Cannot partition new 200GB SATA in Windows

Not sure whether to put this in XP or disk forum so done both and no replies on XP yet but there are 10 views.

I have just taken delivery of a new computer with a 200GB SATA HDD. I know that Partition Magic does not support discs over 160GB but when I went to Computer Managment/Disk Management I found no free or unallocated space in which to create a Data Partition.

Details as in Disk Management are: Basic Disk, Layout is Partition, NTFS.

I need to create a Data Partition urgently to hold my many image and music files and swap file and to cut the system partition down to a reasonable size. How can I do this please? Old computer has disk of 80GB IDE and is very easy to manage so this big HDD stuff and SATA is all new to me.

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Originally Posted by MorseLady

Not sure whether to put this in XP or disk forum so done both and no replies on XP yet but there are 10 views.

I have just taken delivery of a new computer with a 200GB SATA HDD. I know that Partition Magic does not support discs over 160GB but when I went to Computer Managment/Disk Management I found no free or unallocated space in which to create a Data Partition.

Details as in Disk Management are: Basic Disk, Layout is Partition, NTFS.

I need to create a Data Partition urgently to hold my many image and music files and swap file and to cut the system partition down to a reasonable size. How can I do this please? Old computer has disk of 80GB IDE and is very easy to manage so this big HDD stuff and SATA is all new to me.

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Partition Magic sould work fine or try the HD setup disk.

As I said in my post PM does not support disks over 160GB and there is no drive disk in the pack I got witrh the machine but I will check the drivers and utilities disk.

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Originally Posted by MorseLady

As I said in my post PM does not support disks over 160GB and there is no drive disk in the pack I got witrh the machine but I will check the drivers and utilities disk.

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I got 2 250 gig hd PM works fine, but if you insist try telling what brand HD it is and we might can direct you to the HD install disk link.

I'm running a 200gb maxtor and was able to partition it with PM8. Didn't seem to have a problem. I would try the utility that came with the drive or at the manufacturers site. Good luck.

Hi

Can I clarify a few things here?

My understanding is that you have a new computer with a 200 Gb SATA drive and that XP is installed on the drive. Yes/No?

If yes, what is the size of the partition that XP is installed on?

I could be way off base here, but I suspect that you see the drive in Windows as being considerably smaller than 200Gb and that you think that there should be some unpartitioned space in which to create a second partition. Yes/No?

The larger the drive the larger the amount of space consumed by the file system.

My 120 Gb drive is reported by Windows as having only 111Gb. My secondary drive, 60 Gb, is reported by Windows as having only 57.2 Gb. Yet there is no unpartitioned space on either drive. So if I go look in Disk Management, I do not find 9 Gb of unpartitioned space on the one drive and 2.8 Gb on the other. This space is consumed by the NTFS file system.

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Originally Posted by houseisland

Hi
My 120 Gb drive is reported by Windows as having only 111Gb. My secondary drive, 60 Gb, is reported by Windows as having only 57.2 Gb. Yet there is no unpartitioned space on either drive. So if I go look in Disk Management, I do not find 9 Gb of unpartitioned space on the one drive and 2.8 Gb on the other. This space is consumed by the NTFS file system.

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Or could this be the case:-


http://compreviews.about.com/od/stor...ualHDSizes.htm

Thanks for your replies and to answer your questions:

I cannot find what the HDD is and I have just had a look on the driver support disk and among the bundle but there are no drivers there and no book in the huge bundle I got. It is as I said 200GB SATA. In Windows Disk Managment it shows that the whole 200GB has been configured as one partition holding XP! As the computer was custom built maybe I sdhould have asked Evesham to configure the disc as one small system partition and the rest data. I actually want two data drives, one as swap drive and one for large files.

The M/Bd is Intel Chipset 915G combo, processor Intel 3.4GHZ Prescott HT. Running Windows XP Professional.

I will install some hardware seeking utilties like Sandra when I can find the CD I burned downloaded utilties to. We are in the process of preparing for our move and things are in a bit of a muddle. Can't find my Partition Magic disk now!

"Or could this be the case:-


http://compreviews.about.com/od/sto...tualHDSizes.htm"

Indeed. Indeed.

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It is not a big problem having a system with a single partition -- it might not be any kind of problem at all depending upon what you are doing.

MS used to advocate/rationalize separate system and data/application partitions for NT 4.0. The rationalization was that the separate system partition protected the operating system from crowding by data growth, thereby insuring that there would be room to increase the page file size if needed or to install patches etc. There is probably some merit in this thought, but it is more likely that MS was putting spin on a limitation of NT itself. NT sets itself up on FAT16 and then converts to NTFS as part of the installation process, effectively limiting the system partition to 2Gb, the limit of FAT 16. Without the pre-formating of the drive with NTFS in another system or without recourse to a partition management utility such as Partition Magic, you really had no choice but to have two partitions on any drive larger than 2Gb. Did MS promote this limitation as sound system management in order to disguise that it was a limitation?

You can get modest performance boosts by adding additional drives to your system -- creating a additional page file on each spindle -- having the operating system on one spindle, applications on another, data on another -- having a separate spindle (without page file) for scratch files in multimedia editing -- but I don't think there are any such gains to be had with additional partitions on the same spindle.

I have created my data partition with absolutely no problems using PM8 on this XP Pro machine. The make of my hard drive according to Belarc Advisor is WDC WD2000JD-00HBB0 (200.05 GB) [Hard drive] -- drive 0 and I have split the 200GB roughly between the drives for now.

I am intrigued because using PM8 on my XP Home machine my data drive came up as Drive D beforemy two optical drives but on this machine it comes up as Drive F after my two optical drives. I am so used to my Data Drive being D wonder if I should use the PM Drive Mapper to change it before I start putting all my files on there.

You can also use the disk manager in XP to change the optical drive letters and then change your other drive to d:. If you already have software installed from the opticals, then your best bet is with PM8.

Most PC motherboards only have 28-bit IDE controllers, which limits them to installing drives with a maximum capacity of 137GB.
To overcome this limit for drives larger than 137GB, many HDD manufacturers are providing a Promise 48-bit PCI controller card with each drive.
The new serial ATA hard disk drives also use 48-bit addressing in order to exceed the 137GB limit.
Also check with manufacturer's website for Patches to enable 48-bit addressing.
For more info on large disk support see these links
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044

How to Use the FDISKTool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk, here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255867.
Though Western Digital provides data-transfer utility Data Lifeguard, and Maxtor provides MaxBlast. Both of these utilities are versions of StorageSoft's EZ Drive, and both utilities can partition and format a HDD.