Unallocated space: What's wrong?

[aether]

I partitioned the drive. One is 137 GB and the other 66. It went
smoothly, and the new drive is fully functional. As was said earlier in
this thread, I think I'll stick with how it is because I rather like it
since if I ever need to reformat or anything, I can store quite a bit
of data on the new 'F:' drive. I appreciate all the help I've received
here.

 

[aether]

I've got a different problem now.

I was forced to reformat. After reformatting both drives (one drive,
two partitions), it states an accurate capacity (200 GB), but still
lists free space as 129 GB. It's recognizing the drive beyond the limit
set by MS, but now I can't partition it. It states used space as 73 GB,
but essentially all I've got installed is XP.

 

[Richard Hopkins]

I was forced to reformat.

Why? Seemed like you had everything pretty much licked. Also, when you say
you've reformatted, do you literally just mean that you reformatted the C:\
partition and reinstalled WinXP, or did you *completely* wipe and
repartition the disk?

After reformatting both drives (one drive, two partitions), it states an
accurate capacity (200 GB),

"It" states? What, exactly is "it"? Your prefernece to omit important
information continues unabated it would appear.

but still lists free space as 129 GB.

This means f**k all without knowing exactly what you are referring to here.
Disk Manager? Explorer? A third party utility, what?

Also, when you say that "free space [is] 129GB", is this the free space of
the two partitions added together, the free space on the C:\ partition,
what?

It's recognizing the drive beyond the limit set by MS,

Again, what is "it"? If you want us to help you, you're going to have to
come up with better than this. What, exactly, does Disk Management say about
your disk?

but now I can't partition it. It states used space as 73 GB,

It, it, it, it. Where, exactly, is this "used space"? Is it on your C:\
partition or the D:\ partition?

but essentially all I've got installed is XP.

Have you installed SP2? Have you tried running Scandisk? Can you still see
both C:\ and D:\ (or whatever) in Explorer?
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

 

[Ed Forsythe]

This is from the Western Digital FAQ:

"There are three common reasons why a hard drive would be detected as 137GB
(128GB Binary) during Windows installation:

1. If the Windows installation CD does not contain Windows 2000 Service Pack
3 or Windows XP Service Pack 1, the initial installation of Windows will not
support drives larger than 137GB. During installation of Windows, the hard
drive will be limited to a 137GB (or less) partition. After Windows
installation as been completed and Service Pack 1 (for Windows XP) or
Service Pack 3 (for Windows 2000) have been installed, the remaining empty
area of the hard drive can be partitioned and formatted from the directions
in Answer ID 330.

2. The system does not have a 48-bit LBA-compatible Basic Input/Output
System (BIOS) installed. This includes EIDE controller card BIOSs. Please
contact your motherboard or controller card manufacturer to determine if
your hardware supports 48-bit LBA addressing. Please see Answer ID 936 for
information pertaining to this issue.


3. Drivers for the motherboard IDE controller or controller card are not
installed. Some motherboards and controller cards require drivers to be
installed (during Windows installation) to support hard drives over 137GB.
Please contact your motherboard or controller card manufacturer for
installation instructions and driver availability for this issue."

I have found that using the drive manufacturer's software (it either comes
with the retail drive or you may download it from their Web site) is the
best way to prepare and install a new hard drive.

 

[h2so4]

Mr Hopkins! I will not have the staff throwing chalk at the students. See me
in my study after assembly.

The Headmaster.

 

[TomG]

LOL!

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 130,000 FTP users served!
^^^^^^^

 

[Richard Hopkins]

Mr Hopkins! I will not have the staff throwing chalk at the students.
See me in my study after assembly.

I never throw chalk at the brats I'll have you know. I use paperclips,
projected by a fiendishly designed and incredibly accurate crossbow, made
with three rulers, rubber bands, sellotape and a tin tack. Keeps the little
turds quiet and learning, which is what they're bally well there for.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

 

[Giuseppe Carmine De Blasio]

Keeps the little turds quiet and learning, which is what they're bally

well there for.

Fair enough...

 

[aether]

in message...

Why? Seemed like you had everything pretty much licked. Also, when you say
you've reformatted, do you literally just mean that you reformatted the C:\
partition and reinstalled WinXP, or did you *completely* wipe and
repartition the disk?

I was in the process of setting up a home network, but wasn't quite
connected yet. The ethernet card wasn't installed. At that moment,
after a reboot, Windows demanded the activation key. It prevented me
from logging onto windows, despite there being '30 days left for
activation'. I couldn't activate when not connected. I reformatted the
c: drive, and deleted the other partition.

"It" states? What, exactly is "it"? Your prefernece to omit important

information continues unabated it would appear.

The OS. (XP home)

but still lists free space as 129 GB.

This means f**k all without knowing exactly what you are referring to here.
Disk Manager? Explorer? A third party utility, what?

Also, when you say that "free space [is] 129GB", is this the free space of
the two partitions added together, the free space on the C:\ partition,
what?

It's a 200GB hard drive. Initially, the problem which brought about
this thread, was that Windows wasn't showing the accurate drive size.
However, I was able to partition the 'unallocated space'. Now, it's
showing up, but the option of partitioning the 'unallocated space'
doesn't exist. When I say the OS is 'showing it', that's only when I
right-click properties on the drive in windows explorer. (Capacity:
203,921,108,992 (189 GB) It also states, in properties, that used space
is 76.6 GB -- when I've practically nothing installed. When I click on
a folder, it states 'disk free space: 113GB'.

Again, what is "it"? If you want us to help you, you're going to have to
come up with better than this. What, exactly, does Disk Management say about
your disk?

Disk management states the drive is: 189.92 GB NTFS Healthy

It, it, it, it. Where, exactly, is this "used space"? Is it on your C:\
partition or the D:\ partition?

I don't know where the used space is. There's no option in disk
management to recover it, though. (unlike the first time)

Have you installed SP2? Have you tried running Scandisk? Can you still see
both C:\ and D:\ (or whatever) in Explorer?

Everything's installed.

 

[Richard Hopkins]

I couldn't activate when not connected.

Couldn't you have phoned the hotline? Either way I don't see why installing
a network card would have locked you out of your installation, unless you
were running an illegal software key.

I reformatted the c: drive, and deleted the other partition.

Deleting the second partition was probably a mistake in the circumstances.

The OS. (XP home)

Jeesh, what *specific* part of the OS? Explorer?

It's a 200GB hard drive. Initially, the problem which brought
about this thread, was that Windows wasn't showing the
accurate drive size.

Yeah, we know about that. The fix was installing SP1 or greater.

However, I was able to partition the 'unallocated space'. Now, it's
showing up, but the option of partitioning the 'unallocated space'
doesn't exist.

Again, where, exactly is it "showing up"? This continual failure to give us
the full story makes it bloody difficult for any of us to help you, which
isn't doing you any favours, is it?

What size does Disk Management report for the:
1) Primary Partition?
2) Secondary partition (if any)?
3) Logical drive(s) in the secondary partition (if present)?

Disk management states the drive is: 189.92 GB NTFS Healthy

So Disk Management reports the primary partition as being 180-something GB?,
and doesn't mention a secondary partition?

I don't know where the used space is. There's no option in disk
management to recover it, though. (unlike the first time)

Looks a bit like your reformat/partition delete-reinstall vanilla XP process
has screwed up the partition table. Have you tried looking at the disk with
Partition Magic or a similar third party disk provisioning tool?
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

 

[aether]

Richard Hopkins wrote:>

Looks a bit like your reformat/partition delete-reinstall vanilla XP process
has screwed up the partition table. Have you tried looking at the disk with
Partition Magic or a similar third party disk provisioning tool?
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

I refuse to spend $90 on Partition Magic in order to fix a problem
caused by faulty software. (XP's limited ability to recognize large
drives) There must be another way to recover this 'used' (nonexistent)
hard drive space. Since I deleted the partition in FDISK, why wouldn't
I have the same problem as before? (not recognizing it, but able to
partition the 'unallocates space') Again, this is caused by outdated
software. It's ridiculous to have such difficulty recognizing large
hard drives in 2005. Hard drives with over 120GB of space have been
around for apprx. four years.

 

[aether]

I didn't mention that the partitioned drive had nothing on it. It was
completely blank. (unused) Recovery of files isn't the issue here. I
want the space from the partition back.

 

[TomG]

if you had been doing a fresh install of XP that INCLUDED SP1 or SP2
slipstreamed into them, then you would probably not be fighting this issue.
since you went back to the original version of XP (at least as far as I can
understand it...) you are faced with the same issue.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 130,000 FTP users served!
^^^^^^^

 

[Richard Hopkins]

I refuse to spend $90 on Partition Magic in order to fix a problem
caused by faulty software.

I'd suggest that this problem is more down to user error than software
problems. It appears your repeated pissing about and reinstallation has
caused this latest problem. Remember the saying about the poor workman
always blaming his tools?

Either way, if you wish to bitch, the people you should be bitching are are
Microsoft, or, secondarily, the hard disk manufacturers for having the
temerity to break the 28 bit LBA barrier in the first place.

(XP's limited ability to recognize large drives)

The initial vanilla WinXP's codebase was set back in 2001, at a time when
hard disks larger than 137GB were largely vapour. Microsoft patched the OS
at the first possible opportunity.

There must be another way to recover this 'used' (nonexistent)
hard drive space.

If you don't want to shell out on Partition Magic, you could look for a
freeware or shareware utility that will do the same job. Alternatively, you
could either try creating a slipstreamed WinXP CD with SP2 already
integrated, low-level format your disk to remove the current error, then
reinstall XP with the new SP2 CD.

Alternatively, low-level format the disk, reinstall the vanilla XP, stick
SP2 on and then do what you did before, creating an extended partition, and
a new virtual disk, in the remaining space via Disk Management.

Since I deleted the partition in FDISK, why wouldn't
I have the same problem as before?

Seeing as we don't have your system in front of us, it is impossible to say
with 100% clarity what caused this problem. However, seeing as FDISK doesn't
support large disks, it is likely that your use of this utility to delete
the partition has caused your current problem by creating an incorrect
partition table.

Again, this is caused by outdated software.

Yeah, the PC market just keeps advancing. Sucks doesn't it.

It's ridiculous to have such difficulty recognizing large
hard drives in 2005.

Your problems are atypical, it's not like we hear of these issues every day.
As mentioned above, one can't help but wonder how much of this issue is down
to the tools, and how much to the workman.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

 

[JBM]

I've got a different problem now.

I was forced to reformat. After reformatting both drives (one drive,
two partitions), it states an accurate capacity (200 GB), but still
lists free space as 129 GB. It's recognizing the drive beyond the limit
set by MS, but now I can't partition it. It states used space as 73 GB,
but essentially all I've got installed is XP.

You installed with your old XP disk so of course your going to
have the same problems with large disks.
Create an slipstreamed disk with SP2 and use that to install XP
http://www.msfn.org/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=49

Jim M

 

[aether]

It seems that, unless I purchase partition magic, one way or another,
I'm going to have to reformat.

 

[aether]

Came across something interesting. I went to run in the start menu and
typed 'chkdsk', and for the brief moment that it appears, I saw this:
'WARNING! F parameter not specified'

Now, 'F:' was the partition drive letter. What's this mean, exactly?

 

[JBM]

Came across something interesting. I went to run in the start menu and
typed 'chkdsk', and for the brief moment that it appears, I saw this:
'WARNING! F parameter not specified'

Now, 'F:' was the partition drive letter. What's this mean, exactly?

 

[aether]

Mission accomplished! I ran 'check disk' (disk check, error-checking)
at restart (drive properties, 'tools'), and after waiting awhile for it
to finish (much longer than usual), the OS now recognizes the entire
hard drive. Once again, I appreciate all the help I received here.

 

[Ed Forsythe]

Good show! Glad you got is squared away in spite of Richard's help ;-)