Windows XP Reinstallation

[Nizmatik]

Hi all,

Just a quick one here. May sounds like a silly one but unsure what needs to be done. I'm reinstalling Windows XP again and I've encountered a slight issue with my hard drives. I have the first (version) copy of Windows XP which only seems to recognize 137gb or less hard drives.

Now my system consists of 2 X 500's and 1 X 640. Both of my 500gb hard drives have been partitioned, with 40gb to one drive, 20 to the other drive and of course the remaining of the capacity left over.

When running through the Windows XP installation, all drives have been recognized as 137gb or so. Wouldn't they recongize these as smaller partitions or am I mistaken on this? If I am, how would I go ahead with installing XP and ensure I'm installing this to the 20gb partition I created?

FYI: Currently Vista and XP have been installed (1 OS per hard drive - 20gb to XP, 40gb to Vista) however I am just doing a reinstall or Xp.

 

[Catweazle]

Create a slipstreamed SP1 or later installation disk. Problem solvered!


No, actually it's not. Are you saying that the 20Gb partition isn't 'visible' to the XP install routine? If so then the partitioning is probably the problem - you mustn't have that 20Gb partition configured correctly.

Also, 20Gb for XP and 40Gb for Vista installs is kinda restrictive. Perfectly possible, of course, but you're forever aftwards worrying about keeping space free and worrying about what's eating up the system partition.

 

[Nizmatik]

Thanks for the speedy response.

Hmmm yes your right. When installing XP (your regular blue screen routine) 3 drives are recognized however they are all seen as 137gb each. So I'm unable to individually install the OS to the partition drive.

And yes, they are quite small in size however I usually just install relevant programs to each OS and the other drives are basically just storage really! So I rarely run out of space on either of the drives.

So I guess there was an issue with how I partitioned my drive? I can still alter the drives through disk mangement as Vista is my current OS, however Xp at this stage is unusable!