hard drive not showing up 100%

[StrikeX2]

my computer is currently running on x64 edition. I decided to go back to the regular xp pro cause of driver issues and whatnot. so anyways, i inserted the xp pro cd and booted from the cd. The problem came up at the place where i'm suppose to reformatt my hard drive, repartition and all that other stuff. I have a Western Digital Caviar 320gb SATA hard drive. However, according to the screen i only had 131,357mb total. what happen to my other 189gbs? just for the heck of it, i inserted my xp x64 cd and did the same thing. with the 64x cd, my hard drive shown to have 305,243mb, which is normal.
so i guess my question is, what exactly is happening here? where is the problem coming from and what can i do to fix it.

thanks for the help.

 

[defakto]

You need service pack 2.

There is a search function on the forums.

 

[TheDoucheMan]

You need service pack 2.

There is a search function on the forums.

You should add this one to your sig

 

[IanG]

You need SP2 and will want to slipstream it with your existing CD. Google will be your friend for this.

 

[mrbigshot]

you still wont see 100 percent but you will be closer. windows always keeps a percentage hidden. if you want to get everyting you paid or you would need to use unix/linux. best example i can give is if you install a 40 gig hard drive you will only have 36 gig to use, windows keeps the rest for system copy/ hidden storage.

 

[IanG]

you still wont see 100 percent but you will be closer. windows always keeps a percentage hidden. if you want to get everyting you paid or you would need to use unix/linux. best example i can give is if you install a 40 gig hard drive you will only have 36 gig to use, windows keeps the rest for system copy/ hidden storage.

I've never seen windows keep more than 8mb unusable. The reason a 40GB drive gives 36gb of space is because of the way hard drive manufacturers calculate gigabytes (1 billion bytes) differently to the way computers calculate gigabytes (1,073,741,824 bytes.)

 

[BillLeeLee]

He says he's using Windows XP 64-bit, I'm pretty sure that's not subject to the 48-bit LBA problem, since 64-bit already has all the stuff that was in SP1 and SP2 for Windows XP.

And the discrepancy between what Windows says you have for space and what the drive is advertised as is correctly explained by IanG.

Windows goes by binary definition of gigabytes, whereas the manufacturers use metric definitions (exactly 1000000000 bytes). The binary gigabyte is 2^30, or 1 073 741 824 bytes. So there's 73 MB difference per gigabyte.

 

[TheDoucheMan]

He says he's using Windows XP 64-bit, I'm pretty sure that's not subject to the 48-bit LBA problem, since 64-bit already has all the stuff that was in SP1 and SP2 for Windows XP.

And the discrepancy between what Windows says you have for space and what the drive is advertised as is correctly explained by IanG.

Windows goes by binary definition of gigabytes, whereas the manufacturers use metric definitions (exactly 1000000000 bytes). The binary gigabyte is 2^30, or 1 073 741 824 bytes. So there's 73 MB difference per gigabyte.

If you'll read his post you'll see that he is switching BACK to windows xp (non 64 bit). This is where his problem lies.

 

[Phoenix86]

The best answer.

It's a sticky for a reason.