DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

Full HDD Capacity not seen in WinXP

10 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/full-hdd-capacity-not-seen-in-winxp.29332/

R
ravishankars Original post #1
Jun 1, 2006 at 9:58 PM
I installed a 200GB Seagate 7200 RPM ATA HDD in my PC. The BIOS and WinXP recognize the disc accurately by its model name. However the Disk Management Utility in Administrative Tools shows that the unused disc has only a total of 128GB available for partitioning and formatting. Any ideas on what tweaking is needed? Thanks in advance for any tips.
samrulez
Jun 1, 2006 at 10:21 PM
ravishankars said:
I installed a 200GB Seagate 7200 RPM ATA HDD in my PC. The BIOS and WinXP recognize the disc accurately by its model name. However the Disk Management Utility in Administrative Tools shows that the unused disc has only a total of 128GB available for partitioning and formatting. Any ideas on what tweaking is needed? Thanks in advance for any tips.

See *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29094
M
Jun 1, 2006 at 10:30 PM
samrulez said:
See *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29094
But, dude that one was 120GB and this one is 200GB.
wizrulz
wizrulz #4
Jun 1, 2006 at 10:33 PM
which mobo u have????
may be ur mobo doesnt supports 200GB???
is it only HDD or any other also attached???
Vyasram
Vyasram #5
Jun 1, 2006 at 10:52 PM
upgrade the bios

if u havn't installed sp2 install it, then see
R
rk #6
Jun 1, 2006 at 11:33 PM
ravishankars xp has problem detecting above 160gb disks
either go to ur disk manufacturer site and download patch for it
or go to intel 's site and install intel app..acccelerator
digiFriend
Jun 3, 2006 at 2:46 PM
1)first check in BIOS. if it is detecting 200GB there, then you need to fix LBA in your OS.
(if your operating system is using "36 bit LBA" then maximun harddisk size it can detect is 137.4 GB.To detect more than 137.4 GB ,the OS need "48 bit LBA")

2)download "EnableBigLba.exe" its size is 156 kb and its freeware. run it and it will make LBA 48 bit. reboot.

3)or to manually do it.
* regedit
* HKey_Local_Machine\system\current Control set\services\atapi\parameters
* find "EnableBigLBA" there and change it value to 1.(if it is not there,write it and make its value 1)
* exit Regedit and reboot.

(note: installing new SP2 patch can also fix this problem.)
deathvirus_me
Jun 3, 2006 at 2:50 PM
Install SP2 ... older ver. of Windows is not suppsed to detect hdd over 130 GB i think ;... i had a similar problem when i was installing WinXP on a SATA drive .... later i installed WinXP with SP2 slipstreamed and my hdd was detected right ...
R
r.dhara #9
Jun 16, 2006 at 6:23 PM
there is generally a issue with sata hdd and winxp. follo the procedure given below.
1.delete all the partitions
2.make only one partition and install windows xp on it
3.after installation first install service pack 2
4.now go to disk management and create furthur partitions.

this should solve ur problem
R
ravishankars #10
Jun 20, 2006 at 9:12 PM
Thank you all for the great tips. It really was a SP2 upgrade issue. But the EnableBigLBA tool suggested by DigiFriend (Thanks!) worked like a charm even without SP1 or SP2