Techy Help - Rebuilt PC limiting HDD size.

[Bewster]

Just built a backup desktop from bits of old pc's lying around. I installed an old sata 500gb HDD.

As I only have an old copy of windows xp 1 I installed this, followed by downloading SP2 and SP3 and all the updates.

It is only showing a HDD of about 137gb.

Is there a simple fix to correct this - I have had a look in bios and can't seem find anything.

Cheers.

[Peter Venkman]

Check the hard drive jumpers that arent set to limit to 137gb, it says on the side of the HDD where the jumpers should be set mate..

[Bewster]

I was using it as a slave before at 500gb - does this change that ?

[Peter Venkman]

Also has it been recognised in the bios as 500gb? are you installing an OS onto the HDD? or is it an extra drive, if its an extra drive do a low level format of it as the pc that it was formatted on may have had an OS limit of 137GB FAT32 make sure its formatted in NTFS.

[Peter Venkman]

Run a low level reformat on it as NTFS, you can do that in windows with a low level format tool like HDD Low Level Format Tool 4.25, does exactly what it says on the tin, or by booting into the drive from the install disk and doing a full format on there and stopping the instalation before it starts copying files and swapping back over to the proper boot drive.

[Bewster]

It is a master drive. I'll have a look again in the bios again tonight.

I was reading on line that XP sp1 only recognises up to 137gb ?

[Peter Venkman]

There is a limit of 137gb on pre SP1 XP I believe on ATA drives not SATA.

[Bewster]

Run a low level reformat on it as NTFS, you can do that in windows with a low level format tool like HDD Low Level Format Tool 4.25, does exactly what it says on the tin, or by booting into the drive from the install disk and doing a full format on there and stopping the instalation before it starts copying files and swapping back over to the proper boot drive.

This is the sort of answer that scares me  

[Peter Venkman]

This is the sort of answer that scares me  

That includes links to download the software too.

[Bewster]

Cheers JJ

[Power to people]

Did you clear all partitions before rebuilding it and make it one partition

[Bewster]

Did you clear all partitions before rebuilding it and make it one partition

yes

[jonny72]

This is the limit with XP pre-SP1 - doesn't matter what type of drive it is.

You need to get a newer XP installer (SP1 or later) or use a partition manager to reclaim the extra space.

If you're feeling adventurous, then you could always create your own XP SP3 installer by slipstreaming the service packs in to your current installer.

[Bewster]

If you're feeling adventurous, then you could always create your own XP SP3 installer by slipstreaming the service packs in to your current installer.

eeeeeeek !!

The IT guys at work have given me G Parted on cd to use. Fingers crossed

[Samdy Gray]

GParted will sort it easily. Increasing the partition size is a piece of cake.