New hard drive

[Guest]

I had a problem with an old drive of 40GB.
I have replaced it with 200GB. It's been quite a saga, but I have finally
installed windows Me from the original disks provided by the computer
manufacturer and I have used an upgrade to windows XP.
What is odd is that the computer only seems to recognise 40GB of hard drive
(In My computer, C:, properties) Something seems to have been held over from
the past.
Any ideas on how I can get it to realise it has 200GB to play with?

 

[Alias]

I had a problem with an old drive of 40GB.
I have replaced it with 200GB. It's been quite a saga, but I have finally
installed windows Me from the original disks provided by the computer
manufacturer and I have used an upgrade to windows XP.
What is odd is that the computer only seems to recognise 40GB of hard drive
(In My computer, C:, properties) Something seems to have been held over from
the past.
Any ideas on how I can get it to realise it has 200GB to play with?

You made the mistake of installing Win Me first. Wipe the drive and
format it in NSFT and make at least one partition. You can do this by
using the floppy(ies) that you can download from the HD manufacturer's
web site. Once you do that, leave the set up and go into the BIOS and
make the CD ROM as the first to boot. Exit and save with the XP CD in
the CDROM. Do an upgrade. When it asks for qualifying media, take out
the XP CD and put the ME CD in and then follow the instructions.

Alias

 

[Guest]

Depending on how old your computer is, there is a HDD limitation by the OS or
the computer BIOS possibly.

Need more info. COmputer MFG, HD MFG, Motherbrd, ram, HD controllers, etc
Raid, SCSI, Or other PCI controller cards installed?
As much info as you can provide

 

[old jon]

You made the mistake of installing Win Me first. Wipe the drive and format
it in NSFT and make at least one partition. You can do this by

 

[Jonny]

Kinda depends on a few things. A generic PC with bios w/48 bit lba is not a
problem. The PC may require special drivers. The PC may not have native 48
bit lba in its bios. The installation XP CD used may not have SP1 or higher
for recognition of the 200GB hard drive capacity. WinME generation PCs are
doubtful to have the correct bios.

 

[Charlie Tame]

There is a limit of 137 Gigabytes for many older motherboards due to the
available addressing and BIOS.

The 200 G drive should have come with info on this and a utility to make it
work, which you may have to run first. For that reason I suggest you create
at least two partitions, one smaller than 137. That way if it fails at any
time there's some hope your files will not get corrupted. Treat the higher
area of the disk with caution. I've seen this go to hell in a handbasket a
couple of times now

When asked during boot up hit whatever key it tells you to enter the BIOS or
"Setup" mode. Find the section that describes the drives and if there's an
auto option use it to set up the newly formatted drive. If it's not on auto
that may be where your hangover to 40G is coming from. It's hard to be
specific as BIOS varies a lot.

Charlie