So I just finished my first build, and after alot of stress and learning finally got things going. But there are still a few kinks to work out, the main one being the hard drive. When I boot up, after performing a quick systems check the computer beeps and tells me there is a drive error. I can resume by pressing F1 and then everything boots up fine, but it's a pain in the arse and of course I'd like to find out what's going on and fix it. The other problem is that the drive shows up as being only 131 gigs when it is a 250 gig drive. I don't know if these are related, but I assume they are.
I'm on an MSI K9N Neo motherboard and the hard drive is a WD Caviar SE AAJS 250. I'm not an expert user at all, and not very familiar with BIOS settings, I had a poke around there but couldn't see anything obvious to change.
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

For your first problem, does it specifically identify the hard drive as having a drive error? If not, a missing floppy drive will give the same error when the computer tries to check it.

On your second problem, what operating system are you running?

Casey

The drive error was the lack of a floppy, which I have corrected through the BIOS, thanks.
Still have the problem with not seeing all my harddrive though. I am running Windows 2000, with service pack 4. Thought I had a copy of XP lying around, but I can't seem to find it.

You have to enable Windows 2000 48-bit LBA. Have a look at the MS Knowledge Base for instructions.

Otherwise I think you need Windows XP Service Pack 2.

This is the 48bit LBA fix.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098

Read the support notes very carefully, your existing data can become corrupted by applying this fix.

OK, I tried that and it didn't do anything. Put the registry key in but noticed no change. Is there another way to enable 48bit LBA perhaps?
Also, this problem occured before I ever installed windows. When installing for the first time it displayed my harddrive as having only 131Gb when asking me which drive I wanted to put it on. I don't know if that means it's not the 48bit LBA problem?
Anyway, thanks alot Gent and Ethel.

Sorry, I've never actually done it myself so I don't know how to do it. I would think that it will be a problem every time you install Windows though as you have to change things afterwards to make it recognise the extra disk space.

tbh I would recommend investing in XP (SP2) or Vista if you want to use that shiny new disk space - or wait until it is an issue and then upgrade.

At least you know now that it is not the disk that's at fault so when you upgrade you won't have any problems.

Fixing the registry key won't change any existing partitioned drives, you will have to use a partition editor (like partition magic) to do that.
The alternative is to partition and format the unused disk space as a separate drive (or install XP).

I downloaded a partition programme (partition magic) and sure enough it showed the extra space as available for partitioning now, but it was just a demo and wouldn't actually let me do anything... Can anyone recommend an easy to use free partitioning programme?
And thanks again Gent and Ethel

Maxtor offers a download called "The Big Drive Enabler". This program automatically makes all of the necessary registry tweaks to enable full capacity for hdd's. Follow this link http://www.majorgeeks.com/Maxtors_ [...] d4998.html .

I found it the easiest way to make the adjustments, and it is compatible with any brand hard drive. Good Luck!

I downloaded it and used it and it said support is already enabled (presumably due to the fix I was given above) and I don't need it. Still, it will be useful if I reinstall and in the future, so I'll add it to my cache of useful programmes, so thanks

Juro,

Download something called SwissKnife HERE:
http://download.nytimes.com/CompuA [...] 2&sb=3&v=1

This is similar (albeit not AS good as Partition Magic) and should solve your problem for free!!

Forgot to mention that since Partition Magic is seeing 48-Bit LBA supported your reg hack seems to have worked.

Yeah, that's what I figured, thanks.
Now, this is going to make me look really stupid, but I gotta do it anyway...
I actually already found SwissKnife and tried it... but I can't figure out how to use it It looks like a very simple programme, and there aren't many fucntions, but I can't figure out how to make a partition. It shows me my current partition and how much space I have unallocated, and I checked the help and it says "just choose how much space you want to allocate to the new partition and press Create". Problem is, it won't let me select how much space I want. There is a little slider next to where it lists how much space I have free, but it won't let me touch it, nor will it let me click on Create. Either I'm an idiot or there's something gone wrong (or both).

J,

On the list "current device partitions" click on the word free!

Now you should have a slider for selection of size.

What size does your free read?