Damage_Inc

I reinstalled XP on this HD which I am using in my otherwise new PC. Out of 200 Gigs I only have 127.9 Gigs of room on the drive. 58.32 Gigs is "unallocated space". This is way beyond any typical reserved space as when it was in my old PC I had much more room even though it was less than 200 GB total there too. Did I screw up and leave a partition of nothing on the drive? Can I reintegrate this space into my HD?

Used Space: 30.1 GB
Free space: 97.8 GB

manic

fat32 has a 32gb limit. Ntfs has a 137gb limit with no service packs. With
sp1,sp2 the limitation is lifted. You may check your partitions as well.

OMGmissinglink

partition magic your able to add the non used space to your c: drive

hwm54112

You may be able to use diskpart.exe

Note usage of the word may in this excerpt from the link: (may interprets as "may or may not")

"Only the extension of data volumes is supported. System or boot volumes may be blocked from being extended, and you may receive the following error:

Diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid for extending"

If it works, would be a better (simpler) alternative than using a third party partition program (one less thing to deal with)

Damage_Inc

My 200GB was installed with an old version of XP and is NTFS. This is what I get for using the same version of XP I bought years ago. No service pack built in. Now I have space I cannot use. Ill check out partition magic. I appreciate your help :)

-Damage_Inc

manic

I agree its a pain. But when you get your svc packs, 1&2 you will not have
the limitation. But you must install sp1 at least in order to get rid of the
limitation.
On a fresh install of xp home, with a 200gig drive. Old version of xp full
install, no svc packs. The os didnt recognize anything past 137gbs I think.
I used the full size of drive on c partition. Installed os, then immediatly
caught up on service packs. I knew in the back of my mind that I would
have to address the extra space on my drive. Partition magic,,disk manage-
ment etc. But when it was all done, xp recoginized the extra space on the
drive and allocated it for me. Dont know how I did it, but I was suprised
that the service packs would take care of that for me. Im long winded I
know......

crazijoe

WinXP does not natively support 48 bit LBA which is why you have experienced the 137GB limit. To enable XP to see drives larger than 137GB you need to have at least SP1 or higher applied as mentioned above.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013

If you have an XP install disk, with no service packs, you can slipstream SP2 into the install CD to be able to partition the entire drive upon installation of the OS.

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

OMGmissinglink

another option is if there isn't any data on the HD yet thats important then download the HD manufactures install disk you can partition the disk as one partition or as many partitions as you want/ you will have to reinstall your OS after.

crazijoe

Yes you can partition the drive with the manufacturers install disk, but the OS will still only see 137GB of the partition and format only 137GB without SP1.

OMGmissinglink

If the drive is pre partitioned you can load your os and updates windows will show the full disk.

crazijoe

Native XP without a service pack will not. This is because it does not support 48 bit LBA. Any hard drive that is over 120GB is a 48 bit LBA drive

http://www.48bitlba.com/winxp.htm

OMGmissinglink

Craz, this post is mute sinse the poster did not post the MB brand or speck(s), rather or not it has 48 bit supported bios, the poster loaded there os without knowing visa versa. hd manufactures also provide patches once the os is loaded to read the disk to its full potential.

crazijoe

His BIOS does support 48 bit LBA since he can partition the rest of the drive under windows. If it did not, he would be unable to see the unallocated space in the device manager.

These "patches" that HDD manufacturers usually provide are normally links to download a service pack or DDO (dynamic disk overlay) which tricks the OS into seeing a larger drive. DDO is very much unadvisable because it usually renders file recovery useless in event of a HDD problem.

OMGmissinglink

Craz, if his bios supports 48 bit lba, then using the hd install disk partition /format 1 partition then loading the os after using the HD install disk the poster has no problems.

crazijoe

I had to go home and reconfirm what I was going to say.

My test system: Intel D848PMB motherboard, Seagate 200GB PATA HDD. Windows XP Pro w/no service packs.

HDD was partitioned and formatted with Seagate DiscWizard v10.45.06

When I went to install Windows, the installation saw the complete partition and I chose to install on that partition. But when it was complete, it repartitoned and formatted the drive to 137GB.

I wiped the drive down and partitioned and formatted the drive with DiscWizard. Reinstalled using my slipstreamed XP install CD. Windows saw and installed on the complete partition.

Conclusion: To install XP on the complete partition, you will either need to install with a XP sp1 or higher CD or install SP1 or higher after you have installed the OS, then use partition magic or simular program to extend the OS partition.

OMGmissinglink

try installing again and update ms updates. BTW xp in most cases has sp1 included.

hwm54112

Crazijoe is 100% correct. It's use SP1 or above to recognize the full size of the drive or use a drive overlay as he stated earlier.


Bill

OMGmissinglink

Yes, that why I'd posted above to the poster use partition magic.

Damage_Inc

hehe quite a discussion. :) My system was using new parts from NEwegg.com so there is no manufacturers install disk. The only old component I used is my HD:

Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JB 200GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM

The copy of XP I have is from years ago when XP was first released and no service packs were included on the install CD. I do have partition magic installing right now. :)


**Edit**

Wow that was amazingly easy and fast! Hahaha I seriously was not expecting Partition magic to be this simple! >: D I now have a capacity of 186GB.

Thanks again for your help!

crazijoe

Glad we could help. If you have anymore questions in the future, do not hessitate to post a new thread.