Installing a 250gb HD, only 131gb is registering. Why?

[phpuser2006]

Purchased a new computer and i'm installing all the hardware. The hard drive is a WD250JS sataII.
I did'nt format, I just installed windows xp pro, but it's only creating 131069 mb which is about 131gb.
Why won't it create 250 gb partition. Need help!

 

[SugarCoat]

It only showed you 131MB during the format and creation of partition prior-install? It should show you 230ish GB available here, before you even installed windows. Theres no reason not to do a quick format during an install either, although i didnt think you could bypass it during a new installation so i'm a little confused by what you mean when you say you didnt format it. Check and see what the BIOS is reading the drive as and that during the install (like below) its seeing all the space available as well.

I know RCs and updates improved how much windows can see in terms of space for a single drive, not sure if that may be the issue.

 

[pcchen]

You probably need to update the BIOS of your motherboard. Some older ATA controller can't handle more than 128GB (which is 131072MB).

 

[Colourless]

You need XP SP1 or SP2 slipstreamed onto the install CD in order to access more than 131 GB of a harddrive when installing WinXP. I recommend using a SP1 disk when installing, then installing SP2 manually (if you can)

 

[SuperCow]

I went through the same problem myself with a 300Gb HD I had bought.

The cause of this is that you're using a Windows XP SP1 or earlier installation disk. Installing from a Windows XP SP2 disk will show you the correct amount of space.
If you don't have a Windows XP SP2 installation CD then you should be able to safely install Windows on the 130Gigs partition, then after installation grow the partition using software tools from your HD manufacturer (this is what I did with my Seagate HD). You may not even need this step if you install SP2 as you should then be able to see the rest of your HD space, thus allowing you to create an additional partition.

 

[Simon F]

Actually, would there necessarily be much of a problem even if you partitioned the hard disk? IIRC with an NTFS disk/partition, can't you now do the unix trick of mounting other drives/partitions anywhere into your directory tree?

 

[SugarCoat]

I went through the same problem myself with a 300Gb HD I had bought.

The cause of this is that you're using a Windows XP SP1 or earlier installation disk. Installing from a Windows XP SP2 disk will show you the correct amount of space.
If you don't have a Windows XP SP2 installation CD then you should be able to safely install Windows on the 130Gigs partition, then after installation grow the partition using software tools from your HD manufacturer (this is what I did with my Seagate HD). You may not even need this step if you install SP2 as you should then be able to see the rest of your HD space, thus allowing you to create an additional partition.

I used an SP1 XP disc just recently to install windows onto a 250GB barracuda with no issue....especially with a pro version of XP i would think that it would support more then 130gb out of the box. Some bios do infact limit installs to 137gb, but i didnt mention that either since he said it was a new pc.