How can I make my XP recognize my new internal hard drive?

hard-drive device-manager disk-management

7,410

XP SP3 is limited at 2TB - The 2TB volume limitation is caused by the Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning scheme that has long been used by Windows 32-bit operating systems such as Windows 2000 and XP.

You could try and use a program like Partition Magic and split it into 1TB chunks!

EDIT

Try and remove it from device manager (uninstall) and see if after a reboot it tries to get a driver or similar (or just try to update driver).

Last thing is, go to the manufacturers website, there is a chance you need a driver (or a controller) for it to be seen as a disc! This could exist on the hard drive manufacturers site or the motherboard manufacturers site, and SATA drivers are quite often contained within the chipset driver. So, ensure ALL drives are up to date is my advice.

7,410

Oriol

What happened with https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/342440/1529630 made me stop contributing to the Stack Overflow community. I explained my feelings here. Eventually the issue was solved correctly and the question was locked with the proper message. I don't hold a grudge, but at the moment I have other projects at hands, so I don't plan to become actively involved again. And thanks for the 100k cup, I don't like coffee but since it's so big I use it to make crêpes :) § Quotes I like: Java is to JavaScript what Car is to Carpet The argument of speed in JS engines is only dead in the mind of people who can't function without jQuery, since it's an argument they can't win. — by Blue Skies, posted here. § Funny: jQuery is taking over the world! Zalgo is coming!

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Oriol over 1 year

[ This question is a spin-off of My new internal hard disk doesn't appear in Disk Management, but BIOS and Device Manager recognize it ]

I bought a new internal Seagate hard disk, connected to the motherboard and started the computer. BIOS listed the new and old disks (both disks are SATA).

Then I went to Disk Management to format it, but it didn't appear. But I could see it listed in Device Manager.

I discovered that EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition detected it, and tried to format but it said "There are some error occurred while writing partition chains on disk".

Then, I connected the hard disk to another computer (with Windows Vista), and the disk appeared in Disk Management, and I could format it correctly.

I connected it again to my computer, but my Windows XP didn't recognize it. Then, instead of starting my computer from my old disk, I started from a Kubuntu CD. Kubuntu recognized the new disk, so it's not an incompatibility problem between the disk and my motherboard.

Then, I guess it's a XP problem.

How can I fix it?
- Xyon over 11 years
  
  You can see it in Device Manager still? Does XP have a driver for it?
- Arash over 11 years
  
  see this Install a New Hard Drive in Five Easy Steps
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @Xyon Yes, it's in Device Manager and has a driver. And I checked for new drivers, but it said that there aren't.
- Xyon over 11 years
  
  And it doesn't have an error code on the device, it's "Functioning normally"?
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @Xyon Yes, it says "Este dispositivo funciona correctamente.", which in English I think it would be "Functioning normally" (literally, "This device works correctly")
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @arashams Thanks for the link, I haven't configured anything in the BIOS but if Kubuntu recognized the disk, I think that I don't have to change anything, right?
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @DaveRook The problem is that the disk doesn't appear in Disk Management
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @DaveRook I have 2 hard drives (counting the one that isn't recognized), 1 CD/DVD, 2 cards of RAM, 1 wi-fi card
- Dave over 11 years
  
  @Oriol What size is the new HDD (GB) and what service pack is your XP on?
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @Xyon I have checked Device Manager and it says: "Disk: Disk 1. Type: Unkown. Status: illegible. Style of partition: Not applicable. Capacity: 0MB. Unassigned space: 0MB. Reserved space: 0MB."
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @DaveRook The disk has 2TB and I have XP SP3
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  @DaveRook I formatted the disk on another computer (Win Vista), but that didn't solve the problem.
- Oriol over 11 years
  
  Well, when I formatted it I did a partition with the maximum space. But now EaseUS says that I have: 1MB unallocated, 1.82TB NTFS, and 184.98GB unallocated. Then, the partition is 1.82TB, which is less than 2TB, so maybe the problem isn't the 2TB limit?
Oriol over 11 years

If switching from MBR to GPT can resolve this, how can I switch?
ganesh over 11 years

XP does not support GPT.
Oriol over 11 years

I went to the manufacturers website and I found "Seagate does not supply drivers for SATA drives because hard drives themselves do not require specific device drivers" knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/188411en
Oriol over 11 years

Thanks! After installing the chipset I can see both disks!!!
Dave over 11 years

Pleasure, glad it is working and sorry we had to try a few things. I am going to delete some of my comments since I've moved them to my answer