windows only sees part of my hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter GJP
  • Start date Start date
G

GJP

Hello.

Installed windows XP Pro with SP1 on my new hard drive. It is a 160GB hard
drive, but i have just noticed it actually showing as 31.4GB. Any idea why
XP does not see the rest and how can i fix this?

Thanks in advance

Gavin
 
Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314463&Product=winxp

How to Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313348&Product=winxp

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

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Michael Stevens]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hello.
|
| Installed windows XP Pro with SP1 on my new hard drive. It is a 160GB hard
| drive, but i have just noticed it actually showing as 31.4GB. Any idea why
| XP does not see the rest and how can i fix this?
|
| Thanks in advance
|
| Gavin
 
Sorry, i didnt mean to reply directly to you.

Ive only got the one partition at the moment, and i cant add another one so
i will habe to reinstall windows and set up 2 partitions, one being for
system?

Thanks
 
GJP said:
Hello.

Installed windows XP Pro with SP1 on my new hard drive. It is a 160GB hard
drive, but i have just noticed it actually showing as 31.4GB. Any idea why
XP does not see the rest and how can i fix this?

Thanks in advance

Gavin
Click to expand...

Check your MB manual - some MBs have a BIOS with a 32GB HD limit.

Check your HD manual (or snag one from the HD vendor's site, if your
HD came without a manual) - some HDs have a jumper to limit the HD
to 32GB and sometimes ship with the jumper installed. This is to
get around the BIOS problem.

Also, if the HD was formatted as FAT32 while running from the XP CD,
that would cause your problem. NTFS is better and is not limited
to 32GB. If you insist on FAT32 under XP, then you can use a W9x
OS to format that HD; XP will use large FAT32 parts, even though it
won't create them.
 
This is because your Motherboard/BIOS does not support
hard disks larger than 31gb. Try updating your BIOS ...
if you dare!

The BIOS limitations I know of are: 8gb, 31gb, 40gb, 60gb
and 120gb.
 
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