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I have Microsoft Windows XP operating system. I have a 40GB hard drive that shows only about 7GB capacity. How do I fix this problem without losing my data. I don't have a zip drive to backup everything. Please Help!?

Hi DCPimp,

As much as you don't want to hear it I honestly think the best way to fix this problem is by formatting (erasing) the whole hard drive. If you have another hard drive, a cd-burner or even another computer on a network then you can easily back your data up. If it is still not working after a format then the hard drive may be broken.

Also, are you sure that you should have more than 7GB remaining. Try uninstalling as much software as possible especially games and developing tools and see how much hard drive space u have left.

Thanks,
SCUD :)

Wait... does it say you have 7GB remaining or 7GB total? If you have 7gb remaining you are OK, you just need to remove a lot of stuff (or just reinstall windows).


However, if it basically says you have only a 7gb hard drive, you have a bigger problem. Either:

1) You just partitioned it into many partitions, and the other ones are just not formatted. How did you partition the drive?

2) Your BIOS is too old for a 40gb hard drive. How old is your computer? If it came with winXP, it is not that old. :) If it is too old, you will need to either get a new IDE controller card, use a software bios thingy, or use a different operating system that can get around the bios limitation

3) Something is just WRONG with your partition table. If you know #1 is not true and your comptuer is too new for #2, this is problably the problem. In this case, a simple filesystem re-creation (I believe that's what they call a high-level format) will not do anything. You will need to repartition the drive from scratch.


Have fun. :)


~psi42

If you mean 7gigs total space as opposed to 7 gigs left unused, then you could try this software called "partition magic" that will allow you to resize your current partition and extend it to the full 40 gig capacity. The software is very simple to use without any real need for instructions and should resolve your issue very easily.