Cannot partition New Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Walter R.
  • Start date Start date
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Walter R.

I am using Win XP SP2

I installed a new 500 GB SATA drive on my old computer, using a PCI/SATA
controller. In the Device Manager, the drive shows under Disk Drives and as
working properly. The controller shows as a SCSI/Raid Controller and as
working properly.

In Disk Management, I let Windows initialize the drive to Basic. The new
drive shows in Windows Disk Management as Disk 2, Basic, online,
unallocated, 465.76 GB (giga).
OK, but when I right click on the drive in Disk Management, I get a choice
between 'Partition' and 'Properties'. When I try to partition the drive,
Windows tells me that the maximum partition can only be 476,939 MB (mega)!!

What is wrong?

In the Bios, in the IDE HDD Auto Detection, there are only the two existing
IDE drives and the floppy and CD Rom. Where would one normally find the SATA
drive in the BIOS? I cannot not find it anywhere in the Bios.

Thanks
 
Walter said:
I am using Win XP SP2

I installed a new 500 GB SATA drive on my old computer, using a PCI/SATA
controller. In the Device Manager, the drive shows under Disk Drives and as
working properly. The controller shows as a SCSI/Raid Controller and as
working properly.

In Disk Management, I let Windows initialize the drive to Basic. The new
drive shows in Windows Disk Management as Disk 2, Basic, online,
unallocated, 465.76 GB (giga).
OK, but when I right click on the drive in Disk Management, I get a choice
between 'Partition' and 'Properties'. When I try to partition the drive,
Windows tells me that the maximum partition can only be 476,939 MB (mega)!!

What is wrong?

In the Bios, in the IDE HDD Auto Detection, there are only the two existing
IDE drives and the floppy and CD Rom. Where would one normally find the SATA
drive in the BIOS? I cannot not find it anywhere in the Bios.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Nothing's wrong...really. The first step towards partitioning is to
create the partition. Depending on how the drive is intended to being
used, the partitin could be a primary or extended partition. And by
definition, a partition could be a single drive or a drive consisting
of several logical drives. As a single drive/partition, the maximum
partition can only be 476,936 MB (or 476.9 GB), when 1 byte equals
1 Byte or 456.76 GB (or 456,760 MB), when 1.024 bytes equals 1 Byte.
This is the "Bytes" or "bytes" game in counting.

And where one finds a SATA drive really depends on the bios used by
the specific manufacturer and how the manufacturer had it programmed.
Again, if the drive is seen in Windows XP, it has been recognized in
the bios. In this example, the SATA drive would probably show up under
SCSI drives.
 
Thank you. I was getting befuddled with all these giga and mega bytes. Time
to call it a day.
 
Walter R. said:
I am using Win XP SP2

I installed a new 500 GB SATA drive on my old computer, using a PCI/SATA
controller. In the Device Manager, the drive shows under Disk Drives and as
working properly. The controller shows as a SCSI/Raid Controller and as
working properly.

In Disk Management, I let Windows initialize the drive to Basic. The new
drive shows in Windows Disk Management as Disk 2, Basic, online, unallocated,
465.76 GB (giga).
OK, but when I right click on the drive in Disk Management, I get a choice
between 'Partition' and 'Properties'. When I try to partition the drive,
Windows tells me that the maximum partition can only be 476,939 MB (mega)!!

What is wrong?

In the Bios, in the IDE HDD Auto Detection, there are only the two existing
IDE drives and the floppy and CD Rom. Where would one normally find the SATA
drive in the BIOS? I cannot not find it anywhere in the Bios.
Click to expand...

You won't find the drive in the BIOS if you're using an add-on controller
card. The Controller card has it's own BIOS and should be detected during boot
at which time it should detect and show the connected drive.


--


Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
Brian A. said:
You won't find the drive in the BIOS if you're using an add-on controller
card. The Controller card has it's own BIOS and should be detected during
boot at which time it should detect and show the connected drive.


--


Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Click to expand...

Just a heads up about something I noticed regarding some add-on cards and
their corresponding bios at boot time. Using analog video mode, all is
visible during boot time including the add-on cards bios results in finding
or not finding a hard drive. In digital video mode, just a blank screen
during that add-on card's part of the routine.
--
Dave

New drilling sites for oil offshore and other
sensitive places. Question is, will that oil
go here in the U.S., or someplace else for sale?
 
Walter R. said:
I am using Win XP SP2

I installed a new 500 GB SATA drive on my old computer, using a PCI/SATA
controller. (SNIP)
When I try to partition the drive, Windows tells me that the maximum
partition can only be 476,939 MB mega!!

What is wrong? (SNIP)
Thanks
Click to expand...


Walter:
As you have heard there's nothing wrong with the way the disk size was
reported. In most cases a HDD advertised as 500 GB will actually be about
465 GB in binary terms. 476, 939 MB "translated" to gigabytes will be about
465 GB.

You might want to take a look at http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/
which has a neat online conversion calculator re bytes, KB, MB, GB, etc.
Anna
 
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