250gb sata drive only recognised as 131gb???

Computer Forum Storage Devices
1

Can anyone help me with my problem please?

I recently re-installed windows xp sp1 onto my system by deleting the old system partition which was aprox 245gb and only contained windows as the system is new. However, ever since that my hard drive is only being recognsied as around 130gb!!! In order to install windows xp sp1 I downloaded the sata drivers from the motherboard manufacturers website, which are up to date. All other drivers that I am aware of have now been installed such as the chipset driveers and graphics drivers.
Can anyone please help??

Thanks

2

131 was the limit to the OS you have, the rest should be noticed as unallocated , don’t worry, you still probably have the space, and you can still use it, but it’s not recognized fully,

if you defragment or somethin it will still clean or compress that region of the hard drive, its just that its not noticed as part of the hard drive, just… extra space

check under drive management if you also have a certain number of unallocated space in addition to the 131, and if added should produce around 250 give or take a few gigs

3

This is because windows doesn’t have the upto date ATAPI.sys driver, so you are required to install the updates SP1 or SP2 before you can see the rest of the space.

I’d suggest reading this link is well http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

4

Thanks alot for all the help. Ive had a look on the link and I think that might fix the problem. Thanks to everyone.

5

unfortunetly the problem still persists and I now have absolutly no idea what to do about it. :frowning:

6

You now have to format the rst of the disk to make it useable.

Go to:

Start>>Control Panel>Performance + Mainetenance>Admin Tools>Computer Management.

Then select the Disk Management sub category.

You will then see the current disk structure, with used space, and unformatted space.

Simply right click this unformatted space, give it a drive letter and format it.

Then it will appear in My Computer, ready to be used.

You can size this partition to 50gigs, 25, 100, or whatever you like.

7

Thankyou ‘waffles’ thats sorted it! I am now reading a total of 234gb from the 250gb drive. Thanks alot to everyone who tried to help.