Foo - Computer won't recognize my 250 G hard drive.

My 80 g HDD just died today in my computer. So i lost a bunch of stuff and went and bought a 250 gig. Right now I am getting all the windows updates which takes awhile. I am hoping that the updates will fix the problem but i don't know.

Right now it only shows as a 130 g hard drive. I have googled quite a bit but still i don't have a solution. I am hoping that XP SP2 will fix it. Yes/No?

Yes, that sounds like the XP SP2 issue. I had same problem a year or two ago.

Windows XP only recognized up to 120Gb or so, until SP2 put in patch in for large block addressing (LBA) which allowed for larger hard drives.

Thanks KT. I didn't know whether to blame it on that or the margarita's. :D

see if there's a BIOS update for your motherboard, also let it boot into the BIOS and see what its reporting the drive as being.........its quite possible the BIOS is cutting it off at 132-134GB, windows usually uses whatever the BIOS reports at boot

Yeah. I read about that as well. I'll let windows finish it's gig and then go from there. BTW, I don't know crap about computers but i took the HDD out today and held it in my hand when the computer was failing to start.

The HDD never spun. So I guessed that it was bad. I guess, i guessed correctly.

It's a two-stage problem. First is with the BIOS. You need to have ATA-5 or newer with 48-bit LBA addressing on the disk-controller. You'll also need SP1 for WinXP. But if your HD-controller doesn't have 48-bit LBA, then there's nothing that Windows can do on top. Here's some articles:

http://www.md4pc.com/questions/58.htm
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21272116.html
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013
http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/hard_drive_size_barriers.htm
http://support.octek.com.au/FAQ/faq_0113.htm
http://www.48bitlba.com/faq.htm

I'm confused on this BIOS deal. As near as I can tell, i go into Primary IDE master and look at my HDD. Then it tells me that my Max capacity is 250 gb. Is this the correct place to be looking?

yup

check if it has an LBA setting somewhere----may have to go into onboard chipset devices or something to that effect and then find IDE, if it can be set to 48bit then do so or make sure it is, if it is and windows is still having issues, its a windows problem

There are two reasons why your PC is registering only a 136GB drive.

One, the BIOS. This is a motherboard issue. Some can be updated, others not.

Two, "older" version of Windows XP. It's a fairly simple fix explained here (http://www.thesecretlabs.com/blog/desktop/windows/large-drives-in-xp/).

You say your old HD died and you lost a bunch of stuff. If you haven't formatted it yet, you may be able to recover that data. Check out the program "GetDataBack". It will scan your drive and create a profile that may allow you to then copy those inaccessible files to your new drive.

Previous advice concerning your new drive is right on.

Caruso

It just says LBA mode supported. Yet i can't seem to go to any options. The field highlighted is "auto". Again, i am talking about the primary IDE field.

You say your old HD died and you lost a bunch of stuff. If you haven't formatted it yet, you may be able to recover that data. Check out the program "GetDataBack". It will scan your drive and create a profile that may allow you to then copy those inaccessible files to your new drive.

Previous advice concerning your new drive is right on.

Caruso

How do you scan a hard drive that won't spin?

typically what happens is the controller board dies on the HD. Sometimes these drives will work as a slave drive. But if it's completely dead, you can buy a known good drive of the same model and transfer the good controller over to the dead drive. This typically lets you recover your old data onto another new drive. :)

I think i am going to just have to accept a 137 g hard drive. I can't seem to change anything. :mad:

I think i am going to just have to accept a 137 g hard drive. I can't seem to change anything. :mad:
Go linux!

I think i am going to just have to accept a 137 g hard drive. I can't seem to change anything. :mad:Slipstream SP2 into the Windows installation files and make a new CD, then install from that CD. http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562

I think i am going to just have to accept a 137 g hard drive. I can't seem to change anything. :mad:Don't give up! While you may have an ATA-4 controller with only 28-bit LBA on that motherboard, you can just add a PCI IDE controller that suppoarts ATA-5/48-bit LBA and you'll be able to use that drive to full capacity.

First verify that you really don't have 48-bit LBA on that MB. Here's a useful tool to test that: http://www.48bitlba.com/hdinfo.htm

More helpful info here: http://www.48bitlba.com/overview.htm