Why am I unable to see the full amount of a hard drive?
A computer hard drive may not be fully seen because of a known limitation with the hardware or software. Below is a listing of known limitations and additional information and fixes about each of them. If you are not encountering any of the below issues, continue reading the other possible causes.
- How much is 1 byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, etc.?
- Why am I only able to see a 2 gigabyte partition or drive?
- Why is my hard drive only being seen as 504, 528, or 540 MB?
- Why can't I see over 8.4 GB on my hard drive?
- Why can't my computer boot with a hard drive over 33.8 GB?
BIOS not configured properly
Verify that the hard drive is properly configured in BIOS setup.
- If the computer has the option for Auto or Auto Detect, the computer should be setting up the hard drive properly.
- If the computer does not have one of the above options, you must manually configure the BIOS settings for the hard drive.
Several hard drive BIOS settings are available on our hard drive specifications page.
Software or setup issue
Make sure you are not encountering a software related issue by deleting and recreating the partitions.
When recreating the partition, all information on the hard drive is erased, but verifies you are encountering other issues.
When recreating the partition, in fdisk, ensure no other partitions are present by choosing option 4 to display the partition information. If no partitions are present, ensure that when creating a primary partition, you use the full amount (100%) unless you want to have more than one partition.
Once you have created the partition, view that partition, ensure it's 100% detected, and that the Mbytes is correctly stated.
If you're using an old version of fdisk or partition utility, it could be causing your issue. Make sure if you're using a large hard drive you're using the latest partition utility.
BIOS issue, limitation, or hardware issue
If the above recommendations do not help, you may have a BIOS issue or limitation, and may be encountering a hardware issue.
If you have an older computer (pre 2000), it's likely your BIOS doesn't support the hard drive you're attempting to install. There are two fixes used to resolve this issue. The first is installing a BIOS update that allows support for a larger hard drive. The other is DDO (disk drive overlay) software, which is included with many hard drives. It can trick the computer into recognizing the full amount of the available space on the hard drive.
If your computer is less than five years old, the hard drive may have a physical defect. If all of the above solutions were tried, we recommend you contact the manufacturer of the hard drive.