Noob question. Fitted new Hard drive..

Hedge · 8 Oct 2008 at 14:51

I bought a 320gb hd off members market, So ive put it in my machine and im running Windows XP setup.

It comes up with 131gb unpartitioned space.

What do i do to get the rest lol

Prophet · 8 Oct 2008 at 14:55

If you're happy leaving that as another partition wait till you get into windows and access it via Disk Managament (Right click My Computer, then manage)

If you want to use it now, delete the partitions and create a new one which uses the whole disk. The instructions will be on screen during the setup.

Hedge · 8 Oct 2008 at 14:57

I pressed D but it doesnt say there are any partitions, it just says 131xxxxmb of unpartitioned space?

metamorphpwner · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:08

is your windows Xp service pack 2? or just 1?

Hedge · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:12

metamorphpwner · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:14

Hedge said:
sp1

sp1 only shows a small hard drive size, i had the same problem, download sp2 and it should fix it, if not download paragon partition manager to merge the partitions back together

Prophet · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:15

You need to delete the primary partition. The 131GB isnt partitioned so removing the space that is will give you the whole disk to re-partition.

AtaRo · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:35

just as metamorphpwne said you need to install SP2 to access the rest of the space.

Hedge · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:42

Orange Peel said:
You need to delete the primary partition. The 131GB isnt partitioned so removing the space that is will give you the whole disk to re-partition.

i cant delete it though. It gives 3 options. Create a partition, install on this partitioned space, or delete partition.

i press d to delete.. but there isnt a partition to delete as all it says is unpartitioned space

Hedge · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:43

Ok so i just install it. Install SP when its all up and running. Then repartition everything after that stage?

ideally i want 50gb for windows/office aps. then split the rest between games and media in 2 more partitions

Delvis · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:56

Hedge said:
Ok so i just install it. Install SP when its all up and running. Then repartition everything after that stage?

ideally i want 50gb for windows/office aps. then split the rest between games and media in 2 more partitions

Hi there,

What system are you trying to install the hard drive into? A new one, or the one you are currently using? I presume a new system, as you are booting off of the XP cd...

If it's a different system, what are the specs? (And the hard drive you are trying to install) As some older systems required an F6 driver during setup in order to see the full hard drive volume.

Hedge · 8 Oct 2008 at 16:08

nah its the same system. but im doing a fresh install of windows. my install is all bollocksed up so i just want a fresh start again

the hard drive is a western digital caviar aaks3200 thingie

AtaRo · 8 Oct 2008 at 22:19

Is your XP SP1? if so it would make your life much easier if you slipstream SP2 in your copy of XP.

Hedge · 8 Oct 2008 at 22:24

Well i had Xp Pro on disk. and SP2 on disk, but i had to install XP, then install SP2 , i didnt know any other way of doing it.

So now i have that 130gb partition, and ive just split the other 170gb up. Shame really, i only want 30-50gb on my windows partition. the rest woulda been for media and games..

gotta admit though, ive been late getting a fast hard drive, and the performance is immense.

Windows installed in about 6 minutes lol

Delvis · 9 Oct 2008 at 11:46

Hedge said:
Well i had Xp Pro on disk. and SP2 on disk, but i had to install XP, then install SP2 , i didnt know any other way of doing it.

So now i have that 130gb partition, and ive just split the other 170gb up. Shame really, i only want 30-50gb on my windows partition. the rest woulda been for media and games..

gotta admit though, ive been late getting a fast hard drive, and the performance is immense.

Windows installed in about 6 minutes lol

So you only have the 170gb useable?

Just google slipstream XP sp2, it's very easy, takes no more than 30 minutes if it's your first time.

Ch3m1c4L · 9 Oct 2008 at 14:54

slipsteam it or use nlite to put sp2 or 3 onto your xp install. If you cba with that then when you format you could just tell it to only format 30-50gb, install windows onto that, and then once booted and youve installed sp2 then format the rest of the space into w.e you want.