HELP Installing 200GB HD

[ViperJ]

Okay i am going about trying to install my new seagate 200 gb hd as the master but i can only get 137 for c drive. When i right click my computer, manage, disk managment it shows the other 63 mb as unallocated space? How would i get this to make a 200gb c drive?

[vladlos]

strange. maybe u should try defragmenting ur disk...if that doesnt work find a tutorial and try repartioning ur hard drive.

[YogsVR4]

Stopped at seagate and found this whic has solutions depending on which operating system you are using.
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di..._overview.html

[eversio11]

OT - thats a big fucking hard drive

[ViperJ]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

Stopped at seagate and found this whic has solutions depending on which operating system you are using.
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di..._overview.html

Thanks for the link. I guess i have to update my bios because i already have xp and sp2.

Originally Posted by EVERSIO11

OT - thats a big fucking hard drive

Yeah it is, at one of the stores here the had an awsome deal, 200GB HD for $69.99. So that should be enough hard drive space for all my car movies, pictures, mp3s etc.

[Plastic_Fork]

Yep. When dealing with a hard drive of that size, you have to get around Windows' 137gb barrier, although I think Windows XP already did this. Update the OS (which you've done), update your BIOS (which should help), and if your chipset doesn't support a drive that size, you'll probably need a controller card.

[ViperJ]

Thanks guys, I found out my BIOS cant be update. Thats only from my novice research, if you guys want to have a crack at it please go right ahead. I have an ECS k7vmm+ motherboard, last bios update nov 2002. Thanks

[Plastic_Fork]

Well, I dug around a bit and didn't come up with much. All things considered, you should be able to see the full drive. Your drive is ATA100, right? Or ATA133? WindowsXP doesn't support ATA133 without a controller card or some proprietary software patching. VIA has an IDE driver that might work, but I'd eliminate the other options first before putting in a different IDE driver. Your southbridge (VIA VT8235) supports ATA133 though, so I'd wager it's either WindowsXP or your BIOS. Your motherboard manufacturer ECS and VIA didn't have much information on what maximum hard drive capacity it supports.

What version of the BIOS do you have? Based on ECS's website, you should be using AmiBIOS. What revision of the motherboard do you have? Revision 3.1 or 5.2c? ECS has both listed, so you'd need to know which one you have before you know which BIOS update to get. One has October 2003 as the most recent one for board version 3.1, the other has April 2004 as the most recent for board version 5.2c. Both have recent updates that may fix your issue.

If you're not sure where to look for that information, go to their tech support webpage and click on the helpers which will show you where to look:
ECS Tech Support

And if all else fails, get a controller card. Those always work. My old dual slot-two Pentium III server sees my entire 180gb drive without issues with the controller card. And that's using WinXP Pro and a chipset that really shouldn't see anything past around 80gb. Just set your BIOS accordingly if you use a controller card.

Just keep in mind the overhead Windows needs for a drive that large. Windows XP only sees 167gb out of my 180gb drive. The issue you have is something else, but when you do get it to work, Windows will probably only see around 184gb, give or take.

[ViperJ]

Originally Posted by Plastic_Fork

Your drive is ATA100, right?
What version of the BIOS do you have?
Based on ECS's website, you should be using AmiBIOS. What revision of the motherboard do you have? Revision 3.1 or 5.2c?
And if all else fails, get a controller card. Those always work. My old dual slot-two Pentium III server sees my entire 180gb drive without issues with the controller card. And that's using WinXP Pro and a chipset that really shouldn't see anything past around 80gb. Just set your BIOS accordingly if you use a controller card.

Just keep in mind the overhead Windows needs for a drive that large. Windows XP only sees 167gb out of my 180gb drive. The issue you have is something else, but when you do get it to work, Windows will probably only see around 184gb, give or take.

1- Yes its a ATA110 and yes windows does see the other part of the drive but its unallocated. I dont want to have to buy partion magic to fix this problem if i just need a BIOS update. The reason i am not making that my D: drive is because i already have a 40gb d drive.

2- Revision 3.1

3- For the controller card i would have to remove one of my pci cards, either my modem or sound card, so that is what i want to do last.

4- If i bought a new motherboard how could i check and see if it supports 137+ hard drives before i buy? I cant buy anything over the internet so i would go to the store write down models and look them up at home?

BTW plastic fork thanks for all your help

[ViperJ]

Got a response back from ECS tech support "I don't think your need update BIOS if motherboard can detect correct hard drive ID and space.
You need buy XP book or contact Microsoft about how to partition unallocated hard drive space."
What do you guys think?

[Plastic_Fork]

No sweat, man. That's what technical support people do.

Does the BIOS see the entire drive when it boots? Like when it displays the drives in the POST screen as it boots up (the black screen with all the white writing) does it show that BIOS sees the whole 200gb? If you don't see the POST (it boots too fast), just go into your BIOS and look on the screen that will show your drives (different screens depending on who makes the BIOS). See if the BIOS sees the whole 200gb. If it does, you're set and won't need to do anything else and just need to correct it in Windows. If it doesn't see all of it, you should try to update the BIOS and see if that resolves it. If not, then you're being limited by your BIOS and chipset and will probably need a controller card. Windows XP should see the whole drive.

Now, do you have anything on the 200gb drive? If so, find some way to move all the data off so you can re-partition it. If it's empty still, that's even better. WindowsXP has a storage management program you can use to correct the issue. Just make sure the drive's empty first since you'll have to re-partition the drive.

Open your Control Panel and open Administrative Tools. Once in there, open Computer Management. On the left side, click on the "Disk Management" catagory. You'll see a representation of all the drives and storage configurations of them. Your main drive is the Primary Partition which houses Windows, so you'll need to make your new 200gb drive an Extended Partition with a Logical Drive in it. Your main drive should be Disk 0 on the bottom. The 200gb drive will be one of the others, either Disk 1 or Disk 2 or whatever (not a CD-ROM). It should show under "Disk x" that it's a Basic drive and the full size of the drive. Should say 190'ish-something GB or whatever the full size Windows sees. Make sure you're clicking that row so you don't delete your main drive. Right-click on the 137gb partition and choose "Delete Logical Drive". Do the same for the other 40gb partition. Then right-click and nuke the partitions as well. Basically, you want a full, 200gb (or whatever it fully sees) unallocated drive. Then right-click on the unallocated full drive and make a new Extended Partition for the full size. Then right-click and make a Logical Drive for the full size. After that, right-click on it and format it using the NTFS file system.





If all goes as planned, you should have an extended partition and logical drive that's the full size of the drive using NTFS. Re-assign your drive letters so it's in order (or not - your choice). Since you already have a D: drive, this one will probably end up being your E: drive. You don't have to have software to re-name the drives. Just do it from the management console where you already are. Just be aware if you re-name anything other than your CD-ROM drives and the drive you're trying to fix, you might cause problems with programs that are installed and associated in the registry with that particular drive path (programs that were installed on the D: drive for instance).

As for buying a new motherboard, the one you have is pretty recent. I doubt you need to buy another, but anything current should be capable of seeing drives over 200gb. What determines the hard drive capacity support is the chipset southbridge, BIOS, and the operating system you use.

Originally Posted by ViperJ

1- Yes its a ATA110 and yes windows does see the other part of the drive but its unallocated. I dont want to have to buy partion magic to fix this problem if i just need a BIOS update. The reason i am not making that my D: drive is because i already have a 40gb d drive.

2- Revision 3.1

3- For the controller card i would have to remove one of my pci cards, either my modem or sound card, so that is what i want to do last.

4- If i bought a new motherboard how could i check and see if it supports 137+ hard drives before i buy? I cant buy anything over the internet so i would go to the store write down models and look them up at home?

BTW plastic fork thanks for all your help

[-Davo]

Plastic Fork, good work. I bought a 120gb, and I had to do exactly what you just said to get it to work.

[ViperJ]

Here is my proble (I think). This is from Seagate's website "If your Windows XP CD does not indicate SP1, then your boot drive partition will have a maximum size of 137GB. After the OS and SP1 are installed, any additional gigabytes will show up as unallocated space on the drive and you can easily create a second partition with DiscWizard for Windows or the Windows disk management tools. Also, if you prefer to have a single partition, third party applications such as Partition Commander from VCom or Partition Magic from Powerquest may be able to stretch the partition to annex the newly found capacity." My windows XP cd doesn't say SP1 on it, it was made in 2002. Could this be the problem? I have since update to SP2 and now I an see the whole 186.31GB of potental space. So i need to buy partition magic or a new windows XP cd right?

[Plastic_Fork]

Originally Posted by ViperJ

Here is my proble (I think). This is from Seagate's website "If your Windows XP CD does not indicate SP1, then your boot drive partition will have a maximum size of 137GB. After the OS and SP1 are installed, any additional gigabytes will show up as unallocated space on the drive and you can easily create a second partition with DiscWizard for Windows or the Windows disk management tools. Also, if you prefer to have a single partition, third party applications such as Partition Commander from VCom or Partition Magic from Powerquest may be able to stretch the partition to annex the newly found capacity." My windows XP cd doesn't say SP1 on it, it was made in 2002. Could this be the problem? I have since update to SP2 and now I an see the whole 186.31GB of potental space. So i need to buy partition magic or a new windows XP cd right?

Nope. That's just a generic canned Seagate help message. You have SP2, which means you have everything from SP1 and what's on SP2. They're basically just saying you need SP1 or higher, which you have. You simply just need to nuke the partition(s) on your 200gb drive and make one large one. Use the Miscrosoft Management Console in your Control Panel as I explained above to do this and make a Logical Drive the full size it will allow you to make (which will be the largest capacity - 186.31gb in this case). Then format and you're set.

They're just suggesting Partition Magic or PowerQuest's software because they are assuming you have data on the first partition and that you just want to make the second chunk of unallocated space active. Those programs can adjust partitions and partition sizes without affecting your data (usually), but since your drive is empty, you can just as easily repartition and format from the Microsoft Management Console utility (or Windows disk management tools, as Seagate called it) in your Control Panel without having to buy extra software. Besides, they have contracts with those software vendors probably so will "steer" you in the direction of buying those products when in your case it's unecessary.

Originally Posted by -Davo

Plastic Fork, good work. I bought a 120gb, and I had to do exactly what you just said to get it to work.

Awesome. Glad I could help.

[my3rdskyline]

its not a windows limitation. it's the limitation of your IDE controller. you need to buy a PCI IDE controller card that goes beyond the 137GB barrier.