Member Avatar for rich617983

I just installed a new master WD 500GB internal hard drive in an HP 8500 Pavillion. After recovering Windows 98 OS, hard drive is only 8GB. How do I format drive for 500GB?

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Symptom recap: a WD 500GB installed in an HP Pavilion 8500 and Windows 98 only shows ~8GB. That pattern usually points to a BIOS or drive-addressing mismatch rather than a dead disk. Start by determining what the firmware (BIOS) actually sees before changing partitions or reinstalling the OS.

Quick practical checks:

  • Reboot and enter the BIOS setup (watch the screen for the setup key). Note the size the BIOS reports for the primary drive.
  • If the BIOS reports ~500GB, the hardware is fine and the visible-8GB problem is at the OS/partition level.
  • If the BIOS reports ~8GB, the motherboard or BIOS is limiting the accessible space (addressing limits, HPA, or a compatibility/jumper setting on the drive).

If the BIOS shows a small size, next steps (in order): check the physical jumper block on the WD drive for any compatibility/capacity limiter; run the drive maker's diagnostic to verify native capacity and remove any Host Protected Area (HPA) if present; and look for a BIOS update for the Pavilion 8500 on HP support (a BIOS update often fixes older addressing limits). Those are hardware/firmware fixes and should be done before repartitioning.

If the BIOS shows the full capacity but Windows 98 does not, use an out-of-OS partitioning tool (bootable Linux/GParted or a modern Windows installer) to view and create partitions. Windows 98-era utilities and drivers can hide or misreport large volumes, so creating/formatting a partition from a contemporary tool is the fastest way to verify usable space.

Note: correctly flagged OS-side issues and covered reinstall concerns — those are relevant only after confirming the BIOS/drive-level picture. Perform the BIOS/drive checks first to avoid unnecessary reinstalls.

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Member Avatar for abu taher

I think you need to install win xp. may be win 98 doesn't recognized this hd (with more space). like win 95 only recognize a partition with not more than 2.1 gb.

Member Avatar for Ponomous

CAUTION - This will erase everything on your computer - Back It Up First!

place your windows installer cd in the cd tray.
Boot the computer to the bios (by hitting f12 or whatever key it tells you to go into setup)
Navigate to the boot order options and make it boot from the cd first.
save settings and restart.
when you boot the next time it will boot directly from the cd.
Delete the partition on the hard drive that is 8 gb
use the formatting options to reformat the drive and reinstall windows.

Unfortunately since you are using Windows 98, it requries a FAT32 formatting. This only allows partition sizes up to 124.55gb. So if you use windows 98 with this 500 gb drive, make sure the largest partitions you make are 124.55 gb otherwise they will not show. This is going to leave you with at least 4 drives in my computer.

My recommendation would be to upgrade to windows xp so you dont have 4 partitions or more on your hard drive.

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