Windows XP Pro and wrong HDD Space.

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OK, I got my new PC this morning with XP Home preinstalled. After playing around to make sure everythng was ship-shape, I put in a Windows XP Pro installation disk, ran a format and installed it. Now, XP Pro is only recognising the 250GB HDD as 130GB. The BIOS is recognising the disk with the correct space.

If I load the XP Home setup disc, the program recognises the correct amount of space, but as soon as I try the XP Pro setup, it goes back to only seeing the disc as 130GB.

WTF? Anyone got any ideas. I checked the MS KB but there wasn't really anything on there.

Thanks.

 

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Fixed it. I partition the HDD using the XP Home Edition setup disk, cancelled the install and then used the XP Pro disk.

If anyone knows of a simpler way I could've done it I love to hear it!

 

Just a thought but is the XP Home disk a Restore disk that might have the relevant drivers for your hard disk as per the manufacturer and the XP Pro one doesnt

Is it a SATA Drive in the pc that requires different drivers ?

Just a thought although probably wrong ....had a long long long weekend.....

 

The XP Home disc is a proper Windows disc, not a restore disc. However, as it came with the PC it might well have SATA drivers as part of the setup program. I can't see why XP Pro wouldn't have one though.

Cheers for the reply.

 

Hi baba,

I had exactly the same problem when I was wiping a machine with Home on.
Just like you I booted to the Pro disc and it saw 130GB of what was actually a 200GB drive.
In the end I did a factory wipe using a very good free program from maxtor
and it then saw everything!
As mojor pointed out is your hard drive a Sata? Mine was a bog standard IDE, which XP has the necessary drives to sort it out there and then

 

There is a registry hack for this problem. Here is a MS Knowledge base article. It explains the problem, how to fix it, and what systems can't see a hard drive more than 130 gigs even if the registry hack is made.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Freddy, nice one on the link. I couldn't find anything on the KB, you must have the magic touch! Their solution is certainly much easier than the way I had to do it.

Cheers all.

EDIT: Yes it is a SATA drive.

 

I wouldn't say I have a magic touch. I really struggled when I first started searching the KB. It took me a year or two to really learn how MS referenced things. I'd have to say though that there is an art to searching it. You just have to learn to think like Billy Bob.