HDD, incorrect size in bios

Masters · 02-19-2007, 05:57 AM

My problem is that an 10 gig HDD that i have installed in my computer, for the main opperating system is only showing up in the bios and windows as a 2gig HDD. I have looked every where on the net and cant find a soloution. I think it something to do with the bios, but i have an 80 gig HDD which shows up fine, both in the bios and windows. Is it the HDD? Ive tried everything i can think of.

**linderman** · 02-19-2007, 06:48 AM

hello

it sounds as if your hard drive has been formatted with Fat16 which limits partitions to 2 gig in size.

you can recover your full drive size by running boot & nuke (see my signature links)
on the drive, you will lose ALL data on the 10 gig drive. As a precaution make sure any other drives have the power plug pulled from them before using boot n nuke to avoid accidental wiping of the wrong drive.

after you have wiped the drive you can reformat the drive with Fat32 & fdisk if you plan to use win 98 or Win ME

Or you can format the drive with NTFS if you plan on using the win xp OS

keep us posted >>>>> if you need an Fdisk tutorial just let us know

crazijoe · 02-19-2007, 06:50 AM

Check for jumpers that may limit the drive size.

02-19-2007, 05:57 AM	#1 (permalink)
Masters Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Adelaide Posts: 1 OS: XP	HDD, incorrect size in bios My problem is that an 10 gig HDD that i have installed in my computer, for the main opperating system is only showing up in the bios and windows as a 2gig HDD. I have looked every where on the net and cant find a soloution. I think it something to do with the bios, but i have an 80 gig HDD which shows up fine, both in the bios and windows. Is it the HDD? Ive tried everything i can think of.

02-19-2007, 06:48 AM	#2 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 19,391 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	hello it sounds as if your hard drive has been formatted with Fat16 which limits partitions to 2 gig in size. you can recover your full drive size by running boot & nuke (see my signature links) on the drive, you will lose ALL data on the 10 gig drive. As a precaution make sure any other drives have the power plug pulled from them before using boot n nuke to avoid accidental wiping of the wrong drive. after you have wiped the drive you can reformat the drive with Fat32 & fdisk if you plan to use win 98 or Win ME Or you can format the drive with NTFS if you plan on using the win xp OS keep us posted >>>>> if you need an Fdisk tutorial just let us know __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

02-19-2007, 06:50 AM	#3 (permalink)
crazijoe Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Omaha, The Center of the Universe Posts: 7,632 OS: WinXP, Win2K3 My System	Check for jumpers that may limit the drive size. __________________ Microsoft MCSA + Messaging, MVP, A+, Network+ http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...other/Help.jpg Do you want a real Republican? HDD diagnostic tools / HDD data recovery software