HD not showing correct size

[fuzzycasserole]

I recently put together my own computer. After a crapload of trial and mostly error, it's running spectacularly... except for one thing.

The hard drive (Western Digital Caviar SE 200 GB, product number WD2000JB) is supposed to be 200 GB. However, it shows up as 32 GB.

I formatted it as one 200 GB partition. However, even in BIOS, it shows up as 32 GB.

This seems like it should be simple to fix (reformat), but when I try to do it (through XP), it won't let me make it any bigger.

Can anyone shed some light on this mystery? I have a shiny gold star here for whoever can help me out!

 

[Fardringle]

That definitely sounds like there is either a problem with the drive, or the drive is partitioned. Since the BIOS itself says the drive is only 32 GB, I'd suspect something wrong with the drive.

To find out if it's simply a partition issue, right-click on the My Computer on the Windows XP desktop, left-click on Manage, then left-click on the Storage>Disk Management option on the left side of the Computer Management window.

Take a look at the information for Disk 0 in the right panel. If it only has one 'box' with a size around 32GB and no additional (unpartitioned, unformatted, etc.) boxes, then you either have a 32GB drive that was badly mismarked, or a drive that is incorrectly reporting its size. In either case, I'd say an RMA is in order.

Another way to find the same information (and possibly even a bit more reliable) is to boot from a Windows 98 CD or floppy disk and run the FDISK tool on the hard drive. If it reports that the full size of the drive is only 32GB, then you need to replace the drive. If it reports multiple partitions, then you just need to remove all partitions and recreate a single master/active partition using all of the available space on the disk.


edit: Good point about the drive jumpers, John! Make sure to check those as well!

 

[John]

Check the drive jumpers and make sure it is set appropriately to single, cable select, master or slave. Do not set it to a 32GB clip.

Use Win XP disk management (control panel > admin tools) to format the drive with NTFS instead of Fat32. Otherwise you can use a Win98 bootdisk to format the 200GB drive to Fat32.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314463

 

[fuzzycasserole]

Thank you all for all of the helpful responses.

I should have added that I know that it indeed is a 200 gb drive. When I was formatting it (via some bad, slow bootable floppy based util called Lifeguard), it said it was formatted as one 200 gb ntsf partition. However, because of different things, I reformatted it a few times. I think that one of those times, it must have gone wonky. Who knows.

Not to sound particularly noobish, but how would I format the drive as NTFS from the XP disk management util? I can't seem to find the option...

EDIT: Ok, looking back, that was stupid, I can't reformat the start-up disk with a utility that's on it... Is there an app that I can burn to a CD and then boot from that will do this? (besides Windows 98; I don't have it)

 

[Fardringle]

The Windows XP install CD will do it for you. Just boot from the CD and choose to install Windows. When you get to the point where it asks you the location to use to install, follow the prompts to delete ALL partitions, then create a new partition using all available space and format it using NTFS.

NOTE: This will remove your current Windows installation, but if the drive is partitioned improperly, this is probably the best way to correct the problem.

 

[fuzzycasserole]

I'm assuming there's no way to keep from deleting everything... oh well.

 

[fuzzycasserole]

Ok, so I've tried a few things, and it's still messed up.

When I go to delete the partition in XP setup, it lets me. But then, it still only shows 32 gb of unpartitioned space...

I've tried reformatting with the Data Lifeguard floppy too, and though it does reognize the full drive size, any changes I make with it are unrecognized by BIOS. I'm going to try flashing the BIOS.

 

[KeepItRed]

Faulty HD?

 

[fuzzycasserole]

I called tech support, and got a fix!

FOr those of you who were curious, it turns out that the Data Lifeguard utility sucks and changed the amount of data per sector, or something. Anyways, it works now, shows up as 192 gb! Thanks a lot for all your help guys!