Why does my computer not recognize the whole hard drive?

I have a 300mz AMD K6 & I recently installed a 13 GB Western Digital hard drive. On the c drive Properties it only shows as an 8GB hard drive. Will the system use the full 13gb or only 8gb that's shown? How can I fix this?

This question was answered on June 23, 1999. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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It seems here that the BIOS of your computer is not equipped to handle the large size of your new hard drive, and recognizes only 8 GB of space per partition You can check this by using the FDISK utility and taking a look at the current partition If it is not at 100%, you can partition the rest of the drive and format it as drive D: At this point, in order to format the entire drive as 1 partition you will have to wipe that drive clean and start over Before you do this, check your motherboard manual for the specifications that your BIOS is configured to handle This is a common problem when an upgrade is done or a new hard drive is installed You may be able to overcome this limitation by upgrading your computer's BIOS, which can only be done through the motherboard manufacturer.

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Posted by Ken Colburn of Data Doctors on June 23, 1999

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