"CJM" <cjmnews04@yahoo.removeme.co.uk> wrote in message
news:4388913a$0$63078$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net...
> I've just replaced my old HDD with a new 250GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATA
> drive (in a Dell 4600). The BIOS correctly reports that the drive is
> 250Gb, and when the drive arrived it was pre-formatted as a 250Gb FAT32
> partition, so it appears the drive is working OK. However, when I deleted
> the partition and tried to create a new NTFS partition using the XP setup
> program, it reported the maximum partition size I could create was
> 128GB...
>
> I created an 80Gb partition, thinking that I could utilize the remainder
> of the drive (170GB) using Partition Manager but Partition Manager reckons
> it can only see the same 128GB... (80Gb + 48Gb unallocated).
>
> I'm running some diagnostic software on the new drive as I write, but it
> appears to be OK.
>
> So why cant the windows setup program and windows itself see the full 250
> GB?
>
> Thanks in advance...
>
> Chris


Chris:
What apparently happened is that when your original HD was installed with
the XP OS, SP1 and/or SP2 was not included in the OS. Under those
circumstances the OS will recognize only 137 GB (roughly 128 GB binary) of a
HD that exceeds that capacity. (Since your motherboard's BIOS reports the
full capacity of that drive it's apparent that the MB supports
large-capacity drives, i.e., drives > 137 GB).

So assuming SP1 and/or SP2 was not installed on the OS prior to the time
when you installed your new 250 GB drive, the same limitation would apply.
If you now install SP1 and/or SP2 the full capacity of your 250 GB drive
will be recognized (actually about 232 GB), however, the remaining capacity
above 128 GB will be considered "unallocated space". So you will need to
partition/format that space using XP's Disk Management utility. So at a
minimum you will have two partitions.

BTW, just out of curiosity - you say your "new" Maxtor 250 GB HD came
formatted FAT32. Was this a USB external HD that you purchased? Who
formatted the drive FAT32?
Anna