Replying to 40GB HardDisk Has 32GB Only ? Why ?

have you tried to correctly insert the jumper in your hard disk. If you have mistakenly set the jumper to make only 32G available then you will have 32G only... See its manual if you have correctly put the jumper.. in the jumper there are 4 options.
1. Slave
2. Master
3. Auto Select (i Guess)
4. is to set the hard disk to use only 32G of space....

and try not to format HD again in win98... why not use partition magic if you already have a running WInXP OS....

"Also make sure that the hard drive does not have a shunt over the jumpers that set it to run at a smaller storage size"

It quite annoys me that people don't read all advice given, especially in being repetitive, but as long as you solved the problem that's all that counts, but making sure to read everything, it can be an advantage, unless of course it's absolutely irrelevant to your situation.


MC

Same on Apple computers, you lose some of the hard drive to the system resources. The way it works is the system (no matter what you use, Apple or Windows) will take what it needs first, just as it takes the ram it needs before you can have it for an application.

The larger the hard drive, the more you "lose" to the system. Doesn't matter if it is an external or internal drive, you still don't get to use it all.

Well, first Gb, Mb and Kb in hard disk manufacturar's terms is always x 1000, ie, 1Kb = 1000bytes, 1Mb = 1000Kb, 1Gb = 1000Mb, while in OS terms, it's always x 1024, ie, 1Kb = 1024bytes, 1Mb = 1024Kb, 1Gb=1024Mb, thus the actually capacity is always less than the adventised capacity~
The another point is the partition format you use, whether you use NTFS or FAT32 or other formats, added overheads and consume some space inside the hard drive. For example, FAT have file allocation table, NTFS also have it in addition to the security settings. Other formats also have its own overhead. Thus the actual space you can use is always less than the adventised one.

HAHAHA, well they put the 32GB limit as some computers can't detect higher sized drives. This is because the BIOS was made too long ago to cope with it. Often a bios upgrade can fix this problem if this option is supported. But yeah thats why that options there, as your computer's bios can detect 40GB its fine to change the setting.
Some older drives have a 2GB limit one of mine do, its only a 20GB segate though

Jedi.. thats not it... if it actually has the capacity of 40 then you weren't able to partition the whole drive... What you want to do is split the drive so then you can partition it 50/50 (20 gigs) then it should work perfectly.

pm if you want to learn how to split

Finally, I figured out what problem is it.
It become 32GB only because the jumper setting.
It set to limits drive capacity to 32 gigabytes.
It just took my about 2 days to figure it out.

Howevery, why do they have this kind of setting??
what's the point to limit the drive capacity to 32 gagibytes??

Thanks guys,
I totally agree with mastercomputers.
I don;t think that 8 Gigabytes just because of the storage has been rounded up by the Hard Drive Manufacturers.
you know, 8 Gigabyte is too much...

i have checked my Bios setting as well.
It supports LBA mode. and it is setted to LBA mode for both hard disk.
So, I belived my bios setting is ok.

Yes, the hard disk is in NTFS format.
But 8 Gigabyte for the MFT or Master File Table, isn't too bigger, since there is no data in this 40GB hard disk yet.
My 120GB hard disk is 11470MB show in partitionMagic.
I just want to make it clear, I am talking the total space for partition, not the space available after partiton.

Any idea???

The 8 Gigabytes are not there because Windows XP uses what is called an NTFS format for partitions. This stands for NT File System, this format was also used in Windows 2000 and you guessed it Windows NT. NTFS Partitions keep information about the directory structure, and what files are in which directories in what is called the MFT. The MFT or Master File Table, is not viewable, and it takes up space on your hard drive, thus the 8 GB you are missing. I have a 250 GB hard drive, and my computer says there is only 232 GB. So I am missing 18 GB. The larger the hard drive, the larger the MFT.

Reformatting the hard drive into a FAT 32 file system won't work either. First, FAT 32's equivalent to the MFT is the FAT (File Allocation Table). Secondly, in Windows XP, a hard drive can't have a FAT 32 file system larger than 32 GB compared to NTFS's ability to be used on volumes larger than 2 Terabytes. (Outside of Windows XP, FAT 32 can be used on volumes up to 2 Terabytes) Finally, any file larger than 4 GB (like a disc image of a DVD) would be rejected by FAT 32 (the DVD image would have to be split into smaller files) , while in NTFS, file size is only limited by the amount of hard drive space!

Your missing 8MB is actually because you're sharing 8MB with your onboard graphics card.

The shared memory is locked to your graphics card, so the OS doesn't try to claim it for it's own use. If it had, you'd have some strange display activity going on.

Your BIOS settings would show that this is the case, as well as the POST test should display a string saying that the memory is shared, as long as it's not hidden behind some proprietor's display.

Cheers,


MC