Since it is a Dell, it may have a hidden partition that accounts for the
missing space.  If you use a partition program like "Partition Magic" it
should show all partitions.  Then you should be able to carry out your plan
as described below.  I have done this and have also transferred the hidden
partition as well and it has worked.  I have also tried it without
transferring the hidden partition and it worked ok too.  YMMV
----- Original Message -----
From: "Loy Pressley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 6:33 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Change Hard Drive


> Hi all,
>
> Since I got no answers to my previous query, I'll try to phrase this a
> different way.
>
> I have a 40 gig hard drive on this system.  Windows XP recognizes only
> 31.7 gig as usable.  Why this is, I do not know.  16.2 gig is in use
> with 15.5 gig free space.  I need more hard drive space so I want to go
> to an 80 gig or larger IDE hard drive.  I have only one drive bay in
> this system (Dell L800r running at 800 MHz, WinXP SR2 operating system,
> FAT32 file system).  My plan to change out the hard drive is:
>
>    - using Norton Ghost, make an image of Drive C:
>
>    - physically remove the old hard drive and install the new drive.
>
>    - using the Windows XP System Setup Disk that I just downloaded from
> the good folks at Free PC Tech Support,
> http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml, I will format and partition
> the new hard drive.
>
>    - then, I will restore the image of Drive C: I made earlier with
> Norton Ghost, to the new hard drive and I should be ready to go.  Right?
>
> Will this work?  What kind of pitfalls am I likely to encounter?  Any
> help and/or guidance would be greatly appreciated.  I am certainly no
> expert on computers.
>
> Thanks...
>
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