Hi,
I purchased a new 80GB Western Digital PATA hard disk and connected it to my computer using an Ultra ATA cable with the jumper set to 'master'. But Windows shows the hard disk size only as 32GB even though the jumper is not set to 'Limit to 32GB'. There is no 'slave' disk connected to the cable.
Can anyone help?
- Login or Signup Now to post comments
Hi Kevin!
You are using FAT32 in installing your operating system which in this case, it could not detect hard drive space more than 32GB. So if you still want to use FAT32 then I would suggest that you partition your hard drive three times or with less than 32GB each partition, so as to utilize or maximize your new purchased 80GB Western Digital PATA hard drive. But if you do not want to partition your new hard drive, then you can use the NTFS file system instead of FAT32 in installing your operating system and the rest of your software.
Hello Kevin.
Is it only Windows that reports the drive size as 32 GB? Did you see if the BIOS correctly reports the hard drive capacity? If the BIOS does not report the right size, it is possible that your motherboard does not support hard drives larger than 32 GB. But don't lose hope yet. Sometimes all it takes is a BIOS update to remove that limit. Check your motherboard manufacturer's website and look for any BIOS updates. Read through the release notes to see if any of the updates addresses the hard drive size limit. Make sure to read the manufacturer's instructions carefully and follow it to the letter when you update the BIOS.
If the BIOS reads the drive size properly, then it could be the file system limit. FAT32 only supports up to 32GB, You will have to format (or convert FAT32 to NTFS) your hard drive to NTFS if you want to see the whole drive.
Hi,
If it is really 80GB hard disk you are using FAT32 file system.
You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system during the Windows XP installation process
So if you want to use the rest of the space go to
Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management
Here in the left panel Select "Disk Management"
Here you will see the unpartitioned space.
Right Click on it and format it as you like.
After that you will see a new drive in my computer with rest of the space.