adding WD SATA to Dell 8400

[ezland00]

i am trying to add WD 320gb SATA HD to my Dell 8400. How come i can't see the drive in my computer?

This is my first time installing SATA drive, Please help

 

[Ronin]

Right Click on My Computer>Select Manage>Go to Disk Management (under Storage)>Initialize Drive>Format Drive

 

[ezland00]

Thanks for the help, The HD is 320GB, how come i only see 128gb there?

 

[ezland00]

anyone know?

 

[Vegito]

windows service pack 1a at least requires..

right click my computer and see what ver

 

[ezland00]

I'm using windows 2000 Pro. i tried to boot directly from 320GB, in windows setup it still show 130000MB

 

[mechBgon]

Isn't your CPU a hyperthreading model? You'd be better off with WinXP for that reason too.

 

[ezland00]

I don't think its windows problem. is there anything else i can try?

 

[mechBgon]

This article might help: 48-Bit LBA Support for ATAPI Disk Drives in Windows 2000

If your Win2000 CD is SP2 or earlier, try slipstreaming SP4 into it and burning a new installation CD. Here's help on that: link to Autostreamer

Edit: since I can see this coming... download the full SP4 file from here.

 

[ezland00]

I already have sp4 installed in my system. i also just edit the registry. It still know 128GB.

 

[mechBgon]

Next try installing Intel Application Accelerator drivers (which should be in the last column marked "performance software"). I don't know which chipset your particular revision of 8400 has, so I hope you know that or can look it up?

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: ezland00
I don't think its windows problem. is there anything else i can try?

Sure it is... it's a known limitation. Follow the advice above.

 

[ezland00]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
This article might help: 48-Bit LBA Support for ATAPI Disk Drives in Windows 2000

If your Win2000 CD is SP2 or earlier, try slipstreaming SP4 into it and burning a new installation CD. Here's help on that: link to Autostreamer

Edit: since I can see this coming... download the full SP4 file from here.

Thanks for that article, i forgot to enable the registery. but how i'm getting 298GB, the harddrive should give me 320GB. i'm missing 22GB. What sould i do now?

 

[mechBgon]

I think you are all done. Windows computes GB differently than Western Digital does. Enjoy!

 

[ezland00]

Will seagate be better on the GB error? i'm planning to exchange it to a seagate 250gb

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: ezland00
Will seagate be better on the GB error? i'm planning to exchange it to a seagate 250gb

No. It's not an error, either, it's just two ways of defining what a "gigabyte" is.

 

[Cheesetogo]

There is a limitation the size of a drive with earlier forms of windows and updates. As for your "gb error", that is do to the hard drive companies calling 1 gig 1,000,000,000 bytes, while windows calculates a gig as 1,073,741,824 bytes. So if you get a 250 gb drive, windows would detect it as a 233 gig drive, but because of the limitation will still show it as 137 gb.

 

[ezland00]

so if i exchange for a new one, it will still be the same/

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: ezland00
so if i exchange for a new one, it will still be the same/

Yes. If you actually need 320GB by Windows' way of measuring, then buy a "400GB" hard drive and you'll be covered.

 

[BOLt]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: ezland00
so if i exchange for a new one, it will still be the same/

Yes. If you actually need 320GB by Windows' way of measuring, then buy a "400GB" hard drive and you'll be covered.

ezland00, they're right. Fill that 320GB drive and then see if you need more.

 

[ezland00]

i do lots video recording, so my harddrive max out fast. Most of time i back it up with DVD-R to get more space. i though 320gb will give me more room since i have 2x120gb, but i guess thats not how HD works

 

[Ronin]

The reason you don't get 320GB is basic and simple. It's formatting space (MFT, for example). You will never, in a Windows installation, get the full advertised size of your HD.