A 250Gb HDD to which I have cloned the contents of another HDD, NOW appears to the SAME BIOS as 130Gb; the same for another PC that it had not previously been in. What's more, a 320Gb HDD is likewise appearing in both PCs as 130Gb ! What's happening ? How can I correct it ? Basty

You need to have 48 bit LBA mode enabled. You need a BIOS that is 48 Bit LBA capable and an operating system that can understands 48 bit LBA as well. That means Windows 2000 SP3 and Windows XP SPI http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098 Stuart

Assuming you didn't round 128gb actually seen by the bios up to 130gb, the bios should see the drive as it's true 250gb size, but it may be seen as 130gb in Windows. There is more than one method of cloning a drive. -copying the data contents to another drive onto an existing already partitioned and formatted drive, or - copying the entire partition(s) on the drive to another drive that was NOT already partitioned and formatted. If you cloned using the latter method, if the hard drive you cloned had 130gb in one or more partition(s), data plus free space, the copy will have (a) partition(s) of exactly the same size. You can use a third party program such as Partition Magic to increase the size of the partition(s) to fill up the capacity of the drive without losing the data already on the drive. If you ARE rounding up 128gb seen by the operating system or the bios to 130gb, or if your bios reports the manufacturer's decimal size rather than the slightly smaller binary size that Windows always sees, then one or more of several things applies: - if the mboards saw the true size of the drives before in the bios, your bios Setup drive detection settings must be correct - the detection method has to be Auto or LBA - in Windows, Win 2000 must have SP3 or later updates installed, and XP must have SP1 or later updates installed, in order for them to recognize hard drives larger than 128gb (if they do have the updates included, that is printed on the original CD). If your Windows 2000 CD does not have SP3 or later updates built in, and/or if your XP CD does not have at least SP1 updates built in, the maximum size Setup and the operating system will see drive sizes as is 128gb. You can't partition and format the entire drive space with the original CD in that case since Setup can't see all of it. You have two alternatives. - You can use your original Windows CD, then install the Windows updates that allow larger than 128gb drives to been seen properly, then use a third party program later such as Partition Magic to increase the size of the partition(s) to fill up the capacity of the drive without losing the data already on the drive. - OR you could burn yourself a slipstreamed CD-R that has both the contents of the original CD and the contents of the updates integrated into it, and use your original Product Key with it, and setup Windows with that. The second method allows Windows Setup to recognize the true drive size initially. E.g. for XP (info about similar procedures for 2000 is also on the web): you need to burn a slipstreamed CD that has the contents of both the original Windows CD and the SP1 or SP2 updates - e.g. Slipstreamed Windows XP CD Using SP2 http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstr... Directions for using Roxio or Nero. ..... Slipstream Your Way to Safer, More Secure WinXP Systems http://www.crn.com/white-box/186700253 The elder geek site mentions you must add the Microsoft Corporation.img file to the CD - the crn site explains what it is and where to get it. "While you've got the Windows XP installation disc in the drive, take a few moments to extract the Microsoft Corporation.img file from the disc. The Microsoft Corporation.img file is an image file, and it's a critical component for compiling the bootable Windows XP CD image" The crn site uses freeware programs to make a slipstreamed CD. Optionally you can also use the freeware nlite to do it, and also integrate hot fixes. ...... How To Slipstream SP2 http://kadaitcha.cx/slipstream.html Simlar to elder geek site with more detail. Roxio, Nero, or the freeware Isobuster ....... This explains what the image is of - the boot sector - but it's about integrating SP1 into Windows 2003: Click on the link above the ads here: http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article... to go here: http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article... ..... http://www.helpwithwindows.com/Wind... ...... Repair Install and precautions and fixes, slipsteam references, in place install references. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/X... from there: SP2 download from Microsoft and a major file on the SP2 CD are the same - instructions for slipstreaming both: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcas...

In addition to all the excellent advice above I would add that with Win2000 you will also need to add an entry to the BIOS to enable the large drive. Watch you POST screens at startup. If the 250GB drive is not identified by model number, which should include the 250 somewhere in there, then you can't use that drive without using an add in controller card or a drive overlay, which I would advise against. Chek the link below for more info on 48 bit LBA. http://www.48bitlba.com/index.htm