HDD capacity problem

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PaulofByzantine

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#11559 30-Jan-2007 21:24

I just bought a new desktop which supposdly has HDD size of 400GB

when i went to partition HDD to install windows, max size of HDD is 130GB, according to the BIOS, capacity is 400GB

I just dont get it, I need help urgently

Bung

6489 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#59286 30-Jan-2007 21:56

What "windows"? You need SP1 with XP

PaulofByzantine

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#59287 30-Jan-2007 21:59

windows is not the problem

im talking about the hard drive capacity showing during partitioning and under windows is not correct, i installed a 400gb hard drive, and the capacity im getting is 130gb

barf

643 posts

Ultimate Geek

#59291 30-Jan-2007 22:14

Linux works around BIOS limitations such as the LBA48 problem and I'd expect Windows to do the same without any BIOS updates (but a BIOS update isn't a bad idea anyway). if you have a Linux CD handy try booting off that, then open a terminal and type 'dmesg' and scroll up to see the hdd info. it will tell you how many physical bytes are on your disk regardless of partitioning and filesystems.

Alternatively plug the model number into google and see what you get.

edit: Oops I gave Windows too much credit, it won't work-around BIOSes with no LBA48 support.

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Bung

6489 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#59293 30-Jan-2007 22:31

Your bios sees 400GB so why are you so sure windows isn't the problem?!
Look here
This article describes the Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support for ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) disk drives that can increase the capacity of your hard disk to more than the current 137 gigabyte (GB) limit.

PaulofByzantine

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#59309 31-Jan-2007 03:24

thanx guys, you guys were right, my stupid win 2000 is too old, i just found out when installed win 2003

Bung

6489 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#59314 31-Jan-2007 07:20

W2k isn't stupid, it just had to learn something from SP3.