Maxtor 6L200M0 - Drive space

[Guest]

The subj HDD was installed in a newly built PC but despite being 200GB
(detected by BIOS at startup) is only showing as ~128GB by XP both in My
Computer and Disk Manager. The latter shows it as a single partition/
healthy HDD but with teh 128GB capacity . Retailer suggested a software
problem fixed by reinstalling SP2 (no joy) or by running Windows repair
(where/ how?). Beyond that he suggested backing up and reinstalling windows
or reformating the hard drive (both of which I am reluctant to do).

Any suggestions gratefully received!

 

[Guest]

Jef, Many thanks, understand the problem and now part of the way to the
solution. Not keen on yr 1st suggestion, but would be very grateful for more
info on the second 2 suggestions - How!? (Now passed the extent of my
unsupervised computer maintenance).

 

[Lurking Rat in 'Da Hood®]

SJR wrote:
| The subj HDD was installed in a newly built PC but despite being 200GB
| (detected by BIOS at startup) is only showing as ~128GB by XP both in My
| Computer and Disk Manager. The latter shows it as a single partition/
| healthy HDD but with teh 128GB capacity . Retailer suggested a software
| problem fixed by reinstalling SP2 (no joy) or by running Windows repair
| (where/ how?). Beyond that he suggested backing up and reinstalling
windows
| or reformating the hard drive (both of which I am reluctant to do).
|
| Any suggestions gratefully received!


Prior to Service Pack 1 Windows XP only supported partitions of about 128
GB.

After Service Pack 1, larger partitions are supported.

You have three choices:

.. Reformat and reinstall with an XP CD that has at least SP1 slipstreamed.

.. Use a 3rd party program, such as Partition Magic, to resize your
partition.

.. Use Disk Management to format the blank space on the disk into a second
partition.

Jef

 

[Anna]

Prior to Service Pack 1 Windows XP only supported partitions of about 128
GB.

After Service Pack 1, larger partitions are supported.

You have three choices:

. Reformat and reinstall with an XP CD that has at least SP1 slipstreamed.

. Use a 3rd party program, such as Partition Magic, to resize your
partition.

. Use Disk Management to format the blank space on the disk into a second
partition.

Jef

Jef, Many thanks, understand the problem and now part of the way to the
solution. Not keen on yr 1st suggestion, but would be very grateful for
more
info on the second 2 suggestions - How!? (Now passed the extent of my
unsupervised computer maintenance).

SJR:
The problem is the 137 GB (roughly 128 GB binary) barrier. There are two
basic requirements for the XP operating system to recognize hard drives
whose capacity is greater than 137 GB (128 GB)...
1. The motherboard's BIOS must support this capability (we'll assume yours
does), and;
2. SP1 and/or SP2 has been installed at the time the large-capacity disk is
installed.

So if you install a 200 GB drive in an XP OS sans SP1 or SP2, the system
will only recognize the smaller capacity as above. It's as simple as that.

Now when you subsequently install SP1 or SP2, the system *will* recognize
that additional disk space, but it will be "unallocated space" which you
obviously have to partition & format if it's going to be of any use to you.
For this you use XP's Disk Management utility. It's a relatively simple
process. (Do a Google search on XP Disk Management if you know nothing about
it).

So you *must* install SP1 or SP2 if the full capacity of your 200 GB disk is
to be recognized. I assume you already have SP2 installed on your machine
because you refer to reinstalling it. There's no need to reinstall SP2 under
these circumstances. So if SP2 has been installed on your machine, access DM
and partition/format the "unallocated space". There's plenty of information
on the net re using XP's DM.
Anna

 

[Lurking Rat in 'Da Hood®]

SJR wrote:
|
| Jef, Many thanks, understand the problem and now part of the way to the
| solution. Not keen on yr 1st suggestion, but would be very grateful for
more
| info on the second 2 suggestions - How!? (Now passed the extent of my
| unsupervised computer maintenance).
|

Anna has pretty much covered it.

For a 30,000 foot flyover:

Right-click on My Computer and select Manage from the drop-down menu.

In the Computer Management window, select Disk Management.

Right-click the unallocated space of your 200GB hard disk. From that
drop-down menu, choose the option to create a partition in that space and
format it.

Take care to right-click the unallocated space. While you won't be able to
re-partition your active Windows XP partition, no sense adding confusion.

Jef

 

[Guest]

SJR wrote:
|
| Jef, Many thanks, understand the problem and now part of the way to the
| solution. Not keen on yr 1st suggestion, but would be very grateful for
more
| info on the second 2 suggestions - How!? (Now passed the extent of my
| unsupervised computer maintenance).
|

Anna has pretty much covered it.

For a 30,000 foot flyover:

Right-click on My Computer and select Manage from the drop-down menu.

In the Computer Management window, select Disk Management.

Right-click the unallocated space of your 200GB hard disk. From that
drop-down menu, choose the option to create a partition in that space and
format it.

Take care to right-click the unallocated space. While you won't be able to
re-partition your active Windows XP partition, no sense adding confusion.

Jef

Anna, Jef, Once again many thanks, however..... according to DM I have no
unallocated space on the drive to partition of format. I'm trawling the www,
but anything you may have to offer would again be gratefully received.

SJR

 

[Lurking Rat in 'Da Hood®]

SJR wrote:
|
| Anna, Jef, Once again many thanks, however..... according to DM I have no
| unallocated space on the drive to partition of format. I'm trawling the
www,
| but anything you may have to offer would again be gratefully received.
|
| SJR

Anna has posted the following link in response to another user who is having
problems with 48-bit LBA support (which is required in both the BIOS and the
drivers under Windows XP for drives larger than ~128GB are fully
recognized):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

Using the link as a guide, verify whether or not you are using the latest
IDE driver and post back your results.

Jef

 

[Anna]

SJR wrote:
|
| Anna, Jef, Once again many thanks, however..... according to DM I have
no
| unallocated space on the drive to partition of format. I'm trawling the
www,| but anything you may have to offer would again be gratefully
received.
|
| SJR

Anna has posted the following link in response to another user who is
having
problems with 48-bit LBA support (which is required in both the BIOS and
the
drivers under Windows XP for drives larger than ~128GB are fully
recognized):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

Using the link as a guide, verify whether or not you are using the latest
IDE driver and post back your results.

Jef

SJR:
In response to your original posting in which you stated your system wasn't
recognizing the full-capacity of your 200 GB HD (only 128 GB was being
recognized), I responded as follows:

"The problem is the 137 GB (roughly 128 GB binary) barrier. There are two
basic requirements for the XP operating system to recognize hard drives
whose capacity is greater than 137 GB (128 GB)...
1. The motherboard's BIOS must support this capability (we'll assume yours
does), and;
2. SP1 and/or SP2 has been installed at the time the large-capacity disk is
installed.

So if you install a 200 GB drive in an XP OS sans SP1 or SP2, the system
will only recognize the smaller capacity as above. It's as simple as that.

Now when you subsequently install SP1 or SP2, the system *will* recognize
that additional disk space, but it will be "unallocated space" which you
obviously have to partition & format if it's going to be of any use to you.
For this you use XP's Disk Management utility. It's a relatively simple
process. (Do a Google search on XP Disk Management if you know nothing about
it).

So you *must* install SP1 or SP2 if the full capacity of your 200 GB disk is
to be recognized. I assume you already have SP2 installed on your machine
because you refer to reinstalling it. There's no need to reinstall SP2 under
these circumstances. So if SP2 has been installed on your machine, access DM
and partition/format the "unallocated space". There's plenty of information
on the net re using XP's DM."

I assumed from your query that you *did* have SP2 installed on your machine
since you referred to a "reinstall" of that SP. As I stated above, *if* your
motherboard supports large-capacity disks, when you subsequently install SP2
(or SP1) the remaining capacity of that large drive will be recognized
beyond the 137 GB (128 GB) originally recognized by the system when you
originally installed the HD and did *not* have SP1 or SP2 installed at that
time. This remaining capacity, however, is considered "unallocated space"
and must be partitioned and formatted using XP's Disk Management utility.

Now you say DM does *not* show any unallocated disk space and (presumably)
indicates total disk capacity of only 128 GB. Do I understand you correctly?
You're absolutely sure you have SP1 and/or SP2 installed? And you're sure
your motherboard's BIOS supports large-disk capability, yes?

Forget about that MS KB article that I mentioned in another thread. It
really has no relevance to your situation. (In some ways I'm sorry MS ever
published that article. It's caused more misunderstanding & confusion in
this area than I like to think about).
Anna

 

[Lurking Rat in 'Da Hood®]

Anna wrote:
|
| Forget about that MS KB article that I mentioned in another thread.
| It really has no relevance to your situation. (In some ways I'm sorry
| MS ever published that article. It's caused more misunderstanding
| & confusion in this area than I like to think about).
| Anna
|
|

Hi Anna -

I agree about that KB article being confusing.

I repeated your link with the advice to verify the IDE driver version only.

I've run across a situation where, even though SP1/SP2 were installed on a
machine with a 48-bit LBA supported BIOS, for some reason, the new IDE
driver wasn't installed.

A simple removal of the IDE controllers from Device Manager sorted it in
this one situation. Upon reboot, the newer IDE driver was detected and
installed.

Jef

 

[Anna]

|
| Forget about that MS KB 303013 article that I mentioned in another
thread.
| It really has no relevance to your situation. (In some ways I'm sorry
| MS ever published that article. It's caused more misunderstanding
| & confusion in this area than I like to think about).
| Anna

Hi Anna -

I agree about that KB article being confusing.

I repeated your link with the advice to verify the IDE driver version
only.

I've run across a situation where, even though SP1/SP2 were installed on a
machine with a 48-bit LBA supported BIOS, for some reason, the new IDE
driver wasn't installed.

A simple removal of the IDE controllers from Device Manager sorted it in
this one situation. Upon reboot, the newer IDE driver was detected and
installed.

Jef

Interesting. I've never run across that specific situation you mention where
a simple reinstall of the IDE controllers resulted in the system recognizing
a large-capacity disk where formerly it didn't. Of course we've run across a
motherboard's defective controllers to begin with a number of times, but
that situation called for more than a simple uninstall/reinstall of the
controller(s). I'll keep it in mind.
Anna

 

[Lurking Rat in 'Da Hood®]

Anna wrote:
|
| Interesting. I've never run across that specific situation you mention
where
| a simple reinstall of the IDE controllers resulted in the system
recognizing
| a large-capacity disk where formerly it didn't. Of course we've run across
a
| motherboard's defective controllers to begin with a number of times, but
| that situation called for more than a simple uninstall/reinstall of the
| controller(s). I'll keep it in mind.
| Anna
|

Hi Anna -

This is why I asked the OP to verify the IDE driver version.

In the case I observed where this was a problem, I suspect it was a BIOS
revision that had code not completely compliant with the 48-bit LBA standard
was the culprit.

It's a long shot, but the OP did report that the BIOS detected the drive
capacity as 200GB. Other possibilities could be a dodgy IDE controller, as
you indicate, or even a dodgy drive.

Jef

 

[Guest]

Anna, Jef, I'm Back - pages marked as unavaialable until now(!).

Most of the last few threads have gone over my head (although I did try
standing up).

The BIOS detects the drive on start up as 200GB; could this just be the HDD
label it detects or the capacity? It is however a SATA HDD vice an IDE, am I
correct in assuming the IDE driver issue is a red herring?

The PC is only a coiple of months old, but was back very very recently for
defect rectification and had the MB replaced, it was after this that I
notivced the HDD capacity issue - it may have been 128 vice 200 before but I
didn't notice.

Once again many thanks for yr help.

SJR

 

[Anna]

Anna, Jef, I'm Back - pages marked as unavaialable until now(!).

Most of the last few threads have gone over my head (although I did try
standing up).

The BIOS detects the drive on start up as 200GB; could this just be the
HDD
label it detects or the capacity? It is however a SATA HDD vice an IDE,
am I
correct in assuming the IDE driver issue is a red herring?

The PC is only a coiple of months old, but was back very very recently for
defect rectification and had the MB replaced, it was after this that I
notivced the HDD capacity issue - it may have been 128 vice 200 before but
I
didn't notice.

Once again many thanks for yr help.

SJR

SJR:
In substance, I'm repeating the information I provided you previously, as
follows...

"In response to your original posting in which you stated your system wasn't
recognizing the full-capacity of your 200 GB HD (only 128 GB was being
recognized), I responded as follows:

"The problem is the 137 GB (roughly 128 GB binary) barrier. There are two
basic requirements for the XP operating system to recognize hard drives
whose capacity is greater than 137 GB (128 GB)...
1. The motherboard's BIOS must support this capability (we'll assume yours
does), and;
2. SP1 and/or SP2 has been installed at the time the large-capacity disk is
installed.

So if you install a 200 GB drive in an XP OS sans SP1 or SP2, the system
will only recognize the smaller capacity as above. It's as simple as that.

Now when you subsequently install SP1 or SP2, the system *will* recognize
that additional disk space, but it will be "unallocated space" which you
obviously have to partition & format if it's going to be of any use to you.
For this you use XP's Disk Management utility. It's a relatively simple
process. (Do a Google search on XP Disk Management if you know nothing about
it).

So you *must* install SP1 or SP2 if the full capacity of your 200 GB disk is
to be recognized. I assume you already have SP2 installed on your machine
because you refer to reinstalling it. There's no need to reinstall SP2 under
these circumstances. So if SP2 has been installed on your machine, access DM
and partition/format the "unallocated space". There's plenty of information
on the net re using XP's DM."

I assumed from your query that you *did* have SP2 installed on your machine
since you referred to a "reinstall" of that SP. As I stated above, *if* your
motherboard supports large-capacity disks, when you subsequently install SP2
(or SP1) the remaining capacity of that large drive will be recognized
beyond the 137 GB (128 GB) originally recognized by the system when you
originally installed the HD and did *not* have SP1 or SP2 installed at that
time. This remaining capacity, however, is considered "unallocated space"
and must be partitioned and formatted using XP's Disk Management utility.

Now you say DM does *not* show any unallocated disk space and (presumably)
indicates total disk capacity of only 128 GB. Do I understand you correctly?
You're absolutely sure you have SP1 and/or SP2 installed? And you're sure
your motherboard's BIOS supports large-disk capability, yes?"

I honestly don't know what I can add to the above to make this issue more
clearer to you. And the fact that you're dealing with a SATA HD and not a
PATA drive is not relevant in this situation. Ditto as to the reinstallation
of the IDE controllers.

Frankly, I'm not even sure I understand your problem at this point. What
this all comes down to is simply this...
1. If your motherboard's BIOS supports large-capacity drives, i.e., drives >
137 GB, and;
2. You have SP1 and/or SP2 installed at the time you partition/format your
drive, the full-capacity of that disk will be recognized.

Period.
Anna