Incoorect reporting of HD size
Posted: Nov 9, 05, 5:34 bkeys
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I have been running windows 98 on a Soyo 6BE+ MB, 384MB RAM, and Maxtor 91360U4 HDD partitioned into 2, 20GB drives. Having a brilliant idea to upgrade, I installed Gigabyte GA-K8NS MB, BIOS version F18 (latest), 1 GB Ram, and Windows XP pro. Now bios reports that the HD is only 13.6 GB. What gives?
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Posted: Nov 9, 05, 12:11 jeffd
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bkeys, I have to admit, that is really weird.

So you've installed XP on the 40 gig drive, and dumped 98SE?

And the bios literally sees the hard disk as only 13 gig?

I'd check the hard drive first of all. You can download the Maxtor drive test utility here. I would run that and see what you get.

Just out of curiousity, what does windows xp report as the two partition sizes?

It's also possible that you set something in the BIOS incorrectly, or set the jumper on the hard drive incorrectly. Make sure the jumper is set to standard Master configuration, not cable select, and definitely not drive size limit.
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Posted: Nov 9, 05, 20:48 vkaryl
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Maybe something to do with the difference between FAT32 and NTFS?
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Posted: Nov 9, 05, 21:41 jeffd
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Good guess vkaryl, but not correct, although there is a limit of 32 gigabytes. The problem here is that the bios itself is reporting the drive size wrong, pre windows booting.

from Microsoft knowledge base

:: Quote ::
A FAT32 volume must have a minimum of 65,527 clusters. Windows XP Professional can format FAT32 volumes up to 32 GB, but it can mount larger FAT32 volumes created by other operating systems. Table 13.6 lists FAT32 size limits.

==============
Description Limit
Maximum file size 4 GB minus 1 byte (232 bytes minus 1 byte)
Maximum volume size 32 GB (implementation)
Files per volume 4,177,920
Maximum number of files and subfolders within a single folder 65,534 (The use of long file names can significantly reduce the number of available files and subfolders within a folder.)


Plus a 4 gigabyte maximum file size. NTFS for all practical purposes, has no restrictions.
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Incorrect reporting
Posted: Nov 10, 05, 10:34 bkeys
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Never mind,

I have 2 drives in the computer. 1 is 13.6 GB and the other is 40GB. For whatever reason, I thought I had 98 installed on the 40GB. Imagine my surprise and utter feeling of foolishness when I looked up the model # for the boot drive and "discovered" that it really was a 13.6 GB drive.

Sorry to waste your time. It's the little things that get you.

bk
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Posted: Nov 10, 05, 10:50 jeffd
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bkeys, we've all made mistakes like that, I made one almost exactly like that, posted on a forum, then after I'd posted I realized I'd simply misread the instructions for dual channel memory, but actually posting the question somewhere was what made me take a second look and finally figure out the problem.

But thanks for posting the solution, even if it was just a misread of the setup, helps long term not to have threads hanging, especially hardware stuff.
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