[cprince]

Hi, just setting up a new computer. P4 3.0 cpu, ASUS PC4-800 Deluxe, Maxtor 200 gig HD. Win XP SP1

Problem: Win XP sees a 189 gig partition (NTFS) but says that 62 gig is used (the HD only has operating system on it and a few other programs totalling about 3 gigs)

Background: HD is connected to the Promise controller at 0 raid to enable ultra DMA 133. Initially XP would not see the drive, so I installed the OS with the hard drive on the IDE port then loaded the ASUS promise controller drivers as well as Maxtor big disk access fix. Then I switched the hard drive to the promise controller port and everything boots up ok and it recognizes the initial single partition that winXP created except that 60 gig is used.

Maybe when windows initially boots from the CD, I need to install a raid driver when it asks for it? I believe it loads a promise driver into memory from the install cd???

Any suggestions would be appreciated as I have tried a lot of things to get this far.

 

[clintfan]

Maybe when windows initially boots from the CD, I need to install a raid driver when it asks for it? I believe it loads a promise driver into memory from the install cd???

No, that would only be needed if you were going to install the O/S onto a Promise device from the beginning.

Initially XP would not see the drive...

That's what I'm talking about. Now that you have already installed, what you ask is not necessary anymore.

Maxtor 200 gig HD. Win XP SP1. Problem: Win XP sees a 189 gig partition (NTFS) but says that 62 gig is used (the HD only has operating system on it and a few other programs totalling about 3 gigs)

NTFS will consume some percentage for directories and so forth, I think the 200G-11G=189G (5.5%) might be about right. There will also be some hidden space used for swap space and directories. NTFS doesn't really let you control cluster size, it's always 4K. But 62GB is probably too much for all of this: my XP Pro plus Office plus some apps (but not user data) takes only about 4-5GB, plus 2GB swap.


??Can you tell me where are you seeing that 62G is used? What Windows utility is reporting this?

??Have you installed the Big Drive Enabler patch since you're over 137GB?


Maybe all you need to do is to run the Error-checking tool. That's what I do when my diskspace gets all bogus, reporting higher than I know it really is. Open MyComputer, right-click on the drive, choose Properites. A pie chart will open up, in your you say case it should show 1/3 full, or 62GB out of 189GB. If not, then you're OK, don't bother with the rest of this.

Otherise choose the Tools tab, then Error checking: Check now; then Automatically Fix (don't check the other box). Then OK. It will complain that it cannot do it now, and do you want to schedule it; say OK. Then close all this stuff and reboot the system. Checkdisk will run during the bootup, takes a while. After Windows comes up, go back into Properties again and inspect the chart.
What does it look like now?

-clintfan

 

[cprince]

Clintfan, thanks for the reply. I have installed Maxtor's big drive enabler.

I see 62 gig is used when I right click on the hard drive and view properties. It says 189 gig total and 128 gig (or something like it ) free.

I will try what you suggest when I get home tonight.

I also tried to run Partition Commander on the system. It crashes (screen goes all weird) when it tries to reboot the system. (And I payed 50 bucks for that POS--- Fry's better give me my money back on that as that is what they said they use to remedy this)

 

[cprince]

Well I just have to say that clintfan is THE MAN. I ran error check on the drive as he suggested and bam, the whole drive is now recognized. I actually contemplated running this before (had the curser on the button) but wasn't sure if I should. Man, you saved me a lot of headache. Thanks.