Member Avatar for muscuteer

Hi,
Ive recently brought a second SATA HDD for my comp. Installed it with no problems and its working fine the only problem is the size its says it is.

I bought it as a 250GB but when i look at it in "My Computer" it says that it is only 130GB, which is the same size as my primary HDD.

So my questions are, whats going on and how do i go about fixing it?

Cheers

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resolved the immediate problem by using the partitioning tools on the machine, as suggested. That is the common and simplest outcome: a new drive often ships or is left with unused/unallocated space, and the OS will only show what has been partitioned and formatted.

For cases where the drive still appears artificially small even after partitioning, the usual culprits are different: older motherboard firmware or legacy controller drivers that use limited addressing, a controller mode mismatch (legacy IDE vs native SATA/AHCI), or vendor-imposed hidden areas (HPA/DCO). Steps to take beyond partitioning: check what the motherboard/BIOS reports for the drive size; update the motherboard BIOS and the chipset/SATA drivers; try another SATA port or a modern add-in SATA controller with its own BIOS; run the drive maker’s diagnostic/utility to look for HPA/DCO; and confirm whether the system is using MBR (works to ~2 TB) versus GPT for very large disks.

If the goal is to expand an existing Windows system volume without reinstalling, reputable partition tools (for example, GParted or commercial Windows tools) can move/resize partitions non‑destructively — but always back up first. Firmware and driver updates solve most detection problems; when updating BIOS or flashing firmware, follow the vendor instructions carefully and ensure current backups.

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Member Avatar for dcc

Depending on the OS you are using you will need either sp4 for W2k or sp2 for XP to get around the 137GB limit that the BIOS will recognize.

Member Avatar for muscuteer

Im running XP pro with the SP2 jobby. So what do i need to do to get around the 137GB BIOS recognistion business?

Member Avatar for DaveB

What is the size of the HDD in Disk Management.

Open, with Start > Run

compmgmt.msc

In the MMC go to Computer Management, find the HDD we're talking about, and check the size. Do you have unallocated space.

If you find unallocated space, you can right-click and select "New Partition", create a new Primary Partition, allocate a drive letter....

It's quite tricky to add this unallocated space, (if you find any) to an existing partition, such as your C:\ Drive, without formatting the entire drive and reinstalling Windows.

Post back your findings, Regards, Dave

Member Avatar for muscuteer

Top dollar! It worked a treat cheers dave, much appreciated : - )

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