Problem with hard disk partition

You would want to delete all partitions from the disk. That will get the raw space back. From there, partition; then, format. If you need more help, please ask, but from the experience level able; it sounds like you are right on track.

Hi nishantsi762,

You can still use the One Key Recovery after formatting your drive C and installing XP. Just make sure that you will not reformat the whole hard drive because One Key Recovery image is in the hidden partition of your hard disk.

Hope it helps,

Thank you for using Fixya.

to fix the problem you must open your laptop check the hardware inside of your laptop hardisk thats the problem try to unplug cables of hardisk to plug again or replace new hardware hardisk if not solve the problem

Check your motherboard BIOS specs. I know that Windows XP can see a larger hard drive but some BIOS issues could limit the maximum partition.
(My XP box started with a small drive but I added a larger SATA drive later and formated it with the XP disc management software. One caveat: I was using SP3)

To expand your partition, try using a third party partitioning software option. These will often save you from having to reinstall the os (sometimes things go wrong but mostly they are good). I've had good luck with Paragon Partition Manager and Partition Magic (before it was purchased by Symantec).

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells
(Paragon offers a 30-day free trial of their Partition Manager software; however I am not aware of the limitations of the software.)

It sounds like you formatted the Utility Partition of the HDD and loaded the OS to that partition. Check disk Management, see if you have both a C: and D: listed for hard drives. If you do, that is the likely answer.
If disk management shows only 1 HDD and a lot of unpartitioned space, then you made a disk partitioning error and will need to remove and repartition the drive then reinstall

160gb - but ensure the bios is up to date and check the motherboard manual as that will or should explain about maximum capacity of hard drives but am sure it should be fine.

If it is not and does not detect all of it you can partition the partitions into smaller amounts ie 80 gb partitions each ?

it seems that your computer might have a SATA hard drive which could not be detectable by windows xp, try to install vista it will detect it easily.

otherwise use dm (disk manager) for detection and partition.

you will need to use a disk utility to partition the drive first...
Partitioning and Formatting a Second drive in Windows 2000/XP
To partition and format new hard disk in a Windows XP
/2000 system, right click on 'my computer' and select 'manage.' Once you are in the management screen, select 'disk management'.
A screen showing your existing drives, including the new one, will appear. At this point Windows should open a wizard to help you partition and format your new drive. If it does not, right click the new drive in the lower pane and select 'initialize drive.'
Now you must partition the drive. To do this, right click on the new drive and select 'new partition' to launch the partition wizard. It will then prompt you for how much drive space you wish to allocate to the new partition. If you opt not to use the full amount of space for the first partition, you can create additional ones in the same way up to a maximum of four partitions per disk. You will then be asked for a drive letter which Windows will use to represent the partition you just created.
Note that if you are using the NTFS file system
on your main hard drive (the default with Windows 2000 and XP Professional) you will also have the option to mount your newly created partition as a directory in another volume. This adds the entire space of your new partition to that one directory, so any files placed in that directory will reside in the fresh partition but no new drive letter is created. Essentially you are using your new partition to expand the space available on another partition. Click no to this option (unless this is what you want to do).

Once you have chosen a drive letter or directory, you will be prompted to format the drive. Generally it's best to format with the NTFS file system at this point, unless the PC uses an earlier Windows operating system
like Windows 98. If that is the case, you will need to format the drive in FAT32 if Win98SE is to access to the data on the new hard drive. Once formatting is complete, your drive is ready for use.
Regards and Tahnk you for using Fixya.. Please rate!

This problem exist because once the 31GB default partition is formatted NTFS, it reduces in size. So, I found this solution.

Insert windows xp bootable disk and boot your system in CD/DVD and then reformat your HDD and install new windows operating system.