XP Not Reconizing Full Size of Hard Drive

[btalon]

I have XP Home edition and I just bought an 80 gig hard drive to use as a slave for my Dell. The system only reconizes 32 gigs of the drive. I just bought the computer a couple of months ago and assume that the bios can handle a drive greater than 32 gigs. I've tried running the files from the floppy that came with the drive (I don't have a floppy drive) from my desktop and from a zip disk, neither of which worked. Any ideas?

 

[linney]

Is this a FAT32 Partition?


Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - Q314463
Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314463

http://www.mcmcse.com/windows_xp/guides/filesystems.shtml

Windows XP can mount and support FAT32 volumes larger than 32 GB (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB by using the Format tool during Setup. If you need to format a volume that is larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system to format it. Another option is to start from a Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk and use the Format tool included on the disk.

 

[btalon]

When XP recognized that there was a new hard disk, it only recognized 32G. I haven't put any file system on there yet. In disk management there is no listing for the file system, but says total size for the disk is 32G.

 

[Freestone]

Is the system BIOS recognizing the full 80GB of the drive?

 

[linney]

Perhaps you can put the files from the copied floppy onto a CD and try booting from that and see what happens.

Also have a read of PC wont format...
thread779-614227

 

[SQLBaby]

I had same problem and i solved it... just read following
thread, hope this will help you

thread779-607511

Knowledge is a key of success.

 

[wolluf]

btalon,

are jumpers set correctly? (some drives have a 'limiting' setting for backward compatibility with older mobos - eg, limit size to 32GB - a known old mobo restriction)

 

[vanman99]

I have a 100gig and a 60gig hard drive in my system, both are western digital.they are formatted fat32 - full partition.Windows XP see's both drives as 100 and 60 gig an fat32. ( TO DO THIS )if ? you are useing western digital or maxtor hard drives,go to western digital site an download (Data Lifeguard Tools)this is a disk format tool, an put it on a floppy disk, it is free.with floppy disk in the drive reboot,when data lifeguard boots up follow eash step you are doing ( except for )when it ask you if you are installing xp say (no) even through you are installing xp, you will need a windows 98 boot up disk so it can copy the system files to make your drive bootable an fat32. it will all so ask you if you wont to make the drive full partition say yes,all so it will ask you if you wont to keep the fat32 say yes if you are playing a lot of games or using older software,the ntfs file system is not very friendly. when done reboot,your system should now see your drive as a full drive an fat32.PS:if you have more than 1 drive be sure you do the right drive. (HE HE)

 

[btalon]

Thanks for the suggestions. However, I don't have a floppy drive on my machine. I've tried booting to cds with all the boot files from the Windows 98 boot cd and the western digital cd that the drive came with.
My other idea (before I go and get a floppy drive) is to partition it into 30g logical drives on another computer, then install it on my machine. Will this even work?

 

[Freestone]

I'm still not sure if you are saying that your PC is not recognizing all 80 gigs of the drive, or that XP won't create a partition larger than 32GB. If the latter, than XP is working as designed, and you'll have to create multiple FAT32 partitions, or use NTFS. See:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp

 

[btalon]

Its not recognizing all 80 gigs.

 

[Freestone]

What size drive does BIOS think you have, and what model is the Dell you are working with?

 

[btalon]

It thinks its a 32 gig drive. Its the dimension 2350. Dell put a crappy motherboard in it.

 

[Freestone]

I can't find anything explicit on Dell's site that states the maximum drve size this system will support, but I think that it should recognize more than 32GB.

Did you check jumpers on the HDD per wolluf's earlier suggestion?

"btalon,

are jumpers set correctly? (some drives have a 'limiting' setting for backward compatibility with older mobos - eg, limit size to 32GB - a known old mobo restriction)"

 

[btalon]

I configured the jumpers a couple of different ways. I'm going to try to partition it on another computer into 30g logical partitions or smaller. Thats the only other idea i can think of besides going out and getting a floppy drive to install.

 

[btalon]

Dell support sucks.

 

[Freestone]

Have you gone into BIOS, IDE Primary Master Submenu, and ensured that IDE Primary Master is set to AUTO and tried IDE HDD Auto-Detection? I'd set Access, PIO, and UDMA modes to AUTO also.

If your BIOS isn't recognizing more than 32GB, I'm not sure XP will either, whether you partition it in another machine or not. Perhaps someone else can confirm this?

 

[Freestone]

Oops... read Primary SLAVE instead of Master in my last post.

 

[btalon]

I messed around with the jumpers some more and got it. its not one of the suggested jumper configurations. Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions. Now I can sleep at night.

 

[Freestone]

I'm glad you got it!

But here's a thought, though it's probably reaching. Perhaps your Master drive has to be jumpered differently when adding a Slave drive? Some drives do, though usually a misconfigured Master drive prevents the Slave from being recognized at all.

Sleep well