Installing Windows XP on a 500gb Harddrive

[maui_mallard]

Hey,

It's been a while.....

Anyways...I just bought a new Hdd, 500gb, and I'm trying to install Windows XP Pro onto it, but I'm getting issues. It says that there is only 131gb on my HDD. Meanwhile in my BIOS it says my hard drive is 500Gb big. I had this issue before on my mom's computer. I put a 300gb hdd in, and I used the OEM disk that came with it and I it worked fine. What do I have to do to get the rest of my storage back?

[DiNeSh_123]

I suspect some of the older ATA controllers had 137GB limits. You will have to buy a newer controller card that will support 48-bit addressing and use it with your drive.

Good source of drive limitations: http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/hard_drive_size_barriers.htm

[maui_mallard]

but the computer isn't even that old, maybe 3 years?

And i don't even have a controller card in it

[caperjack]

And i don't even have a controller card in it

sure you do, its built into the motherboard!!! hopefully you are plugging the hdd into it .did you format the drive with winxp during install.if yes,that most likely you problem, type this into run, "compmgmt.msc "and go to disk manager you should be able to activate the rest of the drive and formate it .

[maui_mallard]

I didn't format the drive with win XP, I got as far as Partitioning, then I had to stop. This is a brand new HDD.

[caperjack]

I didn't format the drive with win XP, I got as far as Partitioning, then I had to stop. This is a brand new HDD.

ok,then you need to go in and delete old partition if any and create a new partition ,and format and reload winxp.
please explain.==I got as far as Partitioning, then I had to stop.

[DimaYasny]

before you format and reformat, does the system bios recognise the HDD as 132Gb, or as 500Gb? if it doesn't show 500, try to update the bios firmware on the motherboard

[maui_mallard]

What happened is....I put in my Windows XP install disc. Pressed enter to setup, agreed to the License thingy. Then when it asked me to select which partition to install on it says: Unpartitioned Space 131079mbs. I want to change this so I can have my full 500gb on 1 partition.

[maui_mallard]

As i posted before...it does show the HDD as 500gb

[DimaYasny]

right. do you have the F6 driver disk? or is the HD set up in IDE emulation mode?

[maui_mallard]

I don't know...i'm guessing its set up in IDE emulation mode

[DimaYasny]

well, look in BIOS setup

[maui_mallard]

what am i looking for?

[DimaYasny]

hard drive/sata/hdd/ide/emulation/ide mode/etc

look in the motherboard manual

[maui_mallard]

I'm sorry I don't understand.......I don't have the manual

[DimaYasny]

well, if you don't, I suggest you take the computer to a lab, to have a PC tech have a look at it.

[maui_mallard]

Ok, well scratch that.... I want to figure this out for myself.....help me understand this

[DimaYasny]

read up on the subject then:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

[maui_mallard]

I dont have sata, I have IDE

[DiNeSh_123]

Have you PARTITION the rest of the drive?
Only FAT32X or NTFS can be a single 500G partition.
So you either need to use one of these, or use "local disk management" to create 2 more partitions on the hard drive.

Right click MY COMPUTER, select MANAGE, find local disk management, locate the disc. and create new partitions, right click / partition off memory