View Full Version : I got 250GB, Windows says 120GB
I have just finished building my new system and I installed Windows XP. I have a 250GB Sata2 hard drive in it but windows says I only have 120GB. I knew something wasn't right when I started formating the hard drive and it said there was 130,000MB available.
What's the problem?
specs:
Intel Celeron D 346
7900GT
WD 250 GB (7.200rpm, 16MB cache, Sata 2)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Movieman
07-07-2006, 08:33 AM
sounds like the 137 gig restriction. Format the drive using the cd that came with the drive. That will take care of the issue.
Then do your normal windows install.
yaddam205
07-07-2006, 08:37 AM
Install service pack 2 problem solved.
The drive didn't came with any cd, so I can't do that. Is it cerain that the problem will be solved with service pack 2?
Zenphic
07-07-2006, 08:55 AM
The drive didn't came with any cd, so I can't do that. Is it cerain that the problem will be solved with service pack 2?
It would be a solution to surely try before doing a format :)
Check your jumper settings on the drive.
Check your jumper settings on the drive.
Jumpers on SATA drive ? :stick:
Anyway, If the Bios see it as 250gb, then it's a Windows problem.. Install SP2 (why people are so afraid of installing it !)
Can you provide a link to service pack 2? I had the file in a folder but it must have been corrupted or something. I tried to get it from windows update but I can't get it for some reason. Maybe because I have already installed it in this pc.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
Jumpers on SATA drive ? :stick:
Anyway, If the Bios see it as 250gb, then it's a Windows problem.. Install SP2 (why people are so afraid of installing it !)
Heh, mustve skipped over the part where he said, sata2
deeznuts
07-07-2006, 09:34 AM
Well you don't want a 250GB partition anyway, do you? I always recommend at least 2 partitions, so when you reformat you don't lose anything, only OS and programs on C drive for me. So I leave that as 30-50 GB. Then make two other partitions, about 100GB each. Problem solved, no need for SP2. Although SP2 should be installed anyway.
Thanks. I'll install it and see if it solves the problem.
Well, installing SP2 didn't change the situation. I still have 120GB according to windows...
Well, installing SP2 didn't change the situation. I still have 120GB according to windows...
computer managment > disk managment
is there a blank space there?
It's because of windows, it has problems with a LBA48 (48bit logical block adressing).
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013
Yes there is.
Then make a second partition in the blank space and you got it all =)
jaguarking11
07-07-2006, 03:56 PM
You need xp with sp2 integrated.
as for 250gig partitions being too big, thats a load of crap. The only partitions I would sugest are the ones implied by the physical drive. Meaning one per drive. Its faster to back things up in that manner from drive to drive.
jaguarking11
07-07-2006, 03:58 PM
Then make a second partition in the blank space and you got it all =)
Or he can use partiton magic to resize the drive to take advantage of the whole drive.
sorry but this conversation is very funny :p:
fluffysheap
07-07-2006, 08:30 PM
As others have said the limitation is that your BIOS does not understand drives >137GB.
You have a few options:
1) Create a new partition in the empty space and just have separate partitions.
2) See if there is a BIOS update for your motherboard that will allow you to access the whole drive. If the motherboard supports SATA2 I am surprised it doesn't have this support already, frankly. This problem has been around since before SATA2 so it should have been fixed by now.
3) Buy a SATA adapter interface that goes in a PCI/PCI-X slot.
4) Put a smaller drive (130GB or less) in your system and use it to boot Windows.
5) Make a "slipstream" install for XP SP2 (An install CD that has SP2 already) and reinstall from that.
6) Extend the partition to cover the whole disk (Microsoft says you can't, but you can, if you have SP2, and use the commandline tools instead of the GUI).
Actually you need only SP1, not SP2, but I don't think you can even get SP1 by itself any more.
I recommend option 1 as it is the easiest and doesn't cost anything. I do not recommend options 5 or 6. It will work for a while, but sooner or later Windows XP will put one of its critical files required to boot in a part of the disk that the BIOS can't see. Then your system will not boot and you will have to reinstall. So don't do this :)
It used to be that having lots of small partitions saved you space on your disk. This is because the filesystem is broken up into "blocks" and there were a fixed number of "blocks" that could be used. So if your disk got bigger, your blocks also got bigger. Unfortunately, a small file in a big block wasted all the extra space in that block. Since most filesystems contain lots of small files, this wasted lots of space. This was the original source of this advice and it was good advice a long time ago. But this limitation only applies to the FAT filesystem (i.e. DOS and Win95/98). NTFS and Linux are not affected by this problem. If you use NTFS, and it is almost impossible not to at this point, it doesn't make any difference and the layout of partitions is purely for organizational purposes. Or, to work around problems like this one :)
As others have said the limitation is that your BIOS does not understand drives >137GB.
You have a few options:
1) Create a new partition in the empty space and just have separate partitions.
2) See if there is a BIOS update for your motherboard that will allow you to access the whole drive. If the motherboard supports SATA2 I am surprised it doesn't have this support already, frankly. This problem has been around since before SATA2 so it should have been fixed by now.
3) Buy a SATA adapter interface that goes in a PCI/PCI-X slot.
4) Put a smaller drive (130GB or less) in your system and use it to boot Windows.
5) Make a "slipstream" install for XP SP2 (An install CD that has SP2 already) and reinstall from that.
6) Extend the partition to cover the whole disk (Microsoft says you can't, but you can, if you have SP2, and use the commandline tools instead of the GUI).
Actually you need only SP1, not SP2, but I don't think you can even get SP1 by itself any more.
I recommend option 1 as it is the easiest and doesn't cost anything. I do not recommend options 5 or 6. It will work for a while, but sooner or later Windows XP will put one of its critical files required to boot in a part of the disk that the BIOS can't see. Then your system will not boot and you will have to reinstall. So don't do this :)
It used to be that having lots of small partitions saved you space on your disk. This is because the filesystem is broken up into "blocks" and there were a fixed number of "blocks" that could be used. So if your disk got bigger, your blocks also got bigger. Unfortunately, a small file in a big block wasted all the extra space in that block. Since most filesystems contain lots of small files, this wasted lots of space. This was the original source of this advice and it was good advice a long time ago. But this limitation only applies to the FAT filesystem (i.e. DOS and Win95/98). NTFS and Linux are not affected by this problem. If you use NTFS, and it is almost impossible not to at this point, it doesn't make any difference and the layout of partitions is purely for organizational purposes. Or, to work around problems like this one :)
Actually, the BIOS sees that I have a 250GB drive. Windows doesn't let me use the whole disk as one partition. What do I need to make slipstream install with SP2 (apart from Windows and SP2)?
nLite (http://www.nliteos.com/) can integrate service pack into windows install, but I dont recommend using 1 partition on 250GB hard drive.
fluffysheap
07-08-2006, 10:37 AM
Well, if your BIOS sees the whole 250GB, you should be safe with having just one big partition.
This:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/dm_extend_basic_volume.mspx?mfr=true
will tell you how to do it. MS claims it can't be done on the current system partition, however, I was able to do it by setting Windows to use no swapfile and by booting in safe mode. You have to use the command line tool, not the GUI. Leave out the size=n parameter to fill the whole disk.
If this doesn't work for you, then you'll have to reinstall, and for that you need to integrate SP2 into your Windows install disk. You'll need an original Windows XP install disk or ISO image of one, a CD burner, a blank CD and this link:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/wxp/index.php?p=1