Member Avatar for randeec

I recently bought a new AMD Dualcore 6400 barebones system.
Not realizing the motherboard it came with only had one IDE channel, I wound up purchasing a 500gb SATA drive to replace the 100 & 120gb drives I previously had.

The issue is installing Windows XP on the 500 SATA and using it as a primary boot drive.
I had it running in a matter of minutes, but using only 131 GB of the drive capacity,
I read somewhere about slipstreaming the drive with the raid drivers at XP's initial setup.
That is a whole nother story in itself, but was done.
BIOS and XP that is installed on the 120gb drive read the drive as a 500 GB drive.
The WD LifeData tools that the drive came with, easily allows me to partition and format the drive into five 100gb drives. But upon installing XP, it only comes up as a 131gb drive and says it needs to be formatted.
Then I read I need to make the disk active in XP's DiskManagement.
DiskManagement, again allowed me to re-partition the drive, but only into 4 partitions, (one 100 and three 125's (465gb available)) reformat the drive and make it "active".
Then to install XP on the first partition XP setup shows the drive as a single 131gb drive again (even though it's partitioned into smaller drives) and needs to be formatted.

What the hell gives? is XP setup unable to see a partitioned drive bigger than 137gb or is there a step I'm missing?

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Short diagnosis for : when a running Windows XP sees the full 500GB but the XP text-mode installer shows ~131GB, the installer is using a storage path that cannot address the whole disk. The usual technical reason is the classic 28-bit vs 48-bit LBA addressing gap — the installed OS can use a modern storage driver, but the XP setup environment may be using an older/generic driver or BIOS INT13 code that hits the ~137GB boundary.

A practical verification: from the working XP on the 120GB drive, open Device Manager and note the exact chipset/SATA controller name and driver version. Also check the install media you used: a text-mode mass-storage driver used by setup will be referenced by a TXTSETUP.OEM entry in the install source (if you created a custom ISO). That mismatch (installed driver vs setup driver) explains why the drive looks different during setup.

Suggested step-by-step approach (ordered least-invasive to most):

  1. Update the motherboard BIOS and the chipset/SATA driver on the running XP, then rebuild install media that contains the exact text-mode driver for the controller. Tools like nLite let you integrate the correct text-mode drivers into an XP ISO; alternatively use the F6/floppy method or a WinPE-based installer if floppy isn't available.
  2. If you prefer a workaround, prepare the 500GB from the working XP or from a live tool (GParted/WinPE) with an MBR and a small primary partition at the start (under the 137GB boundary) and try installing to that partition. If setup still refuses, it confirms the text-mode driver is the limiter.
  3. As a different route, install XP on the 120GB, image/clone the installation to the 500GB with modern imaging software, then expand/create additional partitions afterwards.

A couple of cautions: booting a system disk as GPT requires UEFI and is not an option for legacy XP/BIOS boots; ensure the system partition is MBR/primary/active. Also post the motherboard model and the exact controller name if further help is needed — that info makes it easy to point to the correct text-mode driver. Credit to , , and for highlighting the controller/BIOS/utility angles; the missing piece for most setups is the installer using the correct text-mode storage driver.

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Member Avatar for caperjack


What the hell gives? is XP setup unable to see a partitioned drive bigger than 137gb or is there a step I'm missing?

exactly ,use the disk utility from the hdd makers website,LIKE : maxtor= maxblast , seagate = seatools and so on

Member Avatar for compdoc

I recently bought a new AMD Dualcore 6400 barebones system.
Not realizing the motherboard it came with only had one IDE channel, I wound up purchasing a 500gb SATA drive to replace the 100 & 120gb drives I previously had.

The issue is installing Windows XP on the 500 SATA and using it as a primary boot drive.
I had it running in a matter of minutes, but using only 131 GB of the drive capacity,
I read somewhere about slipstreaming the drive with the raid drivers at XP's initial setup.
That is a whole nother story in itself, but was done.
BIOS and XP that is installed on the 120gb drive read the drive as a 500 GB drive.
The WD LifeData tools that the drive came with, easily allows me to partition and format the drive into five 100gb drives. But upon installing XP, it only comes up as a 131gb drive and says it needs to be formatted.
Then I read I need to make the disk active in XP's DiskManagement.
DiskManagement, again allowed me to re-partition the drive, but only into 4 partitions, (one 100 and three 125's (465gb available)) reformat the drive and make it "active".
Then to install XP on the first partition XP setup shows the drive as a single 131gb drive again (even though it's partitioned into smaller drives) and needs to be formatted.

What the hell gives? is XP setup unable to see a partitioned drive bigger than 137gb or is there a step I'm missing?

actually Windows XP SP1 and higher dose support drives larger than 137GB you should check your drives documentation to make sure you have the correct jumper configuration some drives will allow you to set them to 137GB for OSs that do not support drives larger than 137GB

Member Avatar for forumdude123

Check to make sure you have xp sp2 AND that your bios supports drives larger than 137gb, as this is a common problem in many machines.

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

that might be the problem the bios setting. what does the bios recognized the drive as. you may have to turn on large support in the bios. and as for the boot order you have to set that in the bios also the bios will read the IDE as the first boot. (had the same issue with my asus board with one ide channel) so move the sata to the to of the boot order.

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