Hey This is just a quick guide on how to enable large hard drive support in windows XP, eg going over the 137GB hard drive limit. I myself have a 200gb hard drive, which is used only as a storage drive, split into 2 even partitions. My main drive is a 80gb drive and is used for my OS and installed programs etc. Since I'm using 2 drives, i'm not sure on exact procedure to enable hard drive support on 1 drive. My guess is that its pretty much the same as the below method but since your using only 1 drive, you have to first partition below the 137gb limit then create another one afterwards to reclaim your lost space. Anyway first off, the most important step is to install the windows xp latest service pack. XP does not support large HD primarily but the service packs addresses this issue. Also updating your BIOS and using windows update couldn't hurt either. Once you have installed the latest service pack (I'm using Win XP Pro SP1a), then all you have to do is open disk management, which is located in 'Control Panel' - Administrative Tools - Computer Management. Once there, double click on 'Storage', then 'Disk Management'. It will now show a list of your current hard drives. You should see your large hard drive here. Simply from here, right click on the drive, partition then partition into a NTFS drive. FIrst off i don't recommend using only 1 partition on a large HD, instead split it up into halves or even quarters. I have a 200GB so i made 2x100gb partitions, keeping both partitions under the 137gb limit. Sure you can go over but you don't want to run into any problems so best to stay under, just in case. After thats all done, then your drive is all ready to use. Now you may run into some problems but if you followed this, then it should be unlikely. If I missed anything out and you know of something else, plz don't hesitate to post here. Here are some problems that MIGHT happen. FIrst off if you try to partition your drives without installing the service pack first (thus enabling support for the large HD) then you will have a major problem. First you can only partition up to the 137gb limit, then the rest is lost space. Or if somehow it still lets you partition higher, or if you use partitioning software to partition higher, then be warned that your computer may crash, I know mine did. It might display more space BUT once you start filling up your drive, and say go over your 137gb limit, then xp will then start OVERWRITING files and your drive WILL become unstable. You won't know that its unstable until you find out that some folders you can't access, says they're not there, and some of your files are missing. It will say to reboot, you reboot, it checks the drive for consistency, then moves some files around, then whallah, you lose half your files. Little lesson? MAKE sure you install the service packs first! One more problem, which you shouldnt encounter, unless you do a full reinstall of windows if you use 2 drives, or can still happen using 1 but i havent tested this out yet. Same principle applies above, you need the service pack, but if you install windows XP and you have 2 partitions, you may read the first partition, but the second partition is inaccessible. If this happens you proberly get very worried about now, I know my hands were a bit sweaty. Anyway don't panic too much, this can be fixed. FIrst off xp will tell you then you may need to reboot then check that drive for erros, whatever you do, DO NOT DO THAT, you may reboot but whatever you do, DO NOT CHECK THAT PARTITION FOR ERRORS, if you do, you risk losing data. ANyway install the service pack as normal, reboot, skip the error checking, and when windows boots up, check your drive, shoudl be working again. See that wasnt so difficult was it? The reason i posted this cause so many people ask this, and when this question gets answered, users usually direct them to the microsoft website. Now if you don't know what you're doing, you have no sense whatever reading the site that users give you, instead I hope this helps you greatly then. Till next time! P.S User comments and abuse always welcome Ü

Just wanted to point out that XP DOES nativly support drives over the 137GB limit. It's just a registry tweak, though you're correct in that you need SP1. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013&Product=winxp (Yes this is an article from the MSKB, but since they made Windows, they probably know what they're talking about...) The bigger problem is the motherboard. Many cannot see drives bigger than 137GB, and because the motherboard doesn't see it, Windows can't either. Fixing this is pretty easy. You can get an addon card such as a Promise PCI card. I know that the big Western Digital retail box drives come with one. Some newer motherboards have had BIOS updates that allow them to see big drives. Intel boards, and some that use Intel chipsets are some of the most notable. Personally, if you are just going to use the big drive as a secondary drive to store data, then I would suggest only one partition. If you are going to put Windows on it, then I would suggest, as I always do, that you set aside around 6-8 GB for the Windows partition, and put the remaining space in another partition. Makes it easy to reinstall Windows if need be.