Full HDD capacity not recognized in SP2

[Gene Goldenfeld]

Several days ago I installed an Athlon 64/3000 cpu on a MSI K8NGM2-FID
board, then reformatted the Western Digital 160GB HDD, did a clean
install from a slipstreamed SP2 CD, installed the BIOS, finished the
Windows update to current, flashed the BIOS, and reinstalled
applications, with everything running fine. Of course, at the
beginning, there was a message that the system would only support 137GB
on the drive, but I assumed that the Win install process would
recognize the rest. I just noticed that it didn't and am not sure
why. I assume the board's BIOS isn't 48-bit LBA compatible, tho I
don't find anything in the manual. Any suggestions for fixing this?
Thanks.

Gene

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

Forgot to mention that's XP Home/SP2.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

I'd say that SP2 wasn't properly slipstreamed. SP1 added support for drives larger than 137 Gb.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=303013

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

I'd say that SP2 wasn't properly slipstreamed. SP1 added support for
drives larger than 137 Gb.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=303013

I had read that before posting and couldn't find the registry entry
referred to. What would you suggest, a repair install? As I recall, a
160GB drive is really something less, but I thought it was more than
137.

Gene

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Most newer motherboards support 48 bit addressing. Its possible that the BIOS needed to be flashed first, before the XP installation. You can try a repair installation, but it won't allow you to increase the size of the windows partition. You'll probably need to do a clean installation, so you'll have the opportunity to recreate the partition.

Everything I can find indicates that slipstreaming SP2 should take care of the issue, even on a clean installation, but I've never done a slipstreamed install, so can't verify this.

You can use utilities like BootIt Next Generation or Partition Magic to resize the existing partition to its full capacity. Since SP2 is installed, it should recognize the added space.

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

Most newer motherboards support 48 bit addressing. Its possible that
the BIOS needed to be flashed first, before the XP installation. You
can try a repair installation, but it won't allow you to increase the
size of the windows partition. You'll probably need to do a clean
installation, so you'll have the opportunity to recreate the
partition.

Everything I can find indicates that slipstreaming SP2 should take
care of the issue, even on a clean installation, but I've never done
a slipstreamed install, so can't verify this.

You can use utilities like BootIt Next Generation or Partition Magic
to resize the existing partition to its full capacity. Since SP2 is
installed, it should recognize the added space.

Thanks. Fortunately, the freebee, Partition Logic, was able to give me 149GB directly.

Gene

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Glad you got it sorted out.