160Ghd reading as 127G and little keyboard issue

Rudolph Claus

Im back again with a couple of queries.
Basically i bought the following harddrive listed below. Its only reading as 127G in my computer. Ive no partitions set up. Total capacity is listed as being 127, free space is 122G and used is 5G
All i have installed literally is WIndows Xp pro and my Microsoft Office programs, this is a new build i should state.

Samsung S-ATAII 160GB 7200
Samsung HD160JJ, Serial-ATA II 3Gbps
7200rpm, 8MB cache
requires S-ATA controller, S-ATA data and S-ATA power cable!
Euro 80.00 inc VAT

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Also, 1 other little thing is my keyboard seems to be installed in the american setting as the @ symbol comes up as ". I tried changing regional settings to Ireland in control panel but that didnt work and i went into keyboard properties and cant find an option in there to change. Its a Logitech keyboard.

Anti

okay for the hard drive you need windows xp + sp2 installed. And 48bit Lba enabled in the bios.

For the keyboard go to regional settings and change both the tabs from enlish ( american/usa ) to English united kingdom. Then do a reboot, then change it to ireland. But for this you need win xp + sp2.

Rudolph Claus

Thanks, ill try that so.

talking_walnut

You might have to enable big lba support in windows too. Have a look here

Think it might be enabled by default with sp2 but not certain. Someone else might know for sure

Saruman

just so you are aware though... in case you did not know this.. your hard drive will NEVER show up in windows as 160gb... reason? Its not actually 160gb.. Hard drive manufacturers lie... pretty much anyway. For instance a 60gb drive will show up at about 55.8 however if you notice the size in bytes.... its about 60,000,000,000 +/-

Thats where they pull their 60gb from, they ignore the fact there is 1024 bytes in a megabyte and so on not 1000 so they round it up.

Anyway yes SP2 is what you need as someone mentioned.

Rudolph Claus

Ive changed the regional settings to English(UK) and location to the Uk. But it didnt work. Ive the 2 options set to English(uk) and location set to the UK and that didnt work either. I have now changed all 3options to Ireland and that didnt work either. Ive Service Pack2 installed aswell.

Referring to the HD issue:
When i check the version as suggested in link Talking Walnut suggested it is version 5.1.2600.2180 i have.

"If Atapi.sys is not version 5.1.2600.1135 (or version 5.1.2600.1152 for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition), obtain and install the hotfix that is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 331958.
"
Have i got xp 64bit edition, whats that?

So ive to do the hotfix then, yeah? Should i do the windows hotfix or try the Bios setting to Lpa 48bit first?

Rudolph Claus

Ok, i had a browse round the bios and cant find any option that can be changed to Lpa 48bit. I did notice under my Hd option theres is an "access" option that is set to auto but can be set to "large". Is this what i should change?
Alos, i noticed the bios has my HD listed as the correct samgsung 160Gb. So does that mean my problem lies with windows Xp and i should try get that hotfix yoke?

The hotfix isnt very clear, it seems to only be for Xp that doesnt have the Service Packs 1 or 2 installed? I ran it and it said my software is a newer date than the fix i was trying to install. Hmmmmmmmm.

My keyboard is still not changing to Ireland/uk set-up.
What do ye suggest?

L31mr0d

Ok the LBA support isn't in the BIOS. You need to fully update Windows XP to SP2, you might as well update everything while you're at it.

Go here and perform an express update Also you might now see the extra space straight away as it won't be partitioned yet and have a raw format.

Right click on "My computer" and click "manage". In the left column click on disk management in the storage section. In the bottom right frame you'll see your disks (if you have installed LBA support) there should be one without a drive letter (i.e. C:, ... etc) right click on it and partition it.

Rudolph Claus

Yo, Im not sure im seeing what im supposed to be seeing, so ive attached a pic of my disk management set-up. Does this seem correct? What do i partition? Im happy enough using no partitions by the way, just the 1 C drive will do me.

Rudolph Claus

Why are my print screen piucs turning out so unclear and crap?
I think i realise what you were telling me to do, your right, theres my c drive and then one with no letter which says 21.06Gb unallocated? Do i right click this and click Partition? Will i then end up with 2 partitions on my hd? I`d rather just 1 overall partition and its hardly worth having one of 20Gb?

L31mr0d

the screenies aren't unclear to me, what are you using to attach them? Are you putting them in ms paint then uploading them?

Also, yeah thats what i'm talking about, that unallocated space is what you need to set as a partition. It would be worth your while having a partition. If you store your pictures and music on a seperate partition it will lower fragmentation on your OS partition.

But if you want to merge them, you can use a program like partition magic

Rudolph Claus

Im copying the pics into paint, saving as jpegs and then uploading them. When i click on the attached pic its very unclear, howcome you can see it alright?

Also, im going through the partition wizard now but dont know whether to partition it as a primary or extended partition? What do you reccommend. Ill heep the 20g partition for music as you suggested.

Anti

looks fine to me.

You set it as a extended partition, not primary.

Rudolph Claus

Thanks, ill partition it now.

I took a print screen of the way my print screens are showing up on my pc for ye. See the test pic below,,,any particular reason why they turn out like this on my pc?

Anti

no idea, never seen it like that before.

8T8

You mean as to why the picture is all squished up ?

That's because IE is scaling the picture to fit within the browser window you need to zoom in to see the un scaled size and it will look normal.

Firefox 2 will also display the scaled size in the title bar.

L31mr0d

Nuttzy wrote:

Thanks, ill partition it now.

I took a print screen of the way my print screens are showing up on my pc for ye. See the test pic below,,,any particular reason why they turn out like this on my pc?

rofl that's hilarious, did you never notice the little magnifying glass that replaces your mouse pointer when you move over the picture? Just click on the picture to blow it up to its original size.

Oh and partition it as a primary partition and set the formatting to NTFS if it isn't already, you can also set it to do a quick format.

Rudolph Claus

I partitioned it as an extended drive, as Anti suggested in an earlier post? Was that wrong. My hd in my computer is still showing just a C drive of 127Gb?????

Rudolph Claus

It still wasnt showing up in my computer as a seperate disk.
So im formatting it now and this time i selected "use as primary" drive.

This ok, yeah?