Help!! Computer (HD) problem

shiftd

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Let me give a little back ground story.
I was running Win XP on a 160 gig HD (167 to be exact). So the time to start a fresh had come and the drive needed to be formatted, which is the best thought that i have at the moment. however, being numerous the data on the disk are, i cannot find another spare storage to keep the data for a while.
So i got an idea and used my friend partition program called Partition Magic Ver 8.0 i believe. So i got the 160 gig separated to 120 gig and 40 gig. I transfered the files to the 120 gig and format the 40 gig. It was fine and nice. Then i reinstall my XP OS on the 40 gig and all that stuff that i need/ want to be on the C drive. The data is still in the 120 gig partition, which is now called D drive.

I encountered problem shortly after finished installing stuff in the C drive. Apparently, there is some problem with the overall computer (OS, HD or whatever, i have no idea. too many possibilities). I cannot transfer files bigger than pic size (200 KB) to the D drive. When it transfers files big enuff either from C or from other drive beside D drive, the computer keep giving the error message
"error moving/copying files to the selected drive. the data is lost. please select other drive to transfer to" or something like that. Strangely, it is no problem to transfer from D to C /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

OK, cannot stand with that crap, i decided to remove the partition. This time i have the help of my roomate's external HD to temporarily hold the data from the D drive. So i emptied the D drive, delete the partition, and resize C partition to the max. Everything went smoothly, with no hick up whatsoever.

BUT, i was really surprised, outraged, sad, upset, (you name it) when i found out that my HD capacity has decreased. guess what? I found out that the computer now register my 167 GB HD as only having a puny 127 GB storage available.
So any idea where the 40 GB went? And most importantly, is there anyway to recover the lost 40 GB without formatting the HD again? (i am not even sure i am gonna get my 40 GB back with formatting). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Any help would be appreciated guys. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif


Just for info, some mobo need card to help map the address of a HD greater than 120 GB so the HD can have the capacity it is rated at. Mine does not need card (or so i believe). I did not remove anything from the compy hardware, so the condition should be the same with before.

again, thanks for any help.
 

code09

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hmmm, perhaps there is a hidden partition that you cannot see? If you run partition magic again, there should be a part where you can see all the differet partitions that you have...active or inactive....that should help. Also, when you deleted the partition, did you remember to "join" the "2 pies" back again together? that may also be another. But yeah, check out partition majic, and what it shows on your hard drive. I think the problem is the latter, that you did not command partition magic to join the 40 gigger back with the 127 giger...give it a shot!

Moses
 

shiftd

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hi moephius

yes i did.
actually, what i did is i increased the C drive to enclose the D partition, so to increase the 40 G to 127 GB (supposedly 167 GB). I was not paying attention to the size, since i was sliding the cursor all the way to the max.
I am sure that there is no other partition that i can add

this is my partition magic looks like.
 

code09

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hmmm, werid! did you try the "redistribute free space" or "merge partitions"?

Moses
 

shiftd

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yup, tried all that is obvious. redistribute free space gives this message "no other partition in the drive to be redistributed"
merge partitions gives the exact same size as before.
 

code09

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o wow...that is really weird!
I move my partitions around all the time, I have yet to see this one! Maybe the only way is to use DOS? Im out of ideas....sorry

moses
 

J_Oei

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XP on its own has a 127GB limit.
Try to find a version of XP with SP1,
or find a IDE PCI card, (Promise Tech)
and hook the drive to it.
 

shiftd

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My XP is already SP2 and i believe SP2 has no 137 GB limitation
 

eluminator

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Does your XP install CD have SP2 on it, or have you installed SP2 after installing XP? If your XP install CD doesn't have SP2 pre-installed, you need to re-install SP2 after installing XP. You can tell for sure what you've got by right clicking on My Computer and click the General tab.

The only way to tell what XP thinks about your drive is to use XP's Disk Management. Right click My Computer. Click Manage > Storage > Disk Management.

I never use Partition Magic because I don't trust it.

If you had partitioned your drive to begin with, you wouldn't have had this problem. So now that you are re-installing, it would seem wise to partition it.

Unless you can come up with something simpler, I would re-install. I wouldn't use Partition Magic. I would let XP do the partitioning. When you boot from the XP install CD, it will eventually show you your drives and partitions and ask where you want to install, and what folder you want to install in. Read the screen. Delete any and all partitions(because there's something wrong with them). Then create a partition. XP setup will subsequently format and install. If I was you, I would create a 40 GB (or whatever size you want) for the XP installation. I would use NTFS also, but suit yourself. You can create other partitions later using Disk Management.
 

eluminator

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Personally I would run a hard drive diagnostic program first to see if the drive is bad. No sense screwing around with an install if the drive is bad. Just running the SMART test and the quick test is probably good enough. The extended test takes many hours.

Seagate has one that fits on two floppies, or a CD if you have Nero or some program to make a bootable CD. Bootable hard drive diagnostic

Western Digital has a diagnostic that runs under XP. It's a little messy, but it works. Test hard drive while running XP
 

jtice

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whats this about a 137GB limit?
you mean thats the limit, of the drive that XP is installed on?

Im running a SATA 250GB drive just fine.
XP is installed on a 30GB drive,
Theres also another 30 and 40GB drive
 

eluminator

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XP without service packs could only use 137GB. Service pack one fixed that. It can be difficult re-installing from the CD though if the XP on the CD can only handle 137GB and you have a larger drive. Slipstreaming the service pack is one fix for this.

Maybe if the first partition is less 137GB, and you are installing XP there, it wouldn't be a problem. As soon as SP is installed you would then install the service pack.

Win2000 also has the limitation. I don't remember which SP fixed it. Maybe SP4. But with Win2000 you also have to change one registry entry. Something like "enableBigLBA".
 

Zelandeth

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Well that's answered one question that had been bugging me for ages. Wondered why that 250 gig drive was showing up so much smaller. I'd just figured it was some windows bug, but forgot to investigate it! Thanks for the heads up.
 

shiftd

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eluminator,
disk management show the size of the disk 137,...,... GB (which makes it 127 GB), so even the OS cannot tell what is wrong with it.
disk check/ error checking also gives no error.

regarding the reinstalling, can the XP partition my HD itself? like i can specifically specify how big partition my HD has? but i am not really happy to repartition my HD, because as you can see from my earlier post, the earlier partitioning does not allow file transfer from C to D drive, only the other way around.
 

shiftd

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just an update.

Finally decided to reformat my computer. I asked my friend for his help in providing the extra space. I deleted some files that already got back-up-ed (28 GB). When i format, the XP still say it can only see 137 GB out of the drive.
So i mess through my HD box and found a diskette saying "BREAK THE 137 GB BARRIER" (WTH!!!!, i did not know i still need that)

After i put that, and install the optional raid or something drive, finally XP find another unused partition as big as 40 GB. Well, in the end, all is well. My HD is back to normal.

thanks everyone for the help. It seems that i do need a driver to "break the 137 barrier" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif, sheesh
 

eluminator

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Glad to hear your back in operation.

I never needed anything but the service pack. It may depend on the computer BIOS.

Disk capacities have grown enormously since the first PCs and the fields allocated to sector, track, etc. became too small for their intended use long ago. There have been several of these barriers that had to be overcome with workarounds. The 137GB is just the latest one.
 
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