Help with hard-drive!!!

S

strat0caster

New Member
Back in August i bought a 320gb Seagate Barracuda ST3320620AS, and after i installed Windows XP service pack 2 on it I noticed that it is only reading 127gb on my drive. Now, I am almost 100% sure i did not partition the drive, but i suppose there is a very slim possibility. My question is is there anything i can do to fix this without reinstalling the operating system?

Thanks guys,
strat0caster
 
You most likely only saw 127gb for a primary to start with when first being asked by the XP installer about how large the primary would be during the initial install. You simply didn't use all available unallocated space indicated by the installer then.

For seeing the present primary expanded to fill in the remaining drive space you would now need a 3rd drive partitioning tool in order to see this done. Retail programs like Partition Magic or the free Linux tool GParted or the Gnome Partition Editor are the usual suspects for this! :P

The Free live for cd versions of GParted are available at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828

The generalities as it they are referred to being the instructions for use are seen at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/gparted.htm

Some additional screenshots for the free Linux tool can be seen on the page at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php

The release that has seen quite a bit of use here for multibooting different Linux distros along with both XP and VIsta is the 0.3.3.0 platform independent release about 1/2 way down the page on the first link there since that can create MS as well as Linux type primary and extended partitions. GParted will easily expand the primary in use now out to fill in the drive space once you boot up with the cd-r you burn the iso image onto.
 
Do you know what kind of hardware you have? I'd say you either partitioned with a preSP1 XP CD or your hardware does not have 48bit LBA support.
 
u could jus download ubuntu and then burn it to a disc and boot from it and use the partition editor to enlarge the partition. but i would reccomend u back up ur data because if u screw it up ur not getting ur data back
 
Like Cromewell said, what kind of computer is this, or better yet what motherboard is it, if you know? XP SP2 when installing, if there is not already a partition on it will pick the whole drive size automatic unless you choose to make it smaller. Are you sure it has SP2 on it?
 
nvysel24 said:
u could jus download ubuntu and then burn it to a disc and boot from it and use the partition editor to enlarge the partition. but i would reccomend u back up ur data because if u screw it up ur not getting ur data back
Click to expand...

I suspect Cromewell is much closer if the XP installation disk there is a pre SP1 release explaining the 137gb barrier later addressed with the first service pack. Or a quick press of the install now was done having simply created too small a primary instead of looking closer to see the total amount of unallocated drive space the installer was showing then.

The versions of both QParted and GParted found on a live disk are rather limited in options. The full 35mb version gives you more options to work with and recommended for either expanding the present or removing it to see a brand new one take it's place with a much larger single primary.

Another option you have available, strat0caster, if you only have the one drive installed is taking advantage of the free space to see a second storage/backup partition created there where you wouldn't to see the primary expanded too far in order to maintain it's integrity. Many opt to see that done for safe keeping any important files in case they end up seeing a need to reformat the OS partition for some reason like a virus infection. Your important data/files remain safe on the second while a fresh install is then seen on the first.
 
Alright thanks for the help guys. I built this computer in august, I remember someone asking and i have a ECS A780VM-M2 motherboard. I did install xp with a sp2 disk though by the way, I didn't just upgrade
 
I had a feeling that you simply made the primary too small to start with since it would rather rare at this late date while not impossible to see someone still using a pre SP1 disk if they were rather new at partitioning and formatting. Once you have built a few case and worked a little with this stuff you won't be asking why but already know you had an oops! when going to initially install Windows or another OS! :P

Any XP cd with either SP on it would provide the support for getting around the 137gb barrier since with the first release of XP. A new XP bought now will likely see SP3 already on it if an online vendor or retailer restocks themselves unless the disks have simply been sitting around for some time on a shelf.
 
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