Only 4GB showing in C: of 376GB in Computer Management

[Phil Evelyn]

I have just installed W2K Advanced on a brand new Compaq ML540 (sorry, I am
NEVER going to call it an HP). The install went ok, checked in computer
management and the correct drive space was available (RAID 5 on 76GB HDD's x
6). Went to transfer data from the old server and the data transfer stopped
saying insufficient disk space. On checking through My Computer I see that
it thinks drive c: is only 4GB in size - but Computer Management definitely
reports the correct amount of space.

I tried installing SP4 so see if that would fix the problem but no change.
Is this a RAID controller issue and I need an updated driver from Compaq or
is this a W2K issue?

Any help greatfully received.


Phil Evelyn

 

[Mike Ford]

http://www.windows2000faq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?
ArticleID=13876

During the text based portion of the NT installation, it
is possible to create and format partitions. The maximum
size for an NTFS partition is very large (16 exabytes),
however the maximum size for a FAT partition under NT is
4GB (2GB under DOS). If you format a partition as NTFS
during NT installation, it originally formats it as FAT
and then converts it in the final stages of the NT
installation, and this you are limited to a maximum
partition size of 4GB during the NT installation.

Windows 2000 does not have this problem as it formats
directly as NTFS and so does not hit the 4GB FAT limit.

To get round this problem there are several paths of
action open to you

Before starting the installation insert the disk into an
existing NT installation and partition/format the disk
using Disk Administrator and then insert the disk into the
machine to be installed
Partition the disk into smaller partitions, if you had a
5GB disk you could have a 1GB system partition, and a 4GB
boot partition. The system partition is the partition NT's
core startup files are located, boot.ini, ntldr and
ntdetect.com (ntbootdd.sys if SCSI), and will normally be
the active partition. The boot partition is the partition
that NT stores the rest of its files, i.e. the %
systemroot% directory
Create a 4GB partition at installation time, and then
extend the NTFS partition after installation has completed
- Start Disk Administrator (Start - Programs -
Administrative Tools - Disk Administrator)
- Select the NTFS partition and holding down the Ctrl key
select the unpartitioned space of the rest of the disk
- From the Partition menu, select Extend Volume Set
Note - You cannot extend a NTFS partition if it is the
boot or system partition (as the boot/system partition
cannot be part of a volume set)
If you are performing an unattended installation it is
possible to create a greater than 4GB partition using the
ExtendOEMPartition flag in the unattended file. This key
causes text-mode setup to extend the partition on which
the temporary Windows NT sources are located into any
available unpartitioned space that physically follows it
on the disk. Under the [unattended] section include the
lines:

FileSystem = convertNTFS
ExtendOemPartition = 1, NoWait

The NoWait is only availble from Service Pack 1 and above.

Also if you are installing from a distribution kit you can
copy the Service Pack 3 version of setupdd.sys and replace
the version in i386 folder of the NT distribution set.