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Hard disk size is not recognized

Posted By : Jeffrey of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on November 10, 2001

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I recently installed a 20 gig Western Digital hard drive onto my computer.....for whatever reason, it shows up as an 8.4 gig hard drive. How do I access the rest of the hard drive room???? Thanks!

This question was answered on November 10, 2001. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


This can be frustrating when you would've thought plug n play would install it for you no problems When a system doesn't recognize the remaining size of your hard drive it's likely that you encountered a BIOS limitation This issue can be resolved one of two ways.

1 Obtain BIOS update from the manufacture It is only recommended that you upgrade your BIOS, if the update explicitly states that it will resolve this limitation.

2 Utilize the DDO (Disk Drive Overlay) diskette included with the hard disk drive or obtainable through the hard disk drive manufacture.

To enter the setup of your CMOS or your BIOS there are different ways for different systems.

New computers are commonly using one of the four keys to get into the setup They are;

F1 during the boot process

F2 during the boot process

Esc during the boot process

Del during the boot process

Older sytems use the following ways;

Ctrl Alt Esc during the boot process

Ctrl Alt Ins during the boot process

Ctrl Alt Enter during the boot process

Ctrl Alt S during the boot up process

Page up during the boot process

Be sure that when you do go into the BIOs that you write down everything If you change anything and it doesn't solve the problem you'll be able to go back and put in the previous information.

I think I would start with the diskette and go from there Good luck and have fun.

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Posted by Jeffrey of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on November 10, 2001

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