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Thread ID: 89539 2008-05-03 10:51:00 HDD not running at full capacity nofam (9009) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
665473 2008-05-03 10:51:00 Just helped a friend build a PC today, and the Samsung HDD isn't being recognised at its full 500Gb capacity - from memory it's showing 128Gb

What's the likely cause? Unfortunately he installed the OS while I wasn't there, so not too sure what he did exactly. I noticed the BIOS is showing that the drive is running in IDE mode, and if I enable AHCI mode, it just crashes. I'm thinking that XP doesn't have the right SATA drivers??

Cheers all :badpc:
nofam (9009)
665474 2008-05-03 10:53:00 Is SP1, 2 or 3 installled?

Does the BIOS see all of the hdd?
Speedy Gonzales (78)
665475 2008-05-03 11:05:00 XP SP1 at a minimum must be included on the installation disk (not installed separately) in order for XP to see disks over 128gigs during installation.

If you right click on "My Computer" and select manage > disk management, you should see the missing gigabytes as unallocated space in a separate partition. If you have suitable 3rd party partitioning software you should be able to increase the partition from 128 gigs to the full size. Otherwise just leave the missing space as part of a separate partition. You can use the new partition by right-clicking on it under disk management and formatting it first.

It is probably a good idea to have two or more partitions on a drive that size purely for maintenance purposes as it will be easier to defrag smaller volumes. It is also handy to save all your personal stuff on a separate partition to the OS because if XP loses the plot big time and you have to reformat, at least all your stuff is held separately and won't be lost.
Jen (38)
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