Installing New 160GB hard drive on XP

[team4344]

Computer Spec : Windows XP, RAM 256MB primary hard drive 30GB

I have just brought a new Samsung SP1604N 160GB Hard Drive, which I would like to use purely for storage.

I am relatively new to computers so I am not sure what I should do to install the drive correctly. I have attached it as the slave drive to the computer and set the jumpers accordingly on the rear of the drive. I have then started windows and windows see the drive under device manager, yet it is not shown under “My Computer”. The drive is recognised in BIOS as a 136GB hard drive.

If I run Fdisk on that drive and create a primary DOS partition it then shows under “My Computer” in windows a drive which is only 1.99GB in size yet I have a 160GB hard drive. This is where im not sure what I should be doing as im not that familiar with FDisk and the different types of partitions.

What should I do to correctly install the drive so that I can see the drive as a 160 GB drive in Windows

Many thanks for your help in advance and I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards

Peter Burgess.

 

[SYAR2003]

Answers for setting up the particular drive:

http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm

 

[Freestone]

See this article regarding the 137GB LBA limitation:

http://www.shortfamilyonline.com/tech/windows/windows-big-hard-drives.php

 

[team4344]

Hi SYAR2003 and Freestone...

Many thanks for both of ur help... very useful i shall let you know how i get on.

Regards

 

[wolluf]

If the bios is only reporting 136GB, then either your bios doesn't support 160GB size or needs a bios upgrade to allow it to (need to look on your motherboard manufacturer's site). If you get the bios sorted out, you can then sort out XP - if it needs it (eg, if already on SP1, should be ok).

The Samsung utility - when it is available for > 128/137GB (just definition of what a gigabyte is, 128 & 137 are same size in this context) is overlay software, and is generally best avoided for future lack of problems.

If bios can't be upgraded, some choices:-

1. Use Samsung's disk manager when upgraded version available
2. Buy a PCI controller card & attach drive to that.
3. Just run the drive at 128/137GB size.

You should use disk management (run diskmgmt.msc) in XP to partition the drive - unless you want to use fat32 partitions > 32GB (XP can only create fat32 up to this size, but can use up to the 128GB maximum. Ntfs no such limitation), then use fdisk. BUT, make sure you reply Y to Enable large disk support, or fdisk will create fat16 partitions - max size 2GB, which I suspect is what you have done). Also, if you are using fdisk from win98 you might need

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263044&Product=w98