My new Seagate 7200.10 has a capacity of 250GB, but my Disk Properties indicates only 127GB available. What must I do to get the full 250GB?

Slipstream your XP SP1 installation disc to include SP2 as there is a fix installed for the 132 Gig limit of a harddrive size that was built into XP. When XP was designed there were no large drives and at the time non were expected to be larger than 137 Gig...so a limit was built into the installation disc. Windows XP SP2 removed this limiting factor. If you are happy with your installation...you can use the disc manger and it will show the true size of the drive with the "lost space" listed as unallocated. You can click the "unallocated space and format it and it will create a new partition that you can use for storage. Right click "my computer" and select "manage" in the left pane select "disc management" and in the lower right pane of the mew window click on the "unallocated space" of the harddrive.....warning....all drives will be shown including your CD/dvd drives. Definition of a Liberal: He has never had to fight for his Freedom He is only good at enjoying it! "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."

I would just add some additional comments to response #1. Original WinXP was not 48bit LBA compliant so you do need to address the issue by upgrading to at least SP1. There is a second method that can be used. This assumes your BIOS IS 48 bit LBA compliant. You can use a partitioning utility to merge the unallocated space into the primary partition or simply make it into a second primary or extended partition with logical drives. In order to slipstream any service packs into your original WinXP CD you do need a computer running Win2000/XP and has disk burning capability. One last point to make. MSoft did leave out 48bit LBA compiance but it wasn't done for the reasons stated above, IMO. MSoft released WinXP original knowing there would be many pirated copies in the wild and this method was used to control piracy. MSoft also intentionally did not make WinXP original USB 2.0 compliant.

Hello lurkswithin and thank you for your response. I tried the slipstream in the past and could not get it right. However, my XP Professional is updated to Sp3. I like OtheHill's (thank you OtheHill) idea of merging the partitions into one. Can this be done even though the C:\ (Local Disk) is already populated with my programs? However, even if that is possible, I have no idea whether my BIOS is 48 bit LBA compliant. Even if I went into the BIOS I have no idea where to look - obviously I am an amateur at this stuff. The BIOS is an AMI V2.5 09/29/2004 and I just updated/flashed it. I've been told the Partition Magic is one of the best programs for this. Do you have any other suggestions - my referral is dated. Thank you OtheHill and lurkswithin for you response to my inquiry. I wish you both a GREAT day. Roy

If your computer is less than 5 years old then it most likely is 48 bit compliant. However, there is an easy method to determine for sure in your case. You already have the hard drive installed so just watch the startup screens to verify the 250GB drive is properly identified by model and capacity. If the drive only shows as 137GB or less then you BIOS in not compliant. I would recommend you do not merge the partitions. It is much better to keep the OS on a different partition than your programs. That way when you make backups you may not need to backup the program partition if nothing has changed. You do plan on maintaining regular backups don't you? If you were starting fresh I would advise at least 3 partitions on a 250 GB drive. The OS partition doesn't need to be any more than 20/25GB. Look at the link below for partitioning strategies. edit I forgot to mention that if you use the right tools slipstreaming is fairly easy. I can supply a few links if you are interested. http://partition.radified.com/

Thank you OtheHill. I did a restart to verify the report of the HDD capacity but it proceeded so quickly I could not get a fix on the figure. Next time I shut down, I will reboot into BIOS to verify the reported capacity. I will consider your advice about the separate partitions. Way back when DOS was king, I always had separate partitions for the OS and data files - slow processors. However, I was told, as the processor speeds increased, this was no longer a consideration. You mention three partitions. What is the purpose of the third? I've saved your link in the event I should decide to partition. Thank you for that. By all means I do regular backups. Windows backup seems sufficient for my needs. I work in CAD, architect, most of the time and it is beneficial to add only those items which have been modified or added. I will forgo the slipstreaming unless absolutely necessary. Thanks again OtheHill. Have a pleasant evening. Roy

I have a 30GB primary used for OS and a few key programs. D is 58GB and has all my programs. E is the remaining 142GB and has my music, photos, etc. When I image with Ghost I do each seperately as needed. My music doesn't change much and I backup photos to CDR when I offload them from the camera. That means I don't image that drive often. I haven't imaged the D drive since first installing the programs either. It isn't a great loss if you need to reinstall one or two. The main advantage is if you need to restore the OS partiton from a ghost image you need not restore the other two partitions and all will function properly. I usually get by with 2 single layer DVDR disks to image my C drive. When using a program like Ghost or Acronis the only thing that is imaged are the files themselves so no matter how large the partition it only copies actual data. I am a builder and use Chief Architect to draw. I use Roxio drag to disk to immediately backup that type of file. Word docs, excel, etc. If you are not familiar with drag to disk it is a packet writer. Nero also has one. The difference is Roxio D TO D can use CDR/DVDR or RW media. Nero can only work with rewritable media. I have an Old CD burner that is dedicated to drag to disk. All you do is drag and drop to the icon and the file is written to CDR. If you make a change in a file but keep the same exact file name when you drag the file it will ask you if you want to replace the old file. It marks the disk so the old file is there but no longer shows. Slipstreaming is not hard and in the long run saves time if you ever need to re-install. I am using SP2 still. There are literally over 100 post SP2 updates. Plus you can't get those anymore. MSoft wants to feed you SP3.