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rawfuls · **Another Dell Problem.. -** 11.25.2009, 06:49 PM

Don't worry, it's not my dell, it's a friends.

Anyways, time to spill it, I need some help.
It's a Dell OptiPlex GX280 Mid-Mini Tower I believe.

Anyways, he recently had a major hard drive failure, but I got the data back.
But the drive, is unusable, won't stay active, and under a little load (file browsing) for a good 5 minutes, and will crash, trust me, it was a bi-

to get back 40GB..

Anyways, he bought a Western Digital Blue Caviar 320GB SATA - 7200RPM, from newegg. He also bought two sticks of unbuffered 1GB a stick, 5300 RAM, which I have already installed. (already tried the ram thing, switched back to old ram.. etc)

He has a firewire, linksys wireless, and a video card.
So now here's the problem.

Upon booting, I went into BIOS, and the BIOS recognized the SATA 320GB, no problem.

When getting ready to install XP (Format/Partition Area) [This is the XP boot way], it only sees about 131GB, and not 320GB.
I know it's not a mislabel, because when hooked up on my computer, it detects right around 320GB..

I have tried different SATA ports, etc.

So my question is, why is the Dell only seeing 130GB (during XP installation), while my computer (custom build), can see all 320GB?

Yes, I have already partitioned it as a full 320GB partition, hoping it'd recognize that, format it, repeat, etc, and toss it in as a full format, etc. No go.

One of the dell reps told me to reflash/update the BIOS, but I don't see why that would work, considering the BIOS sees 320GB, while XP says 130...

I don't think it would be the XP CD... or ram... would it?

I need to know!

	(#1)
rawfuls roofles. Offline Posts: 1,982 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Woodland Hills, CA	Another Dell Problem.. - 11.25.2009, 06:49 PM Don't worry, it's not my dell, it's a friends. Anyways, time to spill it, I need some help. It's a Dell OptiPlex GX280 Mid-Mini Tower I believe. Anyways, he recently had a major hard drive failure, but I got the data back. But the drive, is unusable, won't stay active, and under a little load (file browsing) for a good 5 minutes, and will crash, trust me, it was a bi- to get back 40GB.. Anyways, he bought a Western Digital Blue Caviar 320GB SATA - 7200RPM, from newegg. He also bought two sticks of unbuffered 1GB a stick, 5300 RAM, which I have already installed. (already tried the ram thing, switched back to old ram.. etc) He has a firewire, linksys wireless, and a video card. So now here's the problem. Upon booting, I went into BIOS, and the BIOS recognized the SATA 320GB, no problem. When getting ready to install XP (Format/Partition Area) [This is the XP boot way], it only sees about 131GB, and not 320GB. I know it's not a mislabel, because when hooked up on my computer, it detects right around 320GB.. I have tried different SATA ports, etc. So my question is, why is the Dell only seeing 130GB (during XP installation), while my computer (custom build), can see all 320GB? Yes, I have already partitioned it as a full 320GB partition, hoping it'd recognize that, format it, repeat, etc, and toss it in as a full format, etc. No go. One of the dell reps told me to reflash/update the BIOS, but I don't see why that would work, considering the BIOS sees 320GB, while XP says 130... I don't think it would be the XP CD... or ram... would it? I need to know!