The 130 gig limit

[Guest]

I upgraded everything and when I did I had to install xp pro and immediatly
upgraded to vista ultimate. I have two hdds that are 200 gigs and 250gigs but
only 130 is recognized on both drives. NOw that I have upgraded to vista, is
there any way to get an update or change a setting for all of the available
hdd space can be recognized? Will I need to start over?

 

[Adam Albright]

I upgraded everything and when I did I had to install xp pro and immediatly
upgraded to vista ultimate. I have two hdds that are 200 gigs and 250gigs but
only 130 is recognized on both drives. NOw that I have upgraded to vista, is
there any way to get an update or change a setting for all of the available
hdd space can be recognized? Will I need to start over?

You mean the 137 GB barrier? Windows supports large size drives but
everything you said suggests you have a really old system or you have
newer driver and either didn't use the interface card that came with
them or you didn't get in. Before you do anything copy you data even
if you have to spread it across multiple drives NONE of the ones you
mentioned.

Now before you do anything else if you haven't already get the right
type cables if you're talking IDE 100-133 ATA drives. The old 50
connector cables won't work. You need the thinner 100 connector
version. To get past 137 GB you need to be able to run 48bit
addressing. That's what item #1-2 is about.

1. Be sure your BIOS if necessary is updated to support larger drives.

2. Download any necessary IDE controllers. Consult the manuals that
came with the drives. You should have a 100 connector cable with
them. If not they are cheap enough and can be had anywhere.

3. Once you data is safely somewhere else go to BIOS and let it
AUTO detect your drives. Are they the correct size now?

4. If yes, format the drives. if you don't want to take this step
then you'll need some partition resizing tool. You can if you're
a gambler leave your data on and keep your finger crossed but
since you had the drives in use at the wrong capacity you're
asking for trouble. Better to move your data, reformat the drives

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Ralphie,

The motherboard has to support 48-bit LBA, it has nothing to do with the
operating system. Check with the manufacturer as to whether or not yours
does. It may require a BIOS flash to get the proper instruction set in
place.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Michael Walraven]

Ralphie,

You can get information on your current disk configuration by running
Computer Management (type that in the search area of the windows start orb)

click on 'storage/disk management'

you should see information on 'disk 0' and 'disk 1'
Disk 0 may have more than one partition but the largest is your 'drive c:'
Disk 1 should have one partition for your 'drive d:'
(note that there are a lot of possible combinations but that is what I would
expect, if much different from this then get back before making any changes)

After your drive c partition there may be a unassigned partition, this would
be your missing space. If it exists then right clicking the drive c: area
should get you a fly out menu that has 'Extend Volume' enabled (not dimmed).
If you select this then it will combine the drive c and the unassigned
partitions into a new larger drive c:.
Then same for drive d:.

As always your should backup everything before making a change to your hard
disk configuration. It is unlikely that anything would go wrong but......

Michael

 

[DanS]

Now before you do anything else if you haven't already get the right
type cables if you're talking IDE 100-133 ATA drives. The old 50
connector cables won't work. You need the thinner 100 connector
version.

Not meaning to be picky, but.....it's 40/80 conductor, not 50/100.

 

[Adam Albright]

Not meaning to be picky, but.....it's 40/80 conductor, not 50/100.

Me bad. ;-)

 

[Kerry Brown]

I upgraded everything and when I did I had to install xp pro and immediatly
upgraded to vista ultimate. I have two hdds that are 200 gigs and 250gigs
but
only 130 is recognized on both drives. NOw that I have upgraded to vista,
is
there any way to get an update or change a setting for all of the
available
hdd space can be recognized? Will I need to start over?

It sounds like you used a very old XP Pro pre-SP1 CD or possibly your
motherboard does not support 48 bit LBA. I'd try re-installing Vista with a
clean install using this method.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_upgrade_clean.asp

Or alternatively create an XP Pro CD slipstreamed with SP2

http://www.ubcd4win.com/slipstream.htm

If it's the motherboard not supporting 48 bit LBA then that motherboard is
probably too old to work well with Vista.

 

[andy]

I upgraded everything and when I did I had to install xp pro and immediatly
upgraded to vista ultimate. I have two hdds that are 200 gigs and 250gigs but
only 130 is recognized on both drives. NOw that I have upgraded to vista, is
there any way to get an update or change a setting for all of the available
hdd space can be recognized? Will I need to start over?

Use Vista's Disk Management to expand the partitions.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Use Vista's Disk Management to expand the partitions.

If the partitions were created while 48 bit LBA was not being used then this
may corrupt the partition table making the system unusable. It may work but
I'd be sure to have a backup in place first.