New Hard Drive Help Please

[xyz]

Okay here's the story...... I installed a new Western Digital 120 GB drive.
I used the CD that came with it for setup. When I selected the icon to set
up the drive it took about 3 seconds then said that it had been successfully
partitioned an formatted. I thought this was strange since I expected it to
take much longer for a format, but I figured, okay, it's 2004 now, and they
must have this whole process perfected and streamlined. I then proceded
with a fresh install of Win XP Pro, but of course XP couldn't find a drive
to install it to. I screwed around for a day or two trying different things
and finally decided to do it the old fashioned way. I ran Fdisk and Format
off of a bootable floppy and finally had a C drive. Now Windows XP
installed without a hitch. The problem came when I was prompted to choose
where to install XP. To my surprise I had two partitions to choose from ( I
only meant to have one ) Remember that this is a 120 Gig drive, here is the
way it appeared on the screen...

114471 MB Disk 0 on bus 0 at Id 0 on atapi [MBR]
D: Partition1 (Drv1_Vol1) [NTFS] 114471 MB
C: Partition2 [Fat 32] 112455 MB

Those two seem to add up to much more than 120 GB. It gave the choice to
delete a partition but I wasn't sure of what to do. I Installed Windows on
Partition 1 and everything worked fine.
Now in XP's My Computer it still shows both Partitions. C: is empty, it's
Fat32 and 109 GB in size. D: has Windows installed on it and it's NTFS at
110 GB. That's 219 GB on a 120 GB Drive. Obviously something is wrong and
I'm afraid to install anything else until this is corrected. I guess I
should have deleted the Fat32 partition when I had the chance but I wasn't
sure. Does anyone know what I should do? What size should Windows be
reporting a 120 Gig? How do I get it down to one NTFS 120 GB drive?
Thanks for any help.

Heather

 

[PC_Doc]

Hi Heather ... If i was you i would start over again but this time you can
format from the windows disc , just make sure you go into the bios setting
and set the boot option to your cd rom ... Afterward just put your windows
disc in and restart your computer when it says to boot of the cd just touch
any keys and the way you go ... Here a little more info on it
The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral
hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before
installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect
the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your
main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the
existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the
primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support
website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the
following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

Note: If you are unable to activate Windows XP via the internet,
then select the option to "activate by telephone".

Okay here's the story...... I installed a new Western Digital 120 GB
drive.
I used the CD that came with it for setup. When I selected the icon to
set
up the drive it took about 3 seconds then said that it had been
successfully
partitioned an formatted. I thought this was strange since I expected it
to
take much longer for a format, but I figured, okay, it's 2004 now, and
they
must have this whole process perfected and streamlined. I then proceded
with a fresh install of Win XP Pro, but of course XP couldn't find a
drive
to install it to. I screwed around for a day or two trying different
things
and finally decided to do it the old fashioned way. I ran Fdisk and
Format
off of a bootable floppy and finally had a C drive. Now Windows XP
installed without a hitch. The problem came when I was prompted to choose
where to install XP. To my surprise I had two partitions to choose from
( I
only meant to have one ) Remember that this is a 120 Gig drive, here is
the
way it appeared on the screen...

114471 MB Disk 0 on bus 0 at Id 0 on atapi [MBR]
D: Partition1 (Drv1_Vol1) [NTFS] 114471 MB
C: Partition2 [Fat 32] 112455 MB

Those two seem to add up to much more than 120 GB. It gave the choice to
delete a partition but I wasn't sure of what to do. I Installed Windows
on
Partition 1 and everything worked fine.
Now in XP's My Computer it still shows both Partitions. C: is empty, it's
Fat32 and 109 GB in size. D: has Windows installed on it and it's NTFS at
110 GB. That's 219 GB on a 120 GB Drive. Obviously something is wrong
and
I'm afraid to install anything else until this is corrected. I guess I
should have deleted the Fat32 partition when I had the chance but I wasn't
sure. Does anyone know what I should do? What size should Windows be
reporting a 120 Gig? How do I get it down to one NTFS 120 GB drive?
Thanks for any help.

Heather

 

[Guest]

Hello,
In my opinion it sound as if you have the 64gb limit on your pc.
This means that your computers bios can only use drives of up to 64gb. This
is why your hard drive software was so quick at formatting and partitioning
your hard drive first time around. So i would indeed start again with the
hard drive software (Unless you update your PC's BIOS by flashing it!), but
when you reboot, look for a message when it reboots that usually comes up in
a blue box telling you to press a certain key to allow boot from floppy or
cdrom. This is how you utilise the full capacity of the hard drive on your pc
by waiting for this screen and then pressing the key and inserting the
windows xp cd into your drive, or a bootable floppy disk. The software
overides the bios control of the hard drive and allows the full use of the
drives capacity to software. whne you first installed windows, you bypassed
this when you used fdisk and configured the HD up to its limit within the
bios settings.

Hope this helps and provides you with a little more information as to what
happend to your drive.

Regards

Joe

Hi Heather ... If i was you i would start over again but this time you can
format from the windows disc , just make sure you go into the bios setting
and set the boot option to your cd rom ... Afterward just put your windows
disc in and restart your computer when it says to boot of the cd just touch
any keys and the way you go ... Here a little more info on it
The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral
hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before
installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect
the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your
main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the
existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the
primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support
website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the
following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

Note: If you are unable to activate Windows XP via the internet,
then select the option to "activate by telephone".

Okay here's the story...... I installed a new Western Digital 120 GB
drive.
I used the CD that came with it for setup. When I selected the icon to
set
up the drive it took about 3 seconds then said that it had been
successfully
partitioned an formatted. I thought this was strange since I expected it
to
take much longer for a format, but I figured, okay, it's 2004 now, and
they
must have this whole process perfected and streamlined. I then proceded
with a fresh install of Win XP Pro, but of course XP couldn't find a
drive
to install it to. I screwed around for a day or two trying different
things
and finally decided to do it the old fashioned way. I ran Fdisk and
Format
off of a bootable floppy and finally had a C drive. Now Windows XP
installed without a hitch. The problem came when I was prompted to choose
where to install XP. To my surprise I had two partitions to choose from
( I
only meant to have one ) Remember that this is a 120 Gig drive, here is
the
way it appeared on the screen...

114471 MB Disk 0 on bus 0 at Id 0 on atapi [MBR]
D: Partition1 (Drv1_Vol1) [NTFS] 114471 MB
C: Partition2 [Fat 32] 112455 MB

Those two seem to add up to much more than 120 GB. It gave the choice to
delete a partition but I wasn't sure of what to do. I Installed Windows
on
Partition 1 and everything worked fine.
Now in XP's My Computer it still shows both Partitions. C: is empty, it's
Fat32 and 109 GB in size. D: has Windows installed on it and it's NTFS at
110 GB. That's 219 GB on a 120 GB Drive. Obviously something is wrong
and
I'm afraid to install anything else until this is corrected. I guess I
should have deleted the Fat32 partition when I had the chance but I wasn't
sure. Does anyone know what I should do? What size should Windows be
reporting a 120 Gig? How do I get it down to one NTFS 120 GB drive?
Thanks for any help.

Heather