XP installation on a SATA Drive

[techiemon]

I was told that the newer motherboards make it easy to install XP Pro on SATA drives. I just bought a P5B Deluxe board from Asus. I am attempting to install my original XP disk to a 320GB SATA Drive... And guess what? XP is only recongnizing about 130GB of the 320GBs... It won't let me partition the other portion of the drive.. How can I get around this? I do not have an XP SP2 disk, and I shouldn't need it according to everyone I have spoken to. I am really disappointed that this problem has again resurfaced.... How can I resolve this issue promptly?

Thanks

[bchur83]

You do need a SP2 disk, or at least a SP1 disk. Just make a slipstreamed one.

[techiemon]

I tried that years ago and it didn't work and is very confusing to accomplish... I was told installing XP to a SATA now was as simple as putting in the dang disk.... There has to be another way..

[bchur83]

Installing on SATA is now simpler (no loading of drivers needed on some boards), but you will still have the 130GB limit with Pre-SP1 discs. Just find a guide on slipstreaming, it is very simple if you follow the directions.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

once you have installed XP and have sp2 installed off of microsofts update site, right clock on 'my computer' and go 'manage'. in there you should be able to reclaim the lost space.

[bchur83]

That will only allow him to make another partition, not merge it into the current Windows partition, unless you use a 3rd party disk utility.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

it will still get him his space back. better than nothing. ;)

[montaillou]

I had this problem as well and was only able to reclaim the lost space after the XP install as a partition.

[techiemon]

And that probably won't work for me as that partition will be huge!!! I am going to have to find a way to get SP2 or figure out how to slipstream... What a pain...

Thanks all

[smokie mcpott]

And that probably won't work for me as that partition will be huge!!! I am going to have to find a way to get SP2 or figure out how to slipstream... What a pain...

Thanks all
im not understanding the problem
you want one giant partition but you say if you had 2 partitions the storage/second partition would be too big?

i always recommend 2 partitions, or 2 harddrives
i tend to give my windows/apps/games partition 100-150gb
and the rest goes to storage/backup
if you ever need to reinstall windows, you can safely format the C: and leave all your stored data intact on the other partition or drive

[techiemon]

smokie mcpott,

It recognizes 131gb, which means that 189gb would remain for the second partition. To me that is too big. However, I wasn't thinking... If I am thinking correctly now, I can install XP on that 131gbs or partition it using one for XP, say 50gb, and than delete the additional partition containing the remaining 81gb and repartition all the space (270gb) remaining on the drive into as many partitions as I want after installing SP2...

[smokie mcpott]

THATS what i was thinking...lol

[techiemon]

Well it was late, what can I say! ha ha ha. :-) Thanks!

Having a bunch of other issues now, viruses galore coming in and I haven't even started using the system yet!!!! What a nightmare... They gave me Norton 2006 with the board, but it is taking several reboots and lots of time to download all the new updates... In the meantime I am being flooded with viruses... Where they came from I have no idea....

So anyway, have installed XP on 50GB, can I can see the drives in the system management, only now waiting to get SP2, that's another issue that is going to take awhile to resolve... Anyway.... . Thanks for the help!

[hUMANbEATbOX]

you can download SP2 as a standalone file, and burn it to a disk. that way if you ever need to reformat, you can install XP while totally disconnected from the interent, then install SP2, then connect to the internet and get your updates. this will keep the nasties out while you try to update.

[Martel]

If you put your Asus driver disk in the CD drive it should be bootable. On the disk are the drivers for sata. Write the drivers to a floppy disk, then boot windows and hit F6 when it asks for additional drivers at the bottom of the page. Install the drivers from the disk and continue to install to any size disk.

[techiemon]

The disk was not bootable, I tried that last night. Anyway, the problem is solved. This was the third reformat and install though, ha ha ha. I was able to get XP installed and then SP2 installed immediately as I stuck it on a usb pen, never had to access the internet for anything this time around. Everything seems to be working, all the HDD space showed up after the SP2 install and they are now formatting. I choose to go with 3 partitions per each 320gb drive. Is there any difference if you put more space at the beginning or end of the partition? In other words if I allocate 50gb to C and 100 to D and 150 to E will there be any difference if I reverse it? 150 to C, 100 to D and 50 to E? I usually start small and then work up, but on the Maxtor I have I didn't do that, each partition was different some big some small and they were not in any particular order, and I am wondering if that is another reason I am having problems on that drive...

[Audioaficionado]

Google for RyanVM integrator and you can build a fresh up-to-date bootable installer disc for the next time.

nlite is another option for painless integration building.

Both can create bootable iso files to burn your own installer CD.