Oh mighty and all knowing Praetor...i call on thee

[noobster]

Dear Praetor,

Remember me? the dood who's bending his back backwards to get his girl a decent comp...

anyways....i have a problem now...

i put together the computer...and boots up fine...i put the windows xp professional cd to install os on the hard drive...but the windows setup reads only 7.9 gigs of my 160 gig hd....the mobo im using is uguru abit AI7...with a p4 2.8 ghz 800fsb hyper thread....hd is maxtor 160gig 7200 rpm hd...

what the heck is going on?...is it a hardware problem?...i know i plugged in everything right...i think....friend suggested that i get a pci card....thinking that the mobo has that 137gig limitation thingy....but when i went to the place i bought all my stuff...the guy there said that the mobo supports 137+gig harddrives....so i went back home....plugged in my old 30gig hd to see if it is the limitation problem....but at windows setup is only read 7.9 gig also....so it aint the hd's....what is it??...when i go into bios....it reads the whole hd...155gig to be exact...so if bios sees it...why does windows setup see only 7.9 gigs of it....i tried installing windows anyways to see if i can correct the hd problem using windows....but wont even install it...after i try to format the hd in windows setup (7.9gig of it)...it tells me that my hard drive might be damaged or something....check your connections and see if the scsi setting is correct bla bla bla....i dont even know what scsi is....anyways...im humbly asking you to help me with this problem...

thanks in advance...and i hope you have the answer to correct my problem so my gf can start using this comp...which is just sitting in her room as of this moment rotting because the stupid thing wont read my hd correctly...

sincerely,
noobster

 

[noobster]

i hooked up the 160gig hd to my old comp...and reads 7.9 gig as partitioned and 123 gig of it unpartitioned...so its not the hd....so all i can think is the mobo is out of whack?....because on the new mobo...it reads 7.9 gig as partitioned and only 8mb of unpartitioned space....plus...on my old mobo...the windoes setup works fine...im formatting it as we speak....so im hoping that formatting will make it easier on the new mobo?....make it easier to read all of it?...what stumps me is that the new mobo only reads 8mb....wtf...the old mobo reads the limit of it...132 gig i believe....anyways...quick reply will be greatly appreciated...thanks again

noobster

 

[Praetor]

but the windows setup reads only 7.9 gigs of my 160 gig hd

1. When you installed WXP did you partition the entire drive or just 8GB?
2. Are you using NTFS as a filesystem (you should). At the last part of the first stage of the install it asks you how you want to format ... select NTFS(Quick)

friend suggested that I get a pci card....thinking that the mobo has that 137gig limitation thingy

1. Your mobo is fine
2. The limitation is your OS. Regardless of how you connect the drives you will only be able to have a PARTITION size to a maximum of 137GB -- partition, not drive (i.e.., a drive can have multiple partitions)

after I try to format the hd in windows setup (7.9gig of it)...it tells me that my hard drive might be damaged or something

Now that's possible but I doubt that the drive is fried. When your computer starts up, when it's listing all the devices .. whats the code code for your drive? (i.e., is it some scrambled crap or is it 'normal' ... thats a common symptom of a fried drive .. having some scrambled code)

..and reads 7.9 gig as partitioned and 123 gig of it unpartitioned...

BINGO. Just as i suspected. Have a look at this guide for setting up WindowsXP: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

Pay special attention to step 5 ... you'll notice that theres 123GB of unpartition'd space -- partition it!

 

[noobster]

hard drive is fine...i partitioned the rest of the hd on my old mobo...and when i hooked it up to the new mobo...it doesnt read the 123 gig....only reads 7.9gig of partitioned space of it...and nothing else...i dont know if im explaining this right....my new motherboard does not see 123 gig of the hd...only 7.9 gig...when it asks to format and has the list thingy...usually has the 7.9 gig partitioned and like the rest of the hd space un partitioned (123gig)....the new mobo only lists the 7.9 gig....it only sees 7.9 gig even after i formatted on my old mobo....anyways...i think im just gonna get a different mobo....

 

[Praetor]

and when I hooked it up to the new mobo...it doesnt read the 123 gig....only reads 7.9gig of partitioned space of it...and nothing else...

Ok let me get this right ... you get to a screen that looks like this:

Now tell me exactly what you see in the box there .... now if the 123GB partition doesnt show up there then something's messed. now if it does show there but not in windows then it sounds like the problem is you've not formatted the drive (and thus it wont show up).

Here's a free (i think) partition tool:
http://www.ranish.com/part/

anyways...i think im just gonna get a different mobo....

Sure but i dont think its the mobo's fault that u cant see a partition ......

 

[noobster]

found the problem...

the ide port or whatever is called (the port on the mobo where u connect your hd to the mobo with the ribbon) was busted...in the bios menu of the previous new mobo listed my maxtor hd as "LXTNR" when it was supposed to be listed as "MAXTOR"...so it was a mobo problem...i exchanged for a new mobo and it works fine now....now im trying to figure out how to squeeze extra 20 gig or so from partition magic program...

thanks again for your help praetor...you sure reply fast as hell...and quick to offer a helping hand....and i know ALOT of other people besides me can appreciate your effort...keep up the good work and thanks again!

 

[noobster]

christ...i knew it was too good to be true...i have to purchase the Partition Magic program?.............

so...without purchasing this program...ill have the extra 20gig of space or so locked forever until i buy this frigging program?.....if thats not tyranny...i dunno what is....bastards....

i should have bought a 120gig hd...damnit....there is no other way to free up the extra space?....blah...

 

[Praetor]

in the bios menu of the previous new mobo listed my maxtor hd as "LXTNR" when it was supposed to be listed as "MAXTOR"...so it was a mobo problem...i exchanged for a new mobo and it works fine now....

Heeheee, all the small things

now im trying to figure out how to squeeze extra 20 gig or so from partition magic program...

Your drive is supposed to be 149GBish ... dunno if you'll be squeezing another 20GB from it

christ...i knew it was too good to be true...i have to purchase the Partition Magic program?.............
so...without purchasing this program...ill have the extra 20gig of space or so locked forever until I buy this frigging program?.....if thats not tyranny...i dunno what is....bastards....
i should have bought a 120gig hd...damnit....there is no other way to free up the extra space?....blah...

I did give a link to a (supposedly) free Partition tool ... and there are free partitioning tools out there (hell if you wanted to do it so badly for free, pop linux in there to do it and then install Windows back )