Windows XP hard drive wrong size 2

[blmbrsm]

Hello,

I am trying to install Windows XP on a 20GB Seagate drive and everytime I get to the partition to install XP on it only sees 8GB; yet my BIOS and the Seagate Disk Manager tool both see a 20GB drive. Any ideas why XP only sees 8GB? I have reformated the drive 3 times including 1 low level format but still get same results. I am using Seagate Disk Manager and formating the drive as 1 partition with 20GB NTFS. DO I need to do several smaller partitions and then use partition manager to make the drive a single 20GB drive?

 

[jmatt]

Even if the brand is different , you may find what you wan't to know here .

http://www.maxtor.com/technology/whitepapers/63001.html#solutions

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/bioslmt.html

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213802,00.html

http://www.spcug.org/reviews/bl0107.htm

http://www.muhri.net/skipstone/

 

[m4526]

Put your cd and reboot the computer and just
read screen.

 

[wolluf]

Don't use the Seagate Disk Manager to format the drive, use the tools that come with XP install (XP often has problems installing if third party partitioning tool used - always best to use its own tools). I'd suggest removing whatever paritition you've created with SDM and start again as per m4526. XP install does prompt yuou where to install to, and displays how you can delete or create partitions.

 

[blmbrsm]

Hello Everyone,

I took wolluf's advice and did not use SDM to create my partition. Now I am getting message "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" when XP reboots the PC. I have been to Microsofts site and their suggestions don't work. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[IRstuff]

The 8 MB problem might be a problem with the BIOS on the computer. Computers of the P1 and P2 variety might have a BIOS that's too old to support larger HD's.

TTFN

 

[jmatt]

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html

Freeware .
WIPE OUT : as the name implies, this utility will absolutely WIPE your hard drive. For those times when an industrial strength cleaner is needed to remove any pesky files Fdisk may have left behind. A readme file is included in the zip file. WARNING...WIPE OUT will remove ALL data from the Hard Drive.

 

[blmbrsm]

Hello Everyone,

I tried everything suggested above and I re-installed the latest bios which I know is working because I have 2 computers and both are the same 400 MHz CPUs except 1 has a 60 GB western digital and this 1 has the 20 GB Seagate. The 60 GB system has no problems with XP ... so far. I was upgrading from NT to XP on both systems. I tried to re-install NT and also started getting the "Unmountable_Boot_Volume" error but after wiping the 20 GB harddrive and setting it up with 3 8 GB partitions I was able to get NT to re--install. Not sure what else I can try so I may leave the 20 GB with NT. With so many problems getting XP to work I may go back to NT on both systems.

 

[blmbrsm]

Hello Everyone,

I have resolved my problem. It turns out that it was not BIOS but the harddrive setting. The harddrive came from a broken unit but the harddrive was still good. I found some info from Partition Magic on UDMA and using cable select. When I first got the harddrive I noticed the jumper was set to CS (cable select) so I switched that to master. Turns out that is where my trouble began. To resolve my problem I reset the jumper to CS since the drive is UDMA and then hooked up the 40 pin 80 conductor cable, re-formated the drive using Seagate's Disk Manager and all the problems went away. I installed XP on my Compaq Deskpro without any problems.

My thanks to all for all the suggestions to try. I learned more then I wanted to know about how harddrives work trying to solve this one.