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    jaxon's Avatar
    jaxon Posts: 11, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Apr 6, 2006, 11:16 PM
    SATA Drive only shows 127gb out of 250 gb
    I just purchased a seagate 7200 rpm 250 gb hard drive. When I go to <START>,<MY COMPUTER>,<LOCAL DISK> and check the properties of my hard drive it says 127 GB. I went to the seagate website and I have tried everything they suggested but it still shows 127 GB. I did not make another partition because I was wanting the entire 250 GB on one partition. I tried using "command prompt" but it did not work either. I also purchased a new motherboard "ASUS P4P800-E" which has the newest BIOS version. Any help would be appreciated.
    LTheobald's Avatar
    LTheobald Posts: 1,051, Reputation: 127
    Ultra Member
     
    #2

    Apr 7, 2006, 12:42 AM
    Quick question - is this drive brand new?

    One place you might want to check that shows a little more information about the drives in your PC is Start >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Computer Management. Then on the left side select Storage >> Disk Defragmenter.
    jaxon's Avatar
    jaxon Posts: 11, Reputation: 1
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    #3

    Apr 7, 2006, 05:56 AM
    Yes the hard drive is new... and when I checked it the way you suggested it is the same 127gb.
    cajalat's Avatar
    cajalat Posts: 469, Reputation: 66
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    #4

    Apr 7, 2006, 03:40 PM
    A few things to try:

    - Like LTheobald suggested but this time see what you get when you choose "Disk Management" instead of "Disk Defragmentor". I think LTheobald may have meant for you to go there since that shows you the drive vs. just the partition. If you see the drive partitioned into two disks then delete both and reformat. My gut feel tells me that you'll only see one partition and that you need to go to the next step.

    - Check the BIOS and make sure you have AUTO set for Type, LBA/Large, Block, PIO, DMA, and possibly SMART. Also enable 32bit support on your drive. Make sure to do this on the correct drive.

    Casey
    jaxon's Avatar
    jaxon Posts: 11, Reputation: 1
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    #5

    Apr 8, 2006, 10:09 AM
    Ok when I went to "disk management" it showed at the "top" 127gb and at the "bottom" "primary partition is 127 gb" and "unallocated is 105 gb" for a total of 232 gb. Now with that said does that mean I am going to have to delete and reformat? If so then why did it not work the first time when I reformatted? Maybe because I did a "QUICK" reformat? I really hate to delete and reformat because I have been done for 2 days.. took 3 days getting eveything reinstalled but if I got to then I got to. And thanks for your help.
    Curlyben's Avatar
    Curlyben Posts: 18,514, Reputation: 1860
    BossMan
     
    #6

    Apr 8, 2006, 10:37 AM
    There's no need to reformat and install.
    You can use something like Partition Magic to resize into the unalloctaed space.
    To be perfectly honest with you, you may be better off just creating a new partittion in the un allocated space and going from there. At least the things like defrag and scanning won't take as long as doing the whole 205 Gb in one hit.
    jaxon's Avatar
    jaxon Posts: 11, Reputation: 1
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    #7

    Apr 8, 2006, 11:13 AM
    I downloaded the program and it looks like it will work BUT it seems you must pay for it in order to use it fully so that is out of the question. I just spent a good chunk of change on redoing this computer and my gaming computer so I don't think I can swing it with the wifey to purchase a 70 dollar disk that I might only use one time. So if anybody knows of a freeware version that will work that would be great... thx.. and thanks Curlyben that is a really good looking piece of software .
    Curlyben's Avatar
    Curlyben Posts: 18,514, Reputation: 1860
    BossMan
     
    #8

    Apr 8, 2006, 11:20 AM
    This should do the trick ;)
    jaxon's Avatar
    jaxon Posts: 11, Reputation: 1
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    #9

    Apr 8, 2006, 04:55 PM
    I also forgot to add that cajalt suggested I check my bios and everything was in auto and 32bit WAS NOT enabled so I enabled it but it still only shows 127gb.
    cajalat's Avatar
    cajalat Posts: 469, Reputation: 66
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    #10

    Apr 8, 2006, 05:22 PM
    A format alone doesn't affect the partitions if they existed before hand. So if you originally installed/formatted then I suspect that the drive was already partitioned into two partitions.

    As far as the 32bit enabled that only improves the performance.

    At this point, your BIOS/OS do recognize the whole drive and since everything is auto and 32bit enabled in the BIOS then there is no barriers to using the 250GB space. I would personally choose to redo the drive from scratch and as a learning experience would use the Partition Logic Curly suggested to "gain experience". You could just use that program and potentially not have to redo anything. Just don't forget to backup critical data first before you resize your partition.

    Casey
    jaxon's Avatar
    jaxon Posts: 11, Reputation: 1
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    #11

    Apr 8, 2006, 06:10 PM
    Well after careful consideration of all of the great suggestions that I got I decided to just create a new partition. I went into disk management and created the partition. What cajalt said about the "shorter defrag times" made a lot of sense. Besides as long as I can use the rest of the "unallocated" drive it doesn't matter to me if its all together or in separate partitions. Thx again fellas, ladies, trannys (no discrimination from me), etc. for all of your help. So as far as I'm concerned this topic for me is CLOSED> But I will still check back for a week or so to see if anyone has given a different suggestion.
    Germars's Avatar
    Germars Posts: 1, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #12

    Dec 24, 2007, 10:21 AM
    I had the very same problem and used partition magic to solve the problem. I am so happy with the result and it was easy to do.

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