I didn't have much time on the computer in question to mess around with it, but when the XP CD formatted the 200 gig hard drive, it only showed ~130 (137 I blieve?) gigs, the BIOS shows its a 200 gig HD (I blieve, could simply be reading the 'name'?), does windows limit the partition sizes, so I'd just have to make another partition? or could it be something else?

specs:
Soyo KT600 Dragon v2.0 Socket A Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2900+ Processor
Western Digital / Caviar SE / 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-100 / EIDE Hard Drive
Ultra 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory
XFX Geforce MX 4000 / 64 MB DDR / AGP 8x

this is a common question/ problem: i.e. the 137gig limit.

here are at least some things to start on:

137 limit

As I understand it it is mostly a BIOS issue with one sollution being to run off of controller cards if your BIOS cant support the drive.

It is a very hotly debated topic as seen by these posts:

There is a break-piont in fundamental access to Hard drives at 128GB
(binary measure - 137 billion). Above that you need support for '48 bit
LBA'. That needs appropriate controllers and support in the BIOS - a
BIOS update may be needed, or in extreme cases a separate plug in card,
and also XP at the SP1 level or later. Beyond that limits are
theoretical only

THis drive will need 48 bit LBA support to handle the number of sectors
on it - as a drive, before you consider partitioning, so that is not the
answer. 48 bit LBA needs also a motherboard and BIOS that support it,
before XP drivers get a look in. So a BIOS upgrade is needed, if there
is one for the specific motherboard that does the job. Without that it
will be seen, and reported to XP as being 137 GB (decimal billion- 128
'binary GB as used in the system) and you can partition and format that
much of it, but no more.

That won't help at all.

The problem is not that Windows can only see 137GB, it's that the
BIOS can only see 137GB. Windows can only see 137GB because
that's all the BIOS tells it that is there. It can't partition
what it can't see.

Reeves needs a BIOS upgrade to enable the BIOS to see larger
drives.