Disc upgrade to larger disc shows same size

[fray_bentos]

I've upgraded from an 80gb disc to a 500gb in my laptop. I took an image using Acronis and applied it to the new disc including the boot record.

It shows the same size as the old disc which doesn't surprise me but how do i get access to the remaining space? There is no unallocated space in the XP storage manager and an old version of Partition magic doesn't show it.

Hmm, took long enough for the image to write to disc, now i just want to get the space.

It's an easy thing to solve i guess so any pointers would be great. Thanks.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You either need to expand the size of the existing partition or create another partition. I use Paragon Partition Manager 8.5 and it allowed me to do this.

[fray_bentos]

Hmm ok, Easeus partition manager hasn't allowed me to do it, nor has Partition Magic 7. As this space cannot be seen (computer thinks disc is 80gb) does the boot record need to be changed? Do it say how large the disc is?

[nightkhaos]

Hmm ok, Easeus partition manager hasn't allowed me to do it, nor has Partition Magic 7. As this space cannot be seen (computer thinks disc is 80gb) does the boot record need to be changed? Do it say how large the disc is?

No. Low level formatting says how large the disk is. No cloning tool should overwite low level formatting. All clones I've done using dd have worked fine and Windows always saw the extra space. Are you 100% postive you are using the output disk in your system?

[fray_bentos]

nightkhaos i had the same thought and have checked several times that the right disc went in (and it is identified by the device manager correctly).

In vain (before your reply) i tried fixing the mbr and as you suggest it did no good. Also going in for an install of xp didn't show any unused space on the disc.

I don't want to spend money on another partition manager software but is that my only option. As it stands i'm considering reformatting the new disc and writing the image back to the new disc - but that may be a job for tonight when i don't need the computer.

thanks for the input so far.

[fray_bentos]

Right, a bit more research suggests it may possibly be a problem with the Dell Media Direct utility as discussed in a thread here I need to get some other work done now but will have to read up on this tonight. I wouldnt mind but the media direct never worked on my machine anyway!

[watercooled]

Before you buy any new software try using GParted which is a powerful partition manager which runs on Linux - either get something like Parted Magic or run it from a Linux live cd like Ubuntu or something.

[Flash477]

Just a suggestion, but have you checked that it isn't a jumper option on the drive itself. Certainly a lot of disks used to have a jumper option to limit them for compatability with older OS's

[Blaineoliver]

Go into disk management on windows, then you should see the unallocated space.

[nightkhaos]

Go into disk management on windows, then you should see the unallocated space.

If I'm reading the problem correctly the problem is he is going into Disk Management and Disk Management isn't see the unallocated space.

[scaryjim]

... There is no unallocated space in the XP storage manager ...

Go into disk management on windows, then you should see the unallocated space.

If I'm reading the problem correctly the problem is he is going into Disk Management and Disk Management isn't see the unallocated space.

I'm going to go with nightkaos having the right end of the stick here

As well as the disk itself possible having a jumper, could it be a BIOS limitation? From memory LBA was a problem around 40GB and 130GB-odd, not 80GB, but it's always possible that the BIOS can't read a bigger disk. What make/model laptop is this in?

[fray_bentos]

It's a Dell XPS M1210, bought a couple of years ago now. Nowhere does unallocated space on the drive appear, none of the partitioning software can find any, or XP disk management.

From reading this article it seems i am falling foul of the disk controller reporting the incorrect disk size to everyone because of the 'host protected area'. There is a workaround given but i just have to get the opportunity to give it a go.

[watercooled]

Looks like Dell wants to make it as difficult as possible to upgrade yourself so you'll spend ridiculous amounts of money on the pre-installed upgrades...

[fray_bentos]

Just to give an update and say that i resolved this. I had to download something called the Hitachi Feature Tool which allowed me to reset the disc size to it's maximum-after i'd overwritten part of the start of the disc.

Anyway thanks to all those who tried to help.