WinXP hdd problem

[ChaoticMunky]

I recently built a new computer and bought a 250GB hard drive for it. I bought a Western Digital 250GB hard drive, 7200RPM and 8MB Cache. But when I view the hard drive size in My Computer, it says that I only have a 127 GB hard drive. I'm wondering if anyone knows why it's doing this and how I can fix it. I'm trying to avoid having to format my hard drive and start over.

Thanks

 

[DigitalX]

137gb limitation?

 

[ChaoticMunky]

What's that and why would it do that (if that's what it's doing)?

 

[DigitalX]

48-bit Logical Block Addressing Support

hard to explain, search the web for 137gb and it should yield some sites that does that.

you might need to backup and let windows xp (SP1 or above) format the drive to get the full use of the drive.

 

[ChaoticMunky]

I installed service pack 2 and when I rebooted it showed the rest of the space, but in order to use it I'm having to create it as drive "E", which is fine as long as I can use it.

 

[DigitalX]

if you are happy just stick with it until the next time you need to reinstall. I personally leave my 80g as the main drive and the 250g as a data drive...

 

[jjsbasmt]

Partition Magic 8 will allow you to use the full drive as one partition with no data loss.