120GB Drive Install

[Guest]

I have XP, SP1, and SP2 installed. I just bought a 120GB Western Digital HD.
My BIOS sees the drive as 114xxxMB, the Overlay software that came with the
drive sees the drive as 120GB, and I can partition/format the drive with
WIN95 (I only see 48GB, but that's OK) as the software that came with the
drive see's it still as 120GB.

I tried starting from a clean install but XP only sees 32GB. I tried using
the overlay program that came with the drive, no help. I tried installing XP
on a 1.5GB drive and formatting the new 120GB drive, then using this newly
formatted drive to install XP. However, it only sees 32GB still.

I have updated my BIOS about 5 months ago. Since my bios sees the full
range of the drive, I am not convinced that this is the problem. Has anyone
had any problems similar to this? If so, what did you do.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Regards,

Brad

 

[Bob Harris]

Are you trying to use FAT32 as the format? If so, XP will only create a
partition that is 32 Gig (or less) in that format. However, XP can use a
partition larger than that, if you make it by some other program.

If you are willing to accept NTFS as the format, XP can make one big
partition.

As far as "overlay programs", those can get tricky and are often very
dependent on the operating system. If the PC BIOS can handle the drive
directly, do not use that program, as it may cause problems later if you try
to upgrade.

I suggest that use use the WD partitioning and formatting software that
probably came with the disk, or which you can download form the WD support
website.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the input Bob, but I have formatted the drive using XP installed
on a 1.5GB HD. Even after formatting the new drive through XP, and then
removing the 1.5GB HD and using the 120GB drive for the setup XP only see's
32GB. I thought that for sure by formatting the drive with XP, that when I
ran setup from the CD at boot that things would be fine. NO such luck.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Regards

 

[Guest]

Oh! I forgot, I originally had a 40GB HD installed and XP dealt with this
just fine.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have XP, SP1, and SP2 installed. I just bought a 120GB Western Digital HD.
My BIOS sees the drive as 114xxxMB, the Overlay software that came with the
drive sees the drive as 120GB, and I can partition/format the drive with
WIN95 (I only see 48GB, but that's OK) as the software that came with the
drive see's it still as 120GB.

I tried starting from a clean install but XP only sees 32GB. I tried using
the overlay program that came with the drive, no help. I tried installing XP
on a 1.5GB drive and formatting the new 120GB drive, then using this newly
formatted drive to install XP. However, it only sees 32GB still.

DO NOT use overlay software like that if you are going to use XP. Clean
the partition off, use Win98 FDISK /MBR to remove the overlay, and
either:

Partition and Format as part of the XP setup. Boot the XP CD direct.
Enter Setup, and after the license agreement take New Install. When it
asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete the current
partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted at the next stage

Or if using it as a second drive, in XP, Control Panel - Admin Tools -
Computer Management, select Disk Management and look lower right for the
graphic of the drive. R-click any existing partition and delete. Then
r-click Unallocated space and Create Partition

Note that XP will only format a FAT 32 partition under 32 GB. Above it
insists on NTFS. But I would not use that much for the system anyway