked to see if it was partitioned? control panel - administrative tools - computer management - disc management

the next thing i'd try - WD Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics available for download at their website.

[Noahtuck]

Nope, now that you mention it, even when i wiped it clean, total reformat before installing a new copy of XP Pro, it only showed up as 130gb drive no partitions.



My buddie has the exact same setup and no problems showing the size.

I've had that issue with 500gb IDE HDD's also but after installing SP1 & 2, the HDD's show their full size under windows.

This is the first time i ever had this problem.

Unless WD labeled a drive incorrectly there has to be some fix for this.

[jagabo]

Check the BIOS settings for LBA.

[minidv2dvd]

check the drive jumper pins, make sure it's only got a master pin for a 2 drive system or no pins for a single drive?

what did data lifeguard report? there is a windows version.

[Bjs]

Check bios for 48 bit LBA is available and enabled ... support for drives greater than 127gb ... if not, this would have restricted windows install to partitioning and formatting only 127gb even thou bios showed the drives full capacity.

[TBoneit]

MY best guess is to old a version of XP Pro.

The original releases didn't support big drives. You need to install with a SP2 or SP3 disk.

Probably not the answer you wanted. MY guess is NO SP XP or maybe SP1 disk.

Good Luck

[Noahtuck]

MY best guess is to old a version of XP Pro.

Nope, not it.....

The original releases didn't support big drives. You need to install with a SP2 or SP3 disk.

To make a long story short, i had to install a new copy of XP pro W/SP2 on a friend of a friend's PC.

8)

@ Bjs & jagabo
For the life of me i could not find any such option
The only thing it had for choices was "auto" & "off"
I DLed the owners manual pdf for the mobo and am scouring it now.

@ minidv2dvd
Datalifegaurd Diagnostic showed everything normal, full 320gb.

Ran datalifegaurd tools setup & it said there was some error in the registry so it fixed it, then after restart i ran it again and it found a 170gb missing & unpartitioned and formatted it and everything is fine.

See, i knew it was something easy right in front of my face
I have all those programs lying around and it never even penetrated my thick skull to check with them

Although i did go to their website and DL them under the specific model drive.

Thanks everyone!!

[Nelson37]

Wipe it clean and start all over. Delete and then re-create the partition.

You DO NOT WANT foreign software partitioning the drive. BAD, bad, bad, evil, evil, bad. XP SP2 should have correctly recognized the drive. The number you got is EXACTLY what I would expect to happen if a previous version of XP is used.

[RabidDog]

First version of XP (no sp1 or sp2) only recognizes max partition size of 127gb. Sounds like a bad slipstream. Try maxblast maxtor software.

Unless WD labeled a drive incorrectly there has to be some fix for this.

How many 130gb drives were ever on sale?
you could buy them all with 12- dollar bills.

[Noahtuck]

I don't know, because it's been a long time since i have seen a 320gb drive worth buying as cheap as 500gb & 1tb drives are now

And i meant maybe WD somehow put an incorrect label on the drive, which was just crazy what if
Not that it was sold as a 127gb drive

Ran datalifegaurd tools setup & it said there was some error in the registry so it fixed it, then after restart i ran it again and it found a 170gb missing & unpartitioned and formatted it and everything is fine.

Although i did go to their website and DL them under the specific model drive.

Why would i want to use maxblastor software on a WD drive ??
Although i have used it way back on non maxtor drives

I'm guessing the actual program from WD for their HDD will be just fine, not like i'm using some aftermarket unknown company's program 8)

When i have installed early versions of XP Pro on machines with 500gb+ HDD's, it still showed up the full size and let me partition it when doing a fresh install, it just did not show the full size under windows until i installed SP1.

This is the first time i have had it happen, SATA or IDE HDD's, not showing up during format & during or after installation