500 GB HDD only shows 127 GB in BIOS, OS, and other OS's

Hello,

I've built me a new computer back in November 2011, and have used Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit SP1, Ubuntu 9.04, 10.04, Win XP Pro SP2, and Quimo. I've had no problems on this before, untill now. I have a Western Digital 500 GB 7200 SATA II HDD, and Windows Professional SP1 64 bit (The current OS that I'm using and recently upgraded to) installed on my main boot drive which is an Intel SSD 80 GB. The SSD works perfectly. The HDD, however, only shows 127 GB of capacity in Windows Explorer, BIOS, and Disk Management. I need to get all of my 500 GB, so I can install other OS on my system. Ubuntu shows 500 GB of capacity in GParted, when viewing it in Nautilus, it shows just a little over 130 GB.

I've tried going over and formatting the drive over and over again. I've tried specifing partitions in Windows installation, file systems in GParted of Ubuntu, heck, I've even tried multiple SATA/AHCI Drivers that were not compatible with my hard disk controller. I'm currently using the correct AHCI driver for my system with Win 7 Pro SP1 64 bit. The only way for me to get Windows to show me a 500 GB capacity, is to reinstall Windows and never turn the system off. The capacity with two partitions stay displayed everywhere, even in the BIOS, unless I completely shut down the PC. So, I'm wondering if there is anything else I can do? I've tried many drivers for AHCI. I've tried other OS's. I've tried checking my BIOS for large disk support, but that option is not available.

My BIOS settings for SATA devices are in AHCI mode currently. I want to keep this mode, so I can use my WD HDD later in Windows XP Pro, after I get this issue fixed. I'm planning on making my system a triple boot system with W7, WinXP, & Ubuntu. Once again, no unallocated space is showing up in Disk Management.

PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks!

If anyone needs more information, I will be glad to tell it.

Also I forgot to add, that I was able to get 500 GB capacity with my previous OS, which was Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 32 bit. I'm doing a clean install of Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit.

AND I can get the full capacity to show up, only when I fully format the HDD, then leave the computer on forever or warm boot it. But once I do a cold boot, then the partitions go away, and I'm left with 128 Gb of unallocated space.

That windows professional sp1 64 bit... is that windows 7 or xp? if it's xp upgrade it to at least SP2.. then with either OS go to control pannel/ administrative tools / computer management / disk management.... highlight your drive right click it and delete volume this will remove your partition now you can repartition your drive and use the full disk formatted NTFS.

It is Windows 7 Pro SP1 64bit. I tried doing what you said with deleting that partition for that drive, and I'm still receiving only 128 GB unallocated.

I can get 465 GB unallocated, but then after a perform a cold boot, the hard disk resets to 131 GB in BIOS, 127 GB in Win/DOS, and shows 465 GB in Linux.

I do repartition and format, but has soon as I perform a cold boot, then the HDD resets back to 127-131 GB.

I know it's very weird. I'm thinking the hard disk is going bad.

Thanks for your response, syhmple! I still haven't figured out what could have been wrong with the HDD. So, I've RMAed the WD HDD, since it was still under manufacturer warranty. I should get it within 2 weeks. Once it comes, I will post an update to this and tell if it worked or not. I believe that maybe doing an error scan within Windows was a cause of the issue. Because I did an error scan before everything went chaotic. Once I reinstalled Windows, then that is when my capacity issue began. Did you, syhmple, do an error scan and that is when the problem arose, or did you get a new motherboard when your HDD changed capacity size?

Best Wishes!
Justin