WinXP doesn't recognize my SATA HD full capacity.

Hi guys,

Need help with a HDD issue.

Building a PC for a client, installed everything, OS, drivers, software, etc...

It wasn't until yesterday I noticed when I went into "MY Computer" to perform a "Diskclean" that the computer was only reading my Samsung 80GB SATA HD as being only 32GB.

My HD model is P80 series 0812C & my MB model is Foxconn 865 series 865A01-G-6EKRS.

I called up Foxxconn tech support, guy told me to check the jumper settings on my HD, I tried every combo possible, but only one jumper setting works, as during the XP install the PC doesn't recognize the HD in the other settings, it only recognizes the HD under the original setting I had the jumper set to, but this is the same one where the 80GB is only recognized as 32GB.

I have the CDROM connected to the Secondary IDE controller on the MB, & the FD is connected to the FD connector.
I'm stuck, he said try flashing the BIOS, but he doubted this would help.

Any suggestions? never had this issue before.

Thanks.

Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there a thing about very old motherboards not being able to see disk sizes over 32g or something about FAT32 & large hard disks. Sorry but it I really can't remember it exactly

Now I doubt your board is that old but could be a funny bios quirk which is why he probably suggested flashing the bios. If you're familiar with bios flashing then it won't hurt to try.

The other thing you could try is going to Samsung's website & seeing if they have any hard drive installation apps like maxtor do. That certainly solved a similar problem for one of the blokes where I work, in fact I'd trty that before flashing the bios.

Yes you are right that some bioses cannot see drives over 32GB but it may also happen if the driver hasn't been installed properly for windows. This should have been on a floppy disk which needs to be loaded when windows is installed.

Try to find new drivers and install them. if this doesn't work check wether there is a new bios availiable from foxconns website. if there is flash the bios and you should have your whole drive availiable.

If none of these work then its either get a new hard drive and RMA the old as it isn't showing anything above and is therefore not sold as advertised, or get a newer motherboard that will support the newer drives. If you could put this hard drive into another computer then you will be able to see if this is at fault or it is your motherboard. This will allow you to take the correct course of action.

Hope this helps.

Hi again,

1st off let me say thank you to everyone who posted & tried helping me out with my issue.

I figured it out. I had to go into BIOS & ENABLE the SATA HD, & set it to RAID, once I did that during the XP install @ the create a partition part, it recognized the HD's full capacity.

Before it was set to SATA IDE mode which I guess limited the HD's capacity down to a 40GB.

Sometimes you only learn through trial & error.

Thanks again guys.