Optiplex GX150: Not showing correct HD size

Hello to all and thanks in advance for any help and advise on this:

I have several Optiplex GX-150's that I have purchased used. I need to
install 160gig HD's as the C drive in four of them. I've done HD
installs before but I seem to be missing something this time around.

The system bios (A11) says the capacity for Primary Drive 0 is 160gigs.
That's correct.

However, when I do an Fdisk and set the primary DOS partition I'm
getting back a capacity of 21553 Mbytes (Usage 100%). Nowhere near
160gigs. I've done the Fdisk twice (and rebooted from power off) and on
two machines and I'm getting the same results.

Any suggestions?

What operating system do you intend to run? FDISK will not allow a partition
of 160GB. If you plan to run either Windows (2000 or XP) or Linux, the OS
installer has built-in drive partitioning and formatting... Ben Myers


On Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:45:23 GMT, scooterspal wrote:

Hello to all and thanks in advance for any help and advise on this:

I have several Optiplex GX-150's that I have purchased used. I need to
install 160gig HD's as the C drive in four of them. I've done HD
installs before but I seem to be missing something this time around.

The system bios (A11) says the capacity for Primary Drive 0 is 160gigs.
That's correct.

However, when I do an Fdisk and set the primary DOS partition I'm
getting back a capacity of 21553 Mbytes (Usage 100%). Nowhere near
160gigs. I've done the Fdisk twice (and rebooted from power off) and on
two machines and I'm getting the same results.

Any suggestions?

"scooterspal" wrote in message
...
Hello to all and thanks in advance for any help and advise on this:

I have several Optiplex GX-150's that I have purchased used. I need to
install 160gig HD's as the C drive in four of them. I've done HD
installs before but I seem to be missing something this time around.

The system bios (A11) says the capacity for Primary Drive 0 is 160gigs.
That's correct.

However, when I do an Fdisk and set the primary DOS partition I'm
getting back a capacity of 21553 Mbytes (Usage 100%). Nowhere near
160gigs. I've done the Fdisk twice (and rebooted from power off) and on
two machines and I'm getting the same results.

Any suggestions?


FDisk may not show the correct capacity.*

This cropped up with a second-hand HD I purchased on eBay. It was
supposed to be 80 gig (and was) but showed up smaller on Fdisk.

Format it as normal, and then check the size in DOS, Windows or
whatever OS you're using.


michael adams

* This may be a documented bug. I never bothered to check.


....

"scooterspal" wrote in message
...
Hello to all and thanks in advance for any help and advise on this:

I have several Optiplex GX-150's that I have purchased used. I need to
install 160gig HD's as the C drive in four of them. I've done HD
installs before but I seem to be missing something this time around.

The system bios (A11) says the capacity for Primary Drive 0 is 160gigs.
That's correct.

However, when I do an Fdisk and set the primary DOS partition I'm
getting back a capacity of 21553 Mbytes (Usage 100%). Nowhere near
160gigs. I've done the Fdisk twice (and rebooted from power off) and on
two machines and I'm getting the same results.

Any suggestions?


FDisk may not show the correct capacity.*

This cropped up with a second-hand HD I purchased on eBay. It was
supposed to be 80 gig (and was) but showed up smaller on Fdisk.

Format it as normal, and then check the size in DOS, Windows or
whatever OS you're using.



* This may be a documented bug. I never bothered to check.


* It is, under Win98SE, 98, 95, etc at least -

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044#appliesto

However, IMO none of the fixes are necessary as it's only a bug in
"reporting" the size not in the actual partitioning. It also seems
to be a bug in calculating the capacity, rather than in calculating
the percentage. So if you wanted to create multiple partitions - which I
didn't on the 80g disk - then if you based your partitions on the percentage
figures and ignored the quoted capacities then this might produce
satisfactory results.



michael adams

....

FDisk may not show the correct capacity.

Thanks for the replies. So are you both saying go ahead with
what I've done... Fdisk as 21553Mbytes... and then do the install
of the OS (it will be W2K professional) and reformat the drive
from there?

That will give me the correct 160gig drive size at that point,
do you think?

"scooterspal" wrote in message
.. .

FDisk may not show the correct capacity.

Thanks for the replies. So are you both saying go ahead with
what I've done... Fdisk as 21553Mbytes... and then do the install
of the OS (it will be W2K professional)
and reformat the drive from there?


You need to format the disk before you can install the OS.

Not afterwards.

You can then confirm the size using the same OS you used to format
the disk with.



michael adams




That will give me the correct 160gig drive size at that point,
do you think?


....

FDisk may not show the correct capacity.

Hey, guys.

I did a "format C:" from my boot floppy on one of them and got back
152,588 Mb (160gig drive) so I guess I'm all set. As you thought, it is
only Fdisk that is confused about the actual size.

Thanks for the help on this!

George

"scooterspal" wrote in message
.. .

FDisk may not show the correct capacity.

Thanks for the replies. So are you both saying go ahead with
what I've done... Fdisk as 21553Mbytes... and then do the install
of the OS (it will be W2K professional) and reformat the drive
from there?

That will give me the correct 160gig drive size at that point,
do you think?


you do not need to fdisk or format a drive before you start a windows 2000
installation.
you boot the machine from the windows 2000 cd and follow prompts.
the windows 2000 installation will come to a point where is asks you about
partitioned and unpartitioned space and allows you to delete or create
partitions as desired. then it goes to ask about formatting. i think you
should delete any existing partitions you may have and create a new single
large partition from this utility and at very least should reformat the
drive with ntfs when asked. given the method that you formatted the drive
in dos it is a fat32 file structure that lacks the security and efficiency
of ntfs.
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/inst...lw2k/page1.htm

wrong. you simply boot from the windows 2000 cd. you can partion and
format the drive durring the installation procedure. furthermore, if you
format the drive with fat durring installtion you can change the format of
the drive to ntfs after the os is installed and do so in a way that you will
not have to reinstall the os.

"michael adams" wrote in message
...

"scooterspal" wrote in message
.. .

FDisk may not show the correct capacity.

Thanks for the replies. So are you both saying go ahead with
what I've done... Fdisk as 21553Mbytes... and then do the install
of the OS (it will be W2K professional)
and reformat the drive from there?


You need to format the disk before you can install the OS.

Not afterwards.

You can then confirm the size using the same OS you used to format
the disk with.



michael adams




That will give me the correct 160gig drive size at that point,
do you think?


...

NOOOOOO!!!! The Windows 2000 install finds the hard drive, examines all of
the partitions, and offers the user various options for setting up and
formatting partitions. Running FDISK first only makes matters worse. See my
earlier response... Ben Myers

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 12:57:13 +0100, "michael adams"
wrote:


"scooterspal" wrote in message
. ..

FDisk may not show the correct capacity.

Thanks for the replies. So are you both saying go ahead with
what I've done... Fdisk as 21553Mbytes... and then do the install
of the OS (it will be W2K professional)
and reformat the drive from there?


You need to format the disk before you can install the OS.

Not afterwards.

You can then confirm the size using the same OS you used to format
the disk with.



michael adams




That will give me the correct 160gig drive size at that point,
do you think?


...