Hard drive size, incorrect.

[andytandreou]

This has been driving me nuts!! i got a 200GB HD and installed it in WinXP Pro and it shows up as being 127GB and in explorer is says "Free Space: 127GB - Total Size: 127GB" Now this is mad... If i click on "properties" of the drive in "My Computer" is shows the pink circle (pie chart) as being completely pink (i.e. completely empty) but above it it says Free Space 127GB and Used Space 64GB. I have lost 64GB of space somewhere and when i try to format the disk (under disk management) it only allows 127GB as does the partition utility. HELP!!!

Info:
WinXP Pro, P4, Dell Dimension 8250, 2.4Ghz

[wayout44]

It because the IDE controller of your Dell doesn't support that size drive so you will have to get a PCI ATA133 controller card that does support those large drives.

[Yawgm0th]

Maybe....
The system supports ATA100, so it could be a problem with Windows XP that will occur anyway, rather than a controler problem:

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/big_drive_enabler.htm

Usually you can't get more than 137GB, but it still a possible fix...

[TheOne�]

yeah.......you need the fix that Yawgm0th said.....that happened to me also but its because winxp only supports so many gbs.(LBA logic or some **** like that). i used to have 127gb on a 160gb, don't trully know why i didn't get 137gb.
it doesn't matter what the ata support is.....thats just speeds(33,66,100,133,150(sata)). its the winxp that doesn't support it without the fix(wasn't that cleared with sp1a?)

[Yawgm0th]

No, in fact installing that fix without SP1 can cause huge problems.

And looking at that post again, I think I misunderstood before... Even if it's an ATA133 drive it should work, just at reduced speed.

[andytandreou]

Considering this post will be caught by a search engines crawlers and some user who has the same problem will probably look here for a solution, i find it necessary to post the solution to my particular problem.

It wasn't a hardware issue, it was windowsXP, service pack 1 for windows XP needs to be installed in order for any hard drive above 127GB to be accepted, otherwise it will only allow for hard drives under 127GB. I installed SP1 and everything is ok now.

If you happen to have an illiegal copy of windows you have just opened a whole other can of worms and all i can say is good luck. And PM me :P