XP partitioning

[_AH_Olds]

Well, I got the new system running last night, and so far it's running ok, except for XP only recognizing 137 gig of a 250 gig hd. Here's system specs:

Old parts:
AK77-333
AOpen board (Ultra DMA 133)
AMD Athlon XP 1600
1 gig PC 2700 ram
Antec 430 ps

New:
Thermaltake CPU cooler
Seagate Barracuda 250 gig IDE drive
nVidia 6800 OC (thanks Bong!)

Initial install was XP home pre-SP1 - have since installed all service packs, with a few updates to go.

I've been reading a lot of stuff about this problem, and I'm not sure how to fix it. XP sees one part of the hard drive as formatted, and one as unallocated. I know at one point, prior to SP1, Windows wouldn't recognize more than 137 gig. There was supposed to be a fix for it http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013, but it doesn't work with service packs installed. It also says that it will fix corruption on a drive (none here).

I've also read that I could use partitioning software to extend the drive onto the unallocated space. I don't need to have 2 partitions. Are there any you would recommend, and how would you do this?

Thanks,

Olds

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~.  SP1 (and after) does support drives larger than 137.. but the original release of XP didn't.

The first thing to check is that the BIOS is recognizing the full size of the drive. you had mentioned that it is a pretty old motherboard.

     if the motherboard is seeing all 250 gb..  then you'll need some third party software to extend the windows partition out to the full size now that windows is already installed..

    but first.. let's make sure the system board can see it..

[_AH_Olds]

Thanks, BBQ...I'll be on later, and then we can see if the bios sees it. Thanks for all your help!

S!

Olds

[_AH_Olds]

Thanks for the help, BBQ! I formatted the other part of the drive and named it E, so he can put his files on it as you suggested. Computer is running fine, and it is now set up at his house. He's happy, I'm happy  :happy-112: Thanks again for the help!

S!

Olds

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~. Glad ya got it working.. i knew you could do it.

[_AH_Rumely]

Have a look at this information, I have installed Windows XP in this way and it works very well. The original XP version will only see a hard drive up to 137 Gig's. The program will only see a maximum size of 137 Gig's no matter how big the drive is. IE 250 Gig's you will only see 137 Gig's of it no matter what.

On Service Pack 1 for Windows XP this was fixed to allow larger hard drives to be seen by XP. The trick is here you must install the Service Pack One update, before you install XP on your nice new hard drive. OK how in the blazes are you going to do that.

It is call Slip Streaming very cool in deeded, I personally have install XP in this manner and it works great. You have SP1 and SP2 install when you load your new operating system.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

[_AH_Olds]

Wow!  :surprised-041: Than's quite a process...only read about half of it so far...my head hurts... (tongue) I'll have to remember this next time.