250gb hdd is only 128gb :-(
 

can some 1 tell me why this is
pc is running win xp
pentium 4 1.7ghz
256ddr ram

have installed intel accelerator to no avail
could it be the bios?
not sure what the board is. but it has an intel chipset think its the 845 family chipset
help its doing my head in


steve

It's the bios of the disk controller card - normally the motherboard bios, if the drive is plugged into the m/b controller - You'll find its only 32 bit LBA (You may have it set incorrectly in the bios settings - its worth a try) and needs to be 48 bit for >137Gb... (You've formatted 137Gb, giving ~128Gb)....

If its not in the bios settings, you'll need to flash it - take a look on you m/b manufacturer site....

Hope this helps,

Mark

Have you got SP1 installed?

no does it need it?

steve

There is also a regedit entry you might need to change.

I can't remember which one it is at the mo, but if you do a search on the Microsoft web site i will come up with it as its quite a common problem for people now with more larger disks coming about.

Also put service pack 1 on it if you can.

You have to have SP1 or XP won't recognise drives above 130GB

Been having similar problem
 

My 160GB hdd was only 128GB in windows and the bios would read it as 164.7GB

when set at 32bit LBA, so i used Disk Manager (diskmgmt.msc) to Partition it in to at least 2 drives to use all 160GB.

With a 250GB hdd you should be able to have a 128gb and a 110 or similar unless you want more drives that is.

Why do that ? - I've several drives over 138Gb and I'm running XP -

c/ 60 d/ 111 e/ 189 f/ 189 g/ 54 h/ 152 k/ 233 (External USB)

Mark

I'ts an easy fix even for now just so he can use the space, as it would also be more practical to format/defrag a smaller partition than a full hdd (he might partition anyway)

Also if he doesn't get it to work after SP1, or doesnt install SP1 then he can use that way if he wants.:)

fairy snuff - makes sense as a quick fix, or if you don't need vast singlular areas -

probably quicker on 'fsck' or whatever the hell the dos equiv is (chkdsk ?) too ;)

Mark

You need SP1 to overcome this problem. Make sure you have a proper version of XP with a valid serial number. ;) :rolleyes:

Had this with mine and SP1 sorted it out. Bios saw the drive correctly, but XP couldn't......Nightmare

Phill

PS As someone has mentioned an additional IDE controller will fix it too ;)

You can do it with regular XP, but u need the 48bit LBA patch for discs over the 137gb limit, which is included in SP1 by default. You really should upgrade to SP1 though. Retail or not ( XP key changer *cough* :)

Does Win2K SP4 have the same problem?

No. This was addressed in Win2k in sp2 or 3 I believe.

Cheers. Only need to sort out an update to my BIOS then. Although I've used Wester Digital before than they have a BIOS update that managed to allow PC to see a 120GB drive even though it's reported at only 64GB in the BIOS.