Help with hard drive max capacity

teh_moleman · Dec 21, 2004, 03:35 PM

I recently installed a new Seagate 200GB ATA hard drive in addition to my original 60GB hard drive. After installing it and starting the computer, the DiskWizard software that came with the drive formatted it, but only to a maximum size of 127GB. I ran DiskWizard again, and it gave me a message that it needed to make a change to the registry to enable support for larger hard drives. So it did, then reformatted automatically again, and now it's up to the maximum of 186GB (I know this is the normal size cause of the way it's calculated)

I'm using Windows XP Pro with SP1 which is supposed to support larger hard drives by default, so I don't know why it needed to change the registry to enable that support. What I'm worried about now is that if I reinstall Windows, it'll have that problem again and force me to reformat the hard drive again. I was planning to use this hard drive to store all my music and downloads, which I obviously can't afford to just lose like that.

The way I have things set up now is this: the 60GB hard drive, with a 10GB partition for Windows and utilities, the rest is another partition for everything else. And now the new 200GB drive as a slave in a single partition i planned to use as storage.

I could test it by putting some unimportant files on the new hard drive, reformatting, and find out what happens. But I'm on dial up for a month, so re-updatings some things like Steam would take ages. I could wait until I'm back at college with high speed internet to do it, but that means I'll have to leave the new hard drive completely empty until then.

Can anyone give me some advice on this problem?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Ubergrendle · Dec 21, 2004, 03:42 PM

Most likely the first time you attempted to format the disk, did you set it to FAT32 instead of NTFS.

Not sure about the required registry change.

teh_moleman · Dec 21, 2004, 04:11 PM

Nope, in fact the only option it gave me was NTFS.

A friend of mine also had to make that registry change when he installed his new hard drive. But he's not a reformat/reinstall kinda guy, so he doesn't really think about possible problems like these.

MiDKnYtE · Dec 21, 2004, 04:59 PM

you don't need to make a registry change for sp1.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;303013

anything larger than 32G will be formatted in NTFS. this is by design.

why didn't you just run diskmgmt.msc to set up the drive? I don't run those other utilities unless I have to.

teh_moleman · Dec 21, 2004, 05:01 PM

I was kinda thinking it may be a problem like that. I just figured I'd follow the directions and actually use the software provided for once

I figured that since this install of WindowsXP was done on just the 60GB hard drive, that maybe it didn't automatically turn on support for larger drives since it didn't really need to. I'm just hoping that if I reinstall, that it'll recognize the full capacity of the drive without giving me any problems.

I also found out that installing WindowsXP with SP2 already included doesn't give anyone this problem. Unfortunately dial up will make this a pretty tough option.

MiDKnYtE · Dec 21, 2004, 05:05 PM

you can contact microsoft and they will mail you a sp2 cd.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...s/default.mspx

Dec 21, 2004, 03:35 PM	#1
teh_moleman DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: FL Posts: 103 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Help with hard drive max capacity I recently installed a new Seagate 200GB ATA hard drive in addition to my original 60GB hard drive. After installing it and starting the computer, the DiskWizard software that came with the drive formatted it, but only to a maximum size of 127GB. I ran DiskWizard again, and it gave me a message that it needed to make a change to the registry to enable support for larger hard drives. So it did, then reformatted automatically again, and now it's up to the maximum of 186GB (I know this is the normal size cause of the way it's calculated) I'm using Windows XP Pro with SP1 which is supposed to support larger hard drives by default, so I don't know why it needed to change the registry to enable that support. What I'm worried about now is that if I reinstall Windows, it'll have that problem again and force me to reformat the hard drive again. I was planning to use this hard drive to store all my music and downloads, which I obviously can't afford to just lose like that. The way I have things set up now is this: the 60GB hard drive, with a 10GB partition for Windows and utilities, the rest is another partition for everything else. And now the new 200GB drive as a slave in a single partition i planned to use as storage. I could test it by putting some unimportant files on the new hard drive, reformatting, and find out what happens. But I'm on dial up for a month, so re-updatings some things like Steam would take ages. I could wait until I'm back at college with high speed internet to do it, but that means I'll have to leave the new hard drive completely empty until then. Can anyone give me some advice on this problem? Thanks in advance for any help.

Dec 21, 2004, 03:42 PM	#2
Ubergrendle Semper ubi sub ubi Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Toronto Posts: 704 Rep Power: 0	NTFS vs FAT Most likely the first time you attempted to format the disk, did you set it to FAT32 instead of NTFS. Not sure about the required registry change. __________________ A use a computer to connect to the intertubes.

Dec 21, 2004, 04:11 PM	#3
teh_moleman DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: FL Posts: 103 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Nope, in fact the only option it gave me was NTFS. A friend of mine also had to make that registry change when he installed his new hard drive. But he's not a reformat/reinstall kinda guy, so he doesn't really think about possible problems like these.

Dec 21, 2004, 04:59 PM	#4
MiDKnYtE Caffeine Machine Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Hell is empty. All the devils are here. Posts: 670 Rep Power: 0	you don't need to make a registry change for sp1. http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;303013 anything larger than 32G will be formatted in NTFS. this is by design. why didn't you just run diskmgmt.msc to set up the drive? I don't run those other utilities unless I have to.

Dec 21, 2004, 05:01 PM	#5
teh_moleman DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: FL Posts: 103 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I was kinda thinking it may be a problem like that. I just figured I'd follow the directions and actually use the software provided for once I figured that since this install of WindowsXP was done on just the 60GB hard drive, that maybe it didn't automatically turn on support for larger drives since it didn't really need to. I'm just hoping that if I reinstall, that it'll recognize the full capacity of the drive without giving me any problems. I also found out that installing WindowsXP with SP2 already included doesn't give anyone this problem. Unfortunately dial up will make this a pretty tough option.

Dec 21, 2004, 05:05 PM	#6
MiDKnYtE Caffeine Machine Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Hell is empty. All the devils are here. Posts: 670 Rep Power: 0	you can contact microsoft and they will mail you a sp2 cd. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...s/default.mspx