Incorrect hard drive reporting..

[justkilintyme]

I am working on a friends computer, attempting to speed it up a bit. I removed her 32 GB hard drive, and installed a 300GB hard drive. She has XP pro, the upgrade disk, so I needed to install the original windows ME (bleh) from the computer restore disks...This was a pretty much automated process, and it made 2 partitions on the hard drive, C, and D, each 16GB. no worries, I figured i could re-partition everything with the new XP installation, problem is, all that is available is 32GB. I cannot access the rest of the drive. the BIOS now seed the drive as aprox 32GB, not the original 300. the drive is a Maxtor Basics ATA/100. FDISK didnt help either... Any suggestions?

I put a different hard drive in to see if it would happen again, it is an IBM 40GB, and BIOS recognizes it as 41174MB, which to me would elliminate the BIOS as the culprate above...Help please.

 

[Anon_F]

Trying clicking HERE

 

[muckshifter]

I'm sorry, but you "assume" to much ... I suggest you start again and yes, some older BIOSs had a HD limitation, not just FDISK

Give me some more details, especially make model motherboard.

In the meantime, you can install XP upgrade CD without first installing any OS ...

Begin the windows XP install as if it was the full version, during the install you will be prompted for a previous operating system, at his point put your old operating system CD in the drive and browse to the I386 folder (for Windows NT or 2000), WIN9X folder (for Windows ME), or WIN98 folder (for Windows 98). Click OK, the windows upgrade will confirm this is a full version and continue with the upgrade.

At one point it will ask where to install to, here is where I would delete any partitions you previously made and start again. If then you still cannot "see" all the HD XP, once installed, should allow you, if the BIOS can "see" all the HD, to format the remaining space.

Failing all that ... re-install the original HD and repeat above install, then add the bigger drive as a slave. Your MB may be to old to cope.