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View Full Version : Update * Update * Installing XP Pro NOW - Advice

Skunky
09-16-2006, 11:51 PM
I am installing XP Pro now. When I went to partition out my areas of the 250 GB hard drive, it says I have 131062 MB Drive. Wouldn't that then be = to 131 GB??? If 1,000 MB = 1 GB. I am confused so I didn't partition out my three areas. XP is now formatting my new 250 GB hardrive. It sas C: Partition1 [New (Raw)] 132062 MB (131061 MB Free) on 131070 MB DIsk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR].

I have literally just started formatting the drive 3% complete. Did I miss something? I want to partition the 250GB hard drive into three different partitions, but the 131061 MB free thing threw me off as I was thinking I had 250000 MB so I simply am formatting the entire drive in NTFS and if possible, will buy PM 8 after everything is okay and then partition then UNLESS you think I should do something else. Should I start the setup over?

Any advice, at this point, you can give, would be most apprecitated.

Thanks so much!!

~Gwen
classicsoftware
09-17-2006, 04:50 AM
Get the software from the drive manufacturer. It will make a bootable CD or floppy and will guide you through the partitioning and setup of the drive.
Paul Komski
09-17-2006, 05:21 AM
A raw or empty partition usually just needs formatting to make it usable/accessible.

Don't get too hung up with the exact number of bytes but it does look as if you may well have a 48bit LBA problem (http://www.48bitlba.com/) if the installation couldnt see all of the drive. Both the BIOS and the OS need to support 48bit LBA to see more than 128GiB/137GB and I dont know how disk manufacturer's deal with this problem - other than use overlay which wouldn't be highly recommended round here.The use of a 48bitLBA capable PCI disk controller is usually less problematic in the long run if your BIOS itself doesn't allow the threshold to be breached.

If your WinXP has no SPs included then you will need to start with a partition less than 128/137 and upgrade to SP1 or SP2 before the OS can properly utilise the rest of the drive.

BTW BiNG will do just about everything that PM can do for a fraction of the cost and with a fully functional trial period.