Installing XPpro, keeping my big hard drive big!

[Ravenseye]

Ok,

I'm installing an upgrade version of XP onto my pc.

I have a brand new 250gig hard drive.

I format said drive with the software that has been so nicely provided by said hard drive manufacturer with my hard drive. Its at full, 250gig, capacity.

When XP is installing, it installs fine until reboot time. When it reboots, that software that the hard drive manufacturer installed on the hard drive to help you boot to the cd, will not let me continue to install XP and forces me to re-install and re-format the hard drive and this is when it pares it down to the 130 gig size.

How can I format the drive, and allow windows to utilize the full size of the hard drive?

I have WinXP sp1, and sp2 on disc that I install afterwards.

I thank you all for your assistance in advance!!

-Mike

 

[airfoil]

Start with ensuring that you have the latest BIOS revision installed.

You need to have SP1 or greater for the entire disk to be useable. I recommend you create a slipstreamed XP SP2 installation and start from the beginning.

Here's a guide.

If you prefer to have this done for you, download Autostreamer.