Asuma Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 Okay so, I have about 21.0GB of unallocated space. If I allocated, when I have to reinstall windows or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidge204 Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 What brand of computer is it, and did it come with a recovery CD? Chances are good that, if it's a Dell of HP or other 'Big name" brand, and came with a system restore / recovery CD, that the "unallocated space" is actually a hidden partition that contains a mirror image of the system data as it was when it was boxed. The restore CD simply copies this image onto the main partition and presto! System restored! If this appears to be your situation, I would recommend not touching it. =Smidge= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asuma Posted June 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 It's a custom build. I have a WD 160 GB, (only 127 or so allocated). AMD XP/64 3500Ghz (2.2ghz) GeForce 6200 256MB SoundBlaster 24-Bit Seagate 80GB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidge204 Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 Custom built by who? Anyway, you might try "Computer Management" (Assuming you're using XP/2K) which can be found under Administration Tools in the Control Panel. Look under Storage -> Disk Management. =Smidge= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PkR Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 If you're sure this space is really unallocated, you could also try Partition Magic or Acronis Partition Expert. I personally recommend the last one. And what Smidge suggested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowgoten Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 OH I had the same problem with my 160g hard drive...I'm not exactly sure what I did to fix it...I THINK it was something to do with old bios and stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidge204 Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 There *is* a 137GB limit on the older ATA drives. However the board would have to be nearly six years old for this to be a problem (problem is circa 2000/2001). With a Athlon64 proc, the board is not that old and it *shouldn't* be the problem. It might actually be the drive itself, sometimes they have a jumper that limits their apparent capacity to under 137GB for compatability reasons. That's pretty rare nowadays, though. Edit: Worth noting that the next limit is 2.2 terabytes, and is the limit for the 32bit addressing scheme. With the 750GB drives on the market now, and a cheap JBOD controller, you can easily hit that barrier today. =Smidge= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FredrikTheEvil Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 It might be the cable. Although, all this usually do is limit the speed. Get a cable for your harddrive which is the exact type that is made for your drive (if its a ATA-100 drive, get a ATA-100 cable, if its a ATA-133 drive, get a ATA-133 cable). This was the problem with my DVD burner once. Also, flashing your bios sometimes does the trick. But all new bios' has LBA48 support, so I dunno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamerdude Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 There was a 137GB limit due to Windows XP having a problem with addressing anymore space because the original version (with no service packs) didn't support LBA48...If you have Windows XP service pack 1 or later installed, this wouldn't be the issue. Since you haven't stated exactly what OS and service packs applied, this may or may not be the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 Just get partition magic and turn it into a partion. We are overthinking this. It's just a poorly set up drive. In partition magic, click the unallocated space and hit partition. Takes a few minutes and doesn't even require a reboot. If THAT doesn't work, come back and let us know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smidge204 Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 Not so much overthinking - the SOLUTION is pretty obvious. The question is WHY. If it was a brand-new drive, chances are Windows formatted it for him, Gamerdude might have the right answer. It is also possible that the drive has a legacy mode enabled that caps the size to under 137GB. If he formatted the drive himself as a separate step, he'd probably know enough to avoid this problem in the first place and maybe know how to correct it. That makes Gamerdude's theory a little more interesting. =Smidge= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamerdude Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 For those interested: Microsoft KB303013 I know these are normally more confusing than they're worth (or at least for me that tends to happen a bit). Note Windows XP does not support 48-bit LBA support unless you are running Windows XP SP1. If you want to use 48-bit LBA support, you must apply Windows XP SP1 or later. Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition already include SP1. That's what gave me the hunch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asuma Posted June 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2006 Actually, I never bohter with it untill I start running out of space. This happend after my Spyware invasion episode. I had to reinstall windows, but that was when we was on broad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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