SATA Drive Size Issues

dnwurtz · 02-24-2007, 06:38 AM

First off let me begin by saying hello to everyone. This is my first post on these forums.

I have been building computers for several years and I can typically resolve issues I encounter with a few searches; but I am stumped. I am building a computer for a friend (just using to surf the internet and email).

Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128018
Hard drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145132

After getting in the BIOS setup the hard drive shows up as its intended 250GB - but when I go to choose partitioning information in the WindowsXP Home setup, the drive is showing as a 131XXX MB drive. Is there a configuration option I am missing that is reducing the size to 131GB? I am thinking it could be a faulty drive.

Thanks for any help.

**manic** · 02-24-2007, 06:47 AM

With xp and no service packs, there is a size limitation. Once the machine
is up and running with the service packs up to date you should be able
to utilize the whole drive. I think you can use disk management, or some
thing like partition magic. I built one awhile back with the same situation
and after I updated the sp's the drive was listed in my computer as the
proper size, dont know how I did that, or if it did it itself.,still scratching
head over that one. But the machine worked with no problems, maybe
It was divine intervention, heheh, I dont know...

dnwurtz · 02-24-2007, 10:24 PM

SP2 Worked like a charm!!! Thanks for the reply.

02-24-2007, 06:38 AM	#1 (permalink)
dnwurtz Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2 OS: Windows Vista	SATA Drive Size Issues First off let me begin by saying hello to everyone. This is my first post on these forums. I have been building computers for several years and I can typically resolve issues I encounter with a few searches; but I am stumped. I am building a computer for a friend (just using to surf the internet and email). Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128018 Hard drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145132 After getting in the BIOS setup the hard drive shows up as its intended 250GB - but when I go to choose partitioning information in the WindowsXP Home setup, the drive is showing as a 131XXX MB drive. Is there a configuration option I am missing that is reducing the size to 131GB? I am thinking it could be a faulty drive. Thanks for any help.

02-24-2007, 06:47 AM	#2 (permalink)
manic Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Florida Posts: 5,203 OS: xp	With xp and no service packs, there is a size limitation. Once the machine is up and running with the service packs up to date you should be able to utilize the whole drive. I think you can use disk management, or some thing like partition magic. I built one awhile back with the same situation and after I updated the sp's the drive was listed in my computer as the proper size, dont know how I did that, or if it did it itself.,still scratching head over that one. But the machine worked with no problems, maybe It was divine intervention, heheh, I dont know... __________________

02-24-2007, 10:24 PM	#3 (permalink)
dnwurtz Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2 OS: Windows Vista	SP2 Worked like a charm!!! Thanks for the reply.