Storage issues . . .

[gearhead364]

I am in the process of setting up my new PC and I am currently installing Windows XP; when it came time to partition my drive the available storage is 130 GB. I know that you never get the advertised storage capacity, but 130GB versus 160GB. I will double check it when I get XP running on my PC, any reasons why the storage would post so low.

[Disposibleteen]

Yes. Windows sees one gigabite as 1024 megabytes while hard drive manufacturers use 1000 megabytes and therefore it seems like you lose some storage but in reality it is all there (minus the minute amount taken by formatting with the NTFS file system).

[gearhead364]

I know about that, but even if the HDD had an actual storage of 150 GB, windows would still post around 146 GB. It seems that there must be something else going on, any ideas?

[Disposibleteen]

How can you know that, the situation you just suggested has never occured as hdd manufacterers have been using 1000MB as 1GB for as long as i can remember.

[gearhead364]

Widows actually displays the drive as 131062 MB, this seams really low for a 160GB drive. From what I understand, the manufacturer posts my HDD as 160GB or 160000 MB; there for windows should show 156GB, because 160000/1024=156. 156GB is a big difference from 131GB, if I have misunderstood this then please tell me.

[couppi]

You sure your IDE controller has 48 bit addressing? If not, it can only use around 130 gb or so.

[Vric]

Windows should see 149gb

160gb = 160 000 000 000 bytes
160 000 000 000 / 1024 = 156 250 000 Kbytes
156 250 000 / 1024 = 152 587 Mbytes
152 587 / 1024 = 149,01 Gbytes

You problem look to be a 127Gb limit problem. I have no clue what is your PC, but if it's older, you will need a Bios Update.

[gearhead364]

I will check that out, just posted my pc in my sig if that helps.

[gearhead364]

Okay, when I looked at my HDD in the CMOS features it states it as a 160GB HDD. Where as windows recognizes it as 131GB, I have updated to the latest bios. Any suggestions?

[couppi]

I think the 160 GB in the BIOS is a string, not an actual value, if that makes any sense.

[gearhead364]

Has any one else with my MB had this problem? There has to be others out there with an Ultra-D and a harddrive over 130GB.

[.sentinel]

It is actually Windows. Do you have SP1 or SP2 slipstreamed into Windows XP? If not that is your problem. Try nLite for automated slipstreaming.

[gearhead364]

Okay, I created a streamlined version of Windows XP with SP2. I used nLite to create the disk, but for some reason i can not boot from the disk. nLite created an .iso file on the disc and that is the only file on the disk. Do i need to add anything to the disc?

[gearhead364]

Okay, I think I figured out why I have been having troble with the slipstreaming. I created my .iso and used Roxio to burn it to a CD, the problem is that my cd drive is not recognized. This is due to the fact that it is an OEM version and I do not have the original disc; so I had to upgrade the firmware to the retail version. I am now in the process of creating another more up to date .iso and then I will see what happens.

[gert_bobo]

I got this once to when i connected my 250Gb hd and it also only showed up as 130 it's the 48bit lba thingie that ain't activated in the registry here's a link from microsoft for solving the problem
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q303013
Greetz Gert AkA B0B0

[gearhead364]

I got this once to when i connected my 250Gb hd and it also only showed up as 130 it's the 48bit lba thingie that ain't activated in the registry here's a link from microsoft for solving the problem
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q303013
Greetz Gert AkA B0B0

Thanks for the link, but I have already slipstreamed a copy of XP with SP2, updates, drivers and windows preferences. If have to install windows every once and a while I suggest creating your own streamlined disc of windows. It will solve that HDD problem and you can customize windows before you install it. Thanks .sentinel for the idea.