TECH Computer Help Needed

Jmurman

Jmurman

Veteran Member
I bought and installed a new 320gb hard drive. I installed it in addition to the 75gb drive already in my system. I have the 320 as master and the 75 as slave. Everything works fine and I have almost completed adding programs and software.

The problem is that my computer only recognizes about 130gb of the new drive. Is there anyway to make the computer see the remaining memory on the new drive?

I have a Dell Dimensions 4400 series.
 
WFK

WFK

Senior Something
==> Expected problem is the recognition of the full 320GB capacity at initial install.<== (one of my comments on your previous thread.)

I guess I saw that coming. But I have no answer now. You may have passed the point when that was possible. I will wait and see what the experts say now.
 
Jmurman

Jmurman

Veteran Member
WFK said:
==> Expected problem is the recognition of the full 320GB capacity at initial install.<== (one of my comments on your previous thread.)

I guess I saw that coming. But I have no answer now. You may have passed the point when that was possible. I will wait and see what the experts say now.
Click to expand...

grrr...ok. I'm fine with what I have but would like to be able to use the full capacity.
 
pjespirit

pjespirit

Inactive
Disk Manager vs Fdisk

Whenever I have trouble with my machines using Disk Management that comes with Windows. (right click on My Computer, then on Manage, then on Disk Management, and I get a problem like yours, I like to do my new HD installs with the disk manager disk that sometimes comes with the drive. Every make has one, if your HD did not come with one it can be downloaded from the website of the maker of the drive. Whether Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor, or some other brand.


This should work even if your machine is old and you have not flashed your bios lately.

You are going to loose a percent of the drive for the FATS, that is normal but over 50% is not normal.

You did not say how you set the drive up, or what operating system you are using.

Lastly if you want the space back you are going to have to re-format the HD, that will wipe off the work you have done. I don't know if a way exists to add back the missing space on the drive with doing so.

pj
 
lgsracer

lgsracer

Inactive
You need to update your BIOS. Find out who made the motherboard and go to their site it will have BIOS update utilities and files to download. If you are not computer savvy I do not recommend doing this. You only have one shot at it and can take out the BIOS chip if it doesn't go right. No BIOS no computer at all.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
The bottom line is that your motherboard BIOS is not able to support the drive you bought. You need to either update your BIOS (if possible; you'll have to contact the vendor to find out), or buy and use a third-party disk manager program. And buy a newer PC (or at least a newer motherboard). You need to get off those IDE drives. All this is why I recommended that you NOT attempt this yourself. Now you see why, in real-world technicolor...
 
D

danny

Inactive
You can divide it into 3 partitions. Your motherboard will then recognize them. Just so no partition exceeds 130GB.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
There's nothing "wrong" with them per se. They're just old technology. Hey, I bet you could find some MFM drives on eBay and mount them too!

;)
 
Kris Gandillon

Kris Gandillon

The Other Curmudgeon
_______________
Jmurman:

Did the drive come with a CD as I noted on the previous thread where we discussed this...or was it a "bare" drive with nothing but the drive in the box?

If it came with a drive CD, did you initalize the drive with the drive CD or did you just mount the drive and proceed to install Windows XP from the recovery CD?

These were the issues I also cautioned about on the original thread.

Kris
 
WFK

WFK

Senior Something
This could have been an educational thread... never mind.
OK Jmurman,
you stick both HDs in, with 75 GB the booting one.
Then you stick in the CD from the 320 GB box which is called Data Lifeguard Tools and install the software on it to the booting HD.
Then look at your HDs with those tools and find that the 320GB HD has only 131 or so capacity and then you start:
Make the new HD the second HD in your PC, not bootable at this time, but customize partitions.
First you bring that dial to 320, DELETE the partition, and then bring it back to 320 and partition and format the thing in NTFS. It will show you that you now have 320 GB available.
For this I think you need XP, Service Pack 1, at least.
At this point you have a 320 formatted HD with absolutely nothing on it.

I myself have just done all of the above with a 320 GB WD HD that showed 137 GB capacity and a vintage 2005 PC with a vintage 2005 BIOS. Never touched or even looked at the BIOS. (Cable Select worked with unchanged Jumpers on HD1.)

(There is an alternative to make the new HD the primary HD. You can work yourself through that.)

You must first wipe out the 131 GB partition on the HD if you want to recover the full capacity.
 
Kris Gandillon

Kris Gandillon

The Other Curmudgeon
_______________
WFK:

The educational thread was the PRIOR one where we pretty much layed out the options and issues and WARNED her about this possibility and ways around it on THAT thread.

Kris
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
One can buy Partition Magic and use that to setup partitions without having to wipe the drive.

And Kris is right - several of us warned Jmurman about the potential pitfalls. I myself recommended on that thread that she NOT try to do the work herself at her level of PC expertise.
 
G

GXS

Inactive
i had the same problem.

i had an 80 gig drive. got a new 250 gig drive.

installed the new drive and it only recognized 130 gigs.

i went ahead and loaded windows xp sp2 on the new drive figuring i would just forget about the other space.

anyway, if u don't mind having the additional space as a different drive letter, u can do the following:

1. start control panel
2. select administrator tools
3. select computer management
4. select disk management
5. find the unpartitioned space.
6. partition and format it with NTSF


pretty sure u need SP2 for this to work.

danny (above post) said to divide in three partitions. i am just giving more details on how to do it.

just one possible solution.

sorry if this is a repeat of what others said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top