Sorry Mate....... missed that point (twice)!

Yes I'm trying to make one partition of ~189Gb, formatted NTFS, out of the 127Gb partition and the missing ~62Gb bit.

My apologies for not realising what you were asking me.

Went into the BIOS/CMOS thing and it said the disk contains 137,436,168,192 bytes.

As a total size, or the data contained on the disk?

Can you describe the screen or bios section title (ie; Main, Advanced, etc) where you see this size description?

If this disk worked in this machine before with 189 GB being recognized, and the bios now only shows 137 GB as the TOTAL DRIVE SIZE, the disk is improperly set up in the bios. It should be set to either AUTO, or LBA.

Does Disk Manager show all the (expected) space, on the left, (under Disk 0, Disk 1, etc)?

(See pic.) I have three 40 GB disks in my machine. Note the formatted size is 37.2x GB. My Disk 0 shows my XP O/S partition, and unallocated space which I haven't partitioned yet. My Disk 2 shows two partitions.

Are you deleting all partitions shown on the disk in Disk Manager to end up with the total drive as unallocated space? (The 127Gb partition and the missing ~62Gb (if shown as a partition).)

Better yet, this will save lots of questions and typing. Open your Disk Manager (full screen) and post a screen shot of it. When it's open full screen, hit your "Print Screen" key on the keyboard. This will copy a screenshot of your screen into your Clipboard buffer. (You can then close Disk Manager.)

Open PAINT. Click on Image in the Menu Bar. Click Attributes. Make sure Pixels and Colors are selected. Make the (blank) image the same size as your normal screen/display size. (800 X 600, 1024 X 768 etc.) Click OK.

On the Menu Bar, click Edit, then Paste. Your screenshot should appear. Click File, Save As, give it a name and choose JPEG as the file type.

When posting, click on Advanced, and just below the posting box you'll see "Additional Options", and within that, "Attach Files". Click on "Manage Attachments" and follow the prompts. Browse to the file and choose UPLOAD.

I'm learning so much every time I read your new threads!

I had a proper look at my disk in BIOS. I looked in the ADVANCED tab at the top of the screen.

My IDE controller (?) is set to BOTH.

The drive is set as Primary IDE slave.

Type AUTO.

Maximum Capicity 203941 MB.

The capicity value will obviously shed some light.

You asked:-

"Are you deleting all partitions shown on the disk in Disk Manager to end up with the total drive as unallocated space? (The 127Gb partition and the missing ~62Gb (if shown as a partition)."

Answer - Yes

Here is my screen capture of Disk Manager.

You will obviously ask as to why the unallocated space isn't formatted. Well truth be told I couldn't see that section before, but recently I downloaded/installed SP3. Could this have made the unallocated section appear?

downloaded/installed SP3. Could this have made the unallocated section appear?

Possibly.

Use the following method to set up the hard disk. (From: How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP)

Boot the machine with your XP CD.

At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.

Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.

If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press ESC.

Ensure you are working with the proper hard disk/partition.
All the existing partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the partition or the unpartitioned space where you want to create a new partition. Press D to delete an existing partition, or press C to create a new partition by using unpartitioned space. If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this step for each of the existing partitions that you want to use for the new partition. When all the partitions are deleted, select the remaining unpartitioned space, and then press C to create the new partition.

Note If you want to create a partition where one or more partitions already exist, you must first delete the existing partition or partitions, and then create the new partition.

Type the size in megabytes (MB) that you want to use for the new partition, and then
press ENTER, or just press ENTER to create the partition with the maximum size.

Repeat Steps 4 and 5 to create additional partitions if you want them.

If you want to install Windows XP, use the ARROW keys to select the partition where you want to install Windows XP, and then press ENTER. If you do not want to format the partition and install Windows XP, press F3 two times to quit the Windows Setup program, and then do not follow the remaining steps. In this case, you must use a different utility to format the partition.

Select the format option that you want to use for the partition, and then press ENTER. You have the following options: • Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)
• Format the partition by using the FAT file system (Quick)
• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
• Format the partition by using the FAT file system
• Leave the current file system intact (no changes)
The option to leave the current file system intact is not available if the selected partition is a new partition. The FAT file system option is not available if the selected partition is more than 32 gigabytes (GB). If the partition is larger than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT32 file system (you must press ENTER to confirm). If the partition is smaller than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT16 file system.

Note If you deleted and created a new System partition, but you are installing Windows XP on a different partition, you will be prompted to select a file system for both the System and startup partitions.

After the Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions that appear on the screen to continue. After the Windows Setup program is completed, you can use the Disk Management tools in Windows XP to create or format more partitions.

Post back with your results and any further questions.

When I first came in - I confused FAT32's 32Gb limit issues with the LBA 127-137Gb issue - sorry if it brought confusion - fortunately, you said you have NTFS and that's good. But 48-Bit LBA affects NTFS too.

I should have posted a link to the MSKB Article, How to enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing support for ATAPI disk drives in Windows XP.

I don't see where you identified your motherboard, but on many older motherboards, 48-Bit LBA is not enabled by default. That means even if it had been enabled at one point, perhaps to support the 200Gb drive, if the BIOS was reset some time later (intentionally or weak/bad battery or battery replacement - assuming no hardware failure or power anomaly), then the BIOS would have reverted back to the default state; disabled.

I recommend you go into BIOS and verify it says somewhere that 48-bit LBA is enabled. If it is, sorry for the waste of time. If not, then you will have to live with the limits, or enable it. If you don't see it anywhere, check your motherboard website for BIOS updates. How old is this motherboard?

Your motherboard manual should have a screenshot of the BIOS Setup Menu page for that setting - It will likely be under IDE (also known as EIDE, ATA, or ATAPI) settings.

Hi Bill,
His screenshot shows the drive being recognized as 189.92 GB, so the bios isn't the issue.

If he follows what I suggested above, he should be able to delete the existing 128 GB partition and return to the full 189 GB unallocated space, then within windows, set it up with Disk Manager.

Dan,

The advice about deleting the partitions using the installation CD worked. I now have a fully working 189Gb partition.

Thank you ever so much for your expert advice and your patience.

Kind Regards,
Rob

Outstanding. You're welcome, glad to help. Have fun.

It is a good day when you learn something. ;>)

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