250GB drive says only 130GB???  | | | 
November 5th, 2005, 06:41 PM
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#1 (permalink)
| | Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 15
|  250GB drive says only 130GB???
Hey, I have a problem with my 250GB drive. I recently took this drive out of its external case (because the case stopped working, no power) and installed it as a slave into my PC. This caused all the data to become corrupt. I recovered what I needed and attempted to format the drive. First I delted all files on the drive, and used the format feature found by right clicking the drive in My Computer. When this completed 250GB had turned into 130GB. I then tried to format the drive again, this time using the windows setup disk, but this also recorded the drive as only having 130GB. What on earth is going on? How do I fix it??? Thanks in advance | 
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November 5th, 2005, 06:49 PM
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#2 (permalink)
| | I'm silently judging you
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Lincoln City, OR
Posts: 5,377
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Are you running Service Pack 1? | |
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November 5th, 2005, 06:53 PM
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#3 (permalink)
| | Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 15
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Erm, I don't think so. I had to format the system hard drive 2 weeks ago. It's a fresh, un-updated version of Windows Xp Pro | |
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November 5th, 2005, 06:58 PM
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#4 (permalink)
| | I'm silently judging you
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Lincoln City, OR
Posts: 5,377
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You won't be able to see more than 133GB if you don't have SP1 installed, sorry. | |
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November 5th, 2005, 07:00 PM
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#5 (permalink)
| | Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 15
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alright, i can easily download and install service pack 1. How exactly does that help though? | |
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November 5th, 2005, 07:07 PM
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#6 (permalink)
| | I'm silently judging you
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Lincoln City, OR
Posts: 5,377
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Sp1 has a fix that allows WindowsXP to see more than 133GB. It has to do with the ATA-5 spec maxing out at that size limit. ATA-6 lets you see 144 petabytes in storage in a single volume (I think it's 144Pb). | |
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November 5th, 2005, 07:07 PM
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#7 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 557
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Well you might aswell get SP2 while your at it.
But it matters because pre SP1 windows couldnt address up that high, it needed to know how to access things beyond 137gb, ie LBA48. Has to do with how high it can address the sectors of a drive.
edit: whoops i'm slow hehe. | |
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November 5th, 2005, 07:10 PM
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#8 (permalink)
| | Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 15
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ahk, i think i understand. Once I've installed the SP2 pack, should I just format the drive again? or will 130GB just magically turn into 250Gb for me? | |
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November 5th, 2005, 07:11 PM
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#9 (permalink)
| | I'm silently judging you
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Lincoln City, OR
Posts: 5,377
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No. The whole problem is in software. Installing Sp1 or Sp2 fixes Windows. Formatting the drive again will bring you right back to the problem you ran into in the first place. | |
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November 5th, 2005, 07:14 PM
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#10 (permalink)
| | Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 15
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I'll be installing SP2 on the master/system drive though, not the 250GB (slave) | |
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