strange issue with disk sizes.

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I have just finished setting up a dual boot system on my pc and it was success eventually.
I originally tried to install xp professional alongside vista ultimate (which was already installed) but couldnt get it to work, so i wiped the drive (sata) and set the partitions up and installed xp first.

I originally set the xp partition to 100GB but after installing it i wanted to make the partition bigger so i used GPart live cd iso to make it 200GB then installed vista on the remaining 300GB partition.

It all installed fine and i went into disk management in xp and checked the partitions.
The first partition that holds xp is listed as H and says it is 195GB but when i right click the partition and go into properties it says it is only 97GB, so i booted into vista and checked disk management and it is saying the same which i really dont understand.

Now one thing i think may have caused this is extending the partition after i installed xp, i know i shouldnt have done it as it can cause loss of data but i thought i would risk it.
So is this whats causing this or is something else going on here?

 

I think the key here is you increased the drive size after installing xp, you cannot extend the size of the boot volume once the OS has been loaded. Also the other may well be down to card readers or things like that grabbing the initial free drive letters.

TBH I think the niggles are always going to be there so as the system sounds as if its still clean, I'd used Gparted again for remove all the partitions and recreate them how you want them and reinstall the OS making sure you have as little plugged into the computer as possible.

 

Thanks for the replies....
jk2447- I did use disk management in vista to check the partitions and partition D (which holds xp) is listed as being 195GB which is what i tried to change it to but in my computer it lists D as the size it was before i tried to enlarge it (97GB)

dales - You say you cant extend the size of the boot volume once the OS has been installed, but there seems to be a lot of programs out there claiming that they can (without data loss) is this incorrect? or am i missing something here?

 

You will need to be careful when resizing the boot partition, what I should have really said is that its not supported extending it in this way. I think I have have done it before with gparted but that was a long time ago. I guess theres nothing for it but give it a try but make sure you have nothing vital on that harddisk before you try it. Extending boot partitions have been a little hack n slash in the past, but it would be interesting if you give it a go to let us know how you got on.

 

I guess the only way im going to sort it out is to wipe the drive and set the partitions up again how i want them, how frustrating, oh well!