Hard drive question (jumper settings)

[bigu2fan00]

Hello.
When I installed Win XP my hard drive wouldn't work. I then figured out that I could set the jumper settings so my 80 gig hard drive would read as a 32 gig hard drive. This was when I was first getting everything setup and now about a year later, I would like to utilize the entire 80 gigs if needed. Is this jumper setting like a "ghost" setting meaning I can REALLY use 80 gigs but it tricks the system into thinking there's 32 when it boots up? Question 2: If I remove that jumper setting so when the computer boots it should recoginize the full 80 gigs, will that damage the hard drive or erase any data?
Does Win XP allow partitioning?(without having to buy a program to do it) I haven't done it before but would this be the best option to utilize all 80 gigs??


Thanks guys!!!

[Ideas Man]

Windows XP does have a partitioning program built in, it's in the Disk Management console. However, this will destroy all your data on your drive and you cannot use it if it's the system drive (Unless you have free space to make another partition).

And I'm unsure about the jumper setting question, never done something like that myself to give you an answer. I think the jumper fools the BIOS actually, just check when your booting whether it says you have a 32GB HDD or an 80 GB HDD, if it says 32, you are fooling the BIOS, if it says 80, it's Windows.

[dglienna]

I don't know why XP couldn't use 80 gigs. My buddy has 200g on his XP machine. Whatever you do, make sure that you back up the drive before you change the settings.

Is is possible that the BIOS doesn't support the drive? Maybe you could flash it. Is it an old machine?

XP supports partitions, as do older OS's. Unless you have Partition Magic (i think its called), then you lose all the info on the drive when you set up partitions.

[Dave Sell]

Originally posted by dglienna
I don't know why XP couldn't use 80 gigs. My buddy has 200g on his XP machine. Whatever you do, make sure that you back up the drive before you change the settings.

Is is possible that the BIOS doesn't support the drive? Maybe you could flash it. Is it an old machine?

XP supports partitions, as do older OS's. Unless you have Partition Magic (i think its called), then you lose all the info on the drive when you set up partitions.

Almost any disk sizing problem can be blamed on the motherboard. Definately flash your BIOS to the latest version. This has been a problem with hard-drives ever since they broke the 2-Gig barrier way back when.

[bigu2fan00]

Thanks all for your replys which lead me to more questions.

If I remember correctly, I think I set the jumper for 32gigs because I was running Win98, also possibly because the motherboard couldn't handle it. Regardless, I kept the jumper after I installed Win XP because I was afraid of losing the info I built up over time so my claim that Win XP couldn't handle was misleading, sorry.

IDEAS MAN -- you say "However, this will destroy all your data on your drive and you cannot use it if it's the system drive (Unless you have free space to make another partition)."
QUESTION: how much free space? I have 17 gigs free of the 32gigs windows is reading.

dglienna/Dave -- how do I flash the bios exactly? Will this allow me to remove the jumper? I've heard of doing this but have no idea how or when to do it. Could you please list a step by step process? Is there a risk of losing any data?


THANKS ALL!!!

[Dave Sell]

Originally posted by bigu2fan00
dglienna/Dave -- how do I flash the bios exactly? Will this allow me to remove the jumper? I've heard of doing this but have no idea how or when to do it. Could you please list a step by step process? Is there a risk of losing any data?
THANKS ALL!!!

- 1st you have to know exactly what make/model your mobo is.
- Then flashing the BIOS entails running a prog from a bootable disk.
- You could render the entire mobo completely dead doing this, that chance is always there. It happenned to me once and I didn't do anything wrong.

[dglienna]

go to your motherboard's web site, to find out if the BIOS is flashable. if it is, download the program, put it on a floppy disk, and cold-boot your system. Then run the floppy program, which will erase the old BIOS and install the new one. If everything works correctly, you should see a different setup screen, and you will have to re-do all of the options that you want.

If the board is old, then it may not be upgradeable. It may have been 98 that wouldn't accept the big disk. I seem to remember a limit in it.

You still have 17/32g left, but if you get the 80g back, then you can create a 48g partition along with the 32g, but I'd make sure that the data was backed up, first.

[Dave Sell]

Originally posted by dglienna
It may have been 98 that wouldn't accept the big disk. I seem to remember a limit in it.

Win98 did not have a problem with big disks. There is a maximum partition size FAT32 can be created as, and that is 65GB. But IDE technology has a maximum disk size that can be accessed on an IDE controller. I think it was like 232GB.

[bigu2fan00]

Thanks guys. I don't like the idea of possibly ruining the motherboard. I'm not sure exactly what motherboard I have so I'd had to jack it up.

Where's the "Disk Management console" in XP? Through the control panel maybe?

I'm looking for help because I have too much stuff to backup that it would take a very long time and some of it I don't think I could backup because of installs....in other words I could just copy the main folder.

If just removing the jumper is all I need to do then I'm worrying over nothing. So, if you guys know of anyone else who might be able to answer that question, let me know.

Also, does XP force you to partition? Does it have a max for a drive? Just curious if I could keep all 80gigs as drive C:.

Thanks again!!

[Dave Sell]

Originally posted by bigu2fan00
Also, does XP force you to partition? Does it have a max for a drive? Just curious if I could keep all 80gigs as drive C:.

No. Well, yes, but you can stick with only 1 single partition.
Yes. IDE Max is 200+GB, NTFS is 2TB.
Yes. Formatting as NTFS will give you full 80 GB easily.

Couldn't find anything conclusive on maximum IDE drive limits. This one's not bad:

http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/Large-Disk-4.html
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;114841

I have a 160GB Disk and my BIOS can only see the first 137GB. However, I believe NT bypasses the BIOS when making NTFS partitions, because I one time tried to make the biggest NTFS partition in XP and I got it up to about 150GB or something like that.

[bigu2fan00]

Does it make any difference that my hard drive is formatted as NTFS? What I mean is, does that change any options I might have for getting the system to recognize 80gigs, assuming maybe you thought I was using IDE?

[dglienna]

can you copy your files to another computer? We moved over 5g to my laptop the other day, in about an hour. you have to prepare for the worst, to be able to try to switch the size.

[dglienna]

the mobo has a tag on it indicating what it is. you can get the mfg from the setup sceen in bios, usually.

[Ideas Man]

Originally posted by bigu2fan00
IDEAS MAN -- you say "However, this will destroy all your data on your drive and you cannot use it if it's the system drive (Unless you have free space to make another partition)."
QUESTION: how much free space? I have 17 gigs free of the 32gigs windows is reading.

What I ment was if you do the jumper thing and Windows detects your drive as 80 GB, you should still only have your 32GB partition and ~44GB free space (Allowing for MFT). You can create another partition that will use all the available space from Windows just fine, but you cannot alter the system partition (The one Windows is on) without formatting and installing Windows fresh.

[Ideas Man]

Originally posted by bigu2fan00
Where's the "Disk Management console" in XP? Through the control panel maybe?

...

Also, does XP force you to partition? Does it have a max for a drive? Just curious if I could keep all 80gigs as drive C:.

The Disk Management console is located in the Device Manager in Windows XP. To access it, right-click My Computer and select properties and you should see it towards the bottom of the left pane.

No, Windows does not force you to partition and no you cannot use the available space to extend your C: drive without formatting and starting again or using a program such as Parition Magic.

[bigu2fan00]

Ok, guys, I think you've got me on the right track......
I've found the flash bios utility on a CD that came w/the motherB and I've downloaded a BIOS update from the manufacturer's website. So now, my question is, do I install the update? Like I said earlier, I don't know exactly what flashing the bios does, I'm guessing erases it. So, does that mean, I use the utility to flash the bios? The utility has the option to save the current bios and update the bios.... this utility being different than the file I just downloaded from the website. If I update or flash the bios, do either of these things threaten data loss?
If I'm updating the bios, at what point do I pull the jumper setting if at all??

Thanks for your help and patience.

[dglienna]

you can use the utility to copy the old bios to a floppy, or the harddrive. you then use the utility to actually install the update (the flashing process.) This is where you could lose the data, and you'd have to use the same process to re-install the copy. That's why I suggest you not bother with the copy of the old one.
If it doesn't work, you can probably repeat the process to get it to work. I've done it before, and only interupting the process will harm it. Just let it run, and do its thing.
Then, after you boot up, but before you set up the system (just make sure that it runs) turn it off, and reset the harddrive (pull the pin). Then reboot, and setup the bios.