Maxtor III 300GB reduced to 120GB ???

S

seri

Geek Trainee
I just bought this fantastic HDD: Maxtor III 300GB 7200RPM 3.5 INCH. The BIOS recognized it well as a 300GB thing. However, when I setup my Windows XP Professional (32bit), it displayed only one partition (at the step when the setup asks to choose a partition where you would want your OS to lie on) and that partition is merely 120GB. I accepted the fate and let life go on. Then even when Windows was up and running, I only had 120GB total to use.

Where did the remaining 180GB go ?
Every help is appreciated.
 
seri said:
I just bought this fantastic HDD: Maxtor III 300GB 7200RPM 3.5 INCH. The BIOS recognized it well as a 300GB thing. However, when I setup my Windows XP Professional (32bit), it displayed only one partition (at the step when the setup asks to choose a partition where you would want your OS to lie on) and that partition is merely 120GB. I accepted the fate and let life go on. Then even when Windows was up and running, I only had 120GB total to use.

Where did the remaining 180GB go ?
Every help is appreciated.
Click to expand...
did u format the other partitions, if not then format them becoz if your bios detects the drive as a 300gb one, then the drive is working
 
Hmm..same kind of deal happened with me. I bought a 200 Gig HD and my partition was only about 120 Gigs or so. I guess mine wasn't as bad of a drop, but loosing 80 Gigs is a bit frustrating!! Try creating a RAID0 by creating multiple partitions and see if the added HD space on the partitions is 300 Gigs. Plus, I'm told a RAID0 speeds up your PC in general.
 
Thanks izzy007 and UnSeEn !

did u format the other partitions, if not then format them becoz if your bios detects the drive as a 300gb one, then the drive is working
Click to expand...

How could I format the other partitions ? Windows XP does not see the other partitions at all. What system utilities should I use here ? And is it possible to implement your solution without having to lose my current data ?

Try creating a RAID0 by creating multiple partitions
Click to expand...

Sorry for being a noob, but how can I do that ?

(Please be as specific as possible since I am really clueless about HDD)

Another question: So it is not possible to have a 300GB partition ? Can anybody tell me the reason ?
 
seri said:
I just bought this fantastic HDD: Maxtor III 300GB 7200RPM 3.5 INCH. The BIOS recognized it well as a 300GB thing. However, when I setup my Windows XP Professional (32bit), it displayed only one partition (at the step when the setup asks to choose a partition where you would want your OS to lie on) and that partition is merely 120GB. I accepted the fate and let life go on. Then even when Windows was up and running, I only had 120GB total to use.

Where did the remaining 180GB go ?
Every help is appreciated.
Click to expand...

the 120 Gb´s could be your original HDD, but not sure why XP Pro setup doesn´t see the 300Gb drive

on second thoughts, is the 300Gb Maxtor the only HDD currently connected to your system ?
did you let XP auto configure HDD and is it NTFS ?
 
the 120 Gb´s could be your original HDD, but not sure why XP Pro setup doesn´t see the 300Gb drive
Click to expand...

I don't think so, the HDD is labelled as a 300GB one.

on second thoughts, is the 300Gb Maxtor the only HDD currently connected to your system ?
did you let XP auto configure HDD and is it NTFS ?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is. And yes, I did let XP auto configure HDD and it was NTFS.
 
You need to have Service Pack 1 or later installed to see the full amount of a drive larger than 137GB.
 
Does it work if I install Service Pack 3 ?

I mean in other words, does SP3 cover SP2 and SP2 cover SP1 or they just extend to the one before ?
 
Also Check in your Disk Management if there is any unallocated space there. To enter into your Disk Management.

Right Click MyComputer > Manage > Disk Management;

On the right hand side bottom, can you see any unallocated space????

If yes, then right click on it and initialise it.
 
donkey42 said:
i thought 137Gb was the limit imposed by some BIOS´s, wrong again [ot]but thats nothing new[/ot]
Click to expand...

Yes, that's true, but you also need a software side to recognize the full amount.


As for the Service Packs, they are cumulative, so Service Pack 2 contains any fixes that Service Pack 1 contained.
 
Big B said:
Yes, that's true, but you also need a software side to recognize the full amount.


As for the Service Packs, they are cumulative, so Service Pack 2 contains any fixes that Service Pack 1 contained.
Click to expand...

[ot]oh! good, i was nearly right (nearly right, as in wrong LOL[/ot]
 
Yes, that's true, but you also need a software side to recognize the full amount.


As for the Service Packs, they are cumulative, so Service Pack 2 contains any fixes that Service Pack 1 contained.
Click to expand...

It's just as you said. After SP2 was installed, it did show "Unallocated Space" of roughly 150GB when I went to Device Manager and looked for the HDD's properties.

Okay, this is all very nice. But at the end of the day, Unallocated is still Unallocated. How can I allocate it now (w/o having to format the HDD) ?
 
right click on the unallocated space and select format, this will only format the unallocated space afer which you should see the extra space in My Computer.
 
Where exactly can I do it ? In the Properties of the device, the thing which says "Unallocated Space: blah blah" is just an information text, not right-click-able.
 
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management

Here you should see the unallocated space, right click and select to format.
 
When this happened to me, I could only set up another partition.
Is there anyway to add it to the current one?

I.e. all in the C:\ drive.

(sorry about bumping this)
 
You will need a 3rd party disk manager such as Partion Magic and Acronis Disk Director. It is best to backup whatever you can before starting incase anything happens.
 
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