[mark3p]

Ok. I bought a 250gig hard drive and I copied over my music collection and a few other things from my old drive totalling around 127gig. Yet now this drive is saying it only has 111gig of free space left even though it says it is a 250gig drive and windows even recognises it as so. It's an ntfs file system so size shouldn't be an issue.

Please help!

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I've installed many new hard drives of multiple sizes and I have never seen one actually read to be as large as it says on the box. If it's a 4 gig then it reads 3.8 or something if it'a s 300 gig it reads 275 or something. The larger they get, the farther off they become, why? I have no idea I've come to the realization that, "That's just the way it is." I'm sure there's a reason, but I don't know what it is.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

I've installed many new hard drives of multiple sizes and I have never seen one actually read to be as large as it says on the box. If it's a 4 gig then it reads 3.8 or something if it'a s 300 gig it reads 275 or something. The larger they get, the farther off they become, why? I have no idea I've come to the realization that, "That's just the way it is." I'm sure there's a reason, but I don't know what it is.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[mark3p]

Yeah I know that but there's a BIG difference between 250gig and the 127gig that it says is full.

Windows recognizes it as 243gig but it is saying its full which makes me wonder whats wrong.

[bdlt]

you could be seeing the difference between referring to bytes, kb, mb, and gb
1 kb is actually 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes 2.4% diff
1 mb is actually 1048576 bytes, not 1000000 bytes 4.9% diff
1 gb is actually 1073741824 bytes, not 1000000000 btyes 7.4% diff

if you right click on the drive from explore and select properties, you will
see two sets of numbers for used space, free space, and capacity. the byte
numbers appear to be larger, but actually represent the same number of bytes
as the gb reference.

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

I bought a 250gig hard drive and I copied over my music collection and a few other things from my old drive totalling around 127gig. Yet now this drive is saying it only has 111gig of free space left even though it says it is a 250gig drive and windows even recognises it as so.

I guess I'm confused, because from this I understand that you copied 127gb from another drive and now Windows says it only has 111gb left free? Is that correct? Now by my calculations 127 + 111 = 238 now this would be 12mb off of 250. Now in your next post I am understanding that the whole drive is being recognized as full? All 243 gigs, is that correct? If the whole drive is being recognized as full and you only transferred 127 gb from the old drive then there is definitely something wrong.

-=jonnyrotten=-

[Samm]

Windows XP has a limitation where it can only deal with 137GB max in a single partition. Hence it can only address the first 137GB or there abouts of the drive.

To fix this, you have 2 options :
1. Is to partition the drive into 2 or more partitions so that no partition is bigger than 137GB.

2. You can make XP support the drive fully but you need to do this:

a. Install service pack 1 or later

b. If you already have SP1, then locate the file called atapi.sys in the system32\drivers folder. (make sure you have the 'view hidden/system files' enabled).
Right click on the file & select properties. The version number of this file should be : 5.1.2600.1135 or later. If not, theres a hotfix you can download for it.


If you still have problems after this, let me know.

[mark3p]

Checked the atapi.sys file and my version is 5.1.2600.2180 I have SP2 installed. My bad for a serious typo in my first post too. The drive is only showing 111 MEG free space left and I keep gettin the usual low disk space warnings from windows.

So to clarify, the total size is 232 GIG (250,056,704,000 bytes) I copied over 127 GB (137,027,936,256 bytes) and now my free space is 111 MEG (116,465,664 bytes)

The drive is a western digital WDC WD2500JB-19GVA0.

When I highlight everything on the drive and click properties (with hidden and system files showing it says size on disk 127 GB (137,027,936,256 bytes) yet windows says I am using 232 GIG (249,940,238,336 bytes)

Cheers for the help you guys. Hopefully I can resolve this, needed the extra space and can't even use it lol!

[Samm]

What is the make & model of your motherboard?
Also, what type of hard drive is it? ie standard ATA / sata using native sata on mobo / sata on PCI card / USB?

Edited by Samm, 31 May 2005 - 06:50 PM.

[mark3p]

the hard drive is a normal ATA hard drive. The motherboard is an Abit uGuru Motherboard

[Samm]

Its possible you may need to update the bios in order to support drives larger than 137GB (48bit LBA). If you tell me the exact model number, (uGuru is too vague I'm afraid) I can check this out for you

[mark3p]

I tried updating the motherboard bios and going through the windows regustry and making sure the LBA setting was set to one.

The motherboard is an abit A8V 3rd eye socket 939. I couldn't get any information as to whether or not it supports 48bit Lba even with the bios update. Main problem is I tried running partition magic 8 on the drive and even it says its full so I cant do anything with it in that like resize it or anything like that.

I've sent an email to abit and also to western digital. The hard drive is a western digital WDC WD2500JB-19GVA0 238 gig 7200rpm

[Samm]

OK, I think I might know whats going on here. Firstly though, can you tell me if the 250GB drive is your only drive (ie has windows installed on it) or if it's a secondary drive (eg drive D)?

Also, does your bios recognise the full drive size?

Edited by Samm, 05 June 2005 - 06:08 PM.

[Lost2]

I'm having a similar problem. I'm running Windows XP sp2 and have two 250GB hd's installed (they were on sale). After updating the bios I still was only reading 137GB, after some research I found out that the ATA100 platform doesn't support HDD's larger than 137GB so I repartitioned them into four 125GB drives (less due to differing label standards). Now I have a drive reading 116GB Total 10.6GB free. I know it's clean because I just formatted it - again. Is there a limit to total drive space the OS or hardware can read?

[Samm]

Welcome to GTG, Lost2.

Are you saying that your bios doesn't recognise the drives full size?
If so, then partitioning it two won't make the bios recognise the drive correctly. Partitioning can force windows to see all of the drive but only if the bios can as well.

In answer to your question - yes there are limitations in both the bios & OS on the amount of drive space they can recognise. XP can recognise a drive of terrabyte proportions I believe, but only if SP1 or later is installed.
Bios's always have limits on this as well. Often a bios update will increase that limit but it's not guaranteed and in some cases, it cannot be increased beyond a certain amount.

Can you tell me exactly what motheboard you have (ie make & model no.)?
Also, have you checked the jumpers on the rear of the drive? Some drives have whats known as a 'size clip'. If this is enabled, it forces the drive to appear smaller than its full capacity in order to overcome bios limitations such as the ones I've mentioned.

[Lost2]

I attached a screen shot of Belarcs analysis. Hopefully you can read it as it's easier than typing it all in. This is basically what I'm seeing under "My Computer" as well wrt the drives. The bios is reading all four drives correctly. Windows is reading all six partitions correctly. The problem is my "I:" drive is reading nearly full after I repartitioned and reformatted it. There is nothing on this drive. And I'm trying to understand why. Loss of 106GB of storage really isn't acceptable, even though I only paid 28 cents a Gig.

Attached Files

•  Belarc_Screenshot.doc   128KB   63 downloads