Windows not seeing boot partition

[Guest]

I have a 320gb Maxtor HD that I partitioned in half. I can no longer boot
into windows, and now when I try to install windows onto the second partition
it does not see it. It only sees the primary partition and it says it is
unformatted and it does not even show the other partition.

I added another working HD to the pc to see if I could access the 320gb
drive that way. It only sees the primary partition but it says it is not
formatted. It does not show the other empty partition, not even in storage
manager under administrator tools.

My only option when installing windows is to format the unformatted
partition but that would A) delete all my important files and B) only give me
half of the 320gb HD that I have.

I have bought and ran Spinrite. I ran it twice on the drive and it sees both
partitions and says everything is fine on both.

I am lost here.

 

[Andy]

If your Windows XP CD incorporates service pack 1 or 2, Windows setup
should be able to see the entire disk. Otherwise, it won't recognize
any existing partitions as being valid.

 

[Guest]

I have tried several times. Every time I try to install windows or go to Disk
Manager, it sees the 130gb partition and does not see the other 170gb
partition. Only the bios sees the drive as a 320 gb drive. Windows only sees
the 130gb partition and it says it's unformatted.

 

[JS]

What version of Window XP are you trying to install,
The Original XP CD, XP with SP1 CD or XP with SP2 CD?

JS

 

[Guest]

XP Pro SP2. Also, like I stated, I have XP pro SP2 running on another working
boot drive and when I add the 320gig maxtor as a slave, it only sees the 130
gig partition and doesn't see any other partition or unused disk space. The
bios does, and so does Spinrite.