Xp Isn't seeing the Cloned Drive's full size

[n8ves]

I recently cloned the drive from an HP DC5000 P4 computer. The original drive was a 40Gb Seagate drive. The new drive is a WD 160Gb drive. The DC5000 doesn't have any space to put two hard drives in it so I removed the old drive and placed both drives in another computer. I then used a CD boot version of Acronis Easy Migrate. The software worked but it wouldn't let me expand the partition beyond the original 40Gb. So I used A CD boot of G-Parted to expand it all the way out. When I put the new drive into the DC5000, it booted fine (much faster, too) but when I looked at the properties of the drive in explorer, it still thinks it has a 40GB drive in it. I went to administrator tools and opened up Compter Managment, clicked on disk management and saw that in the lower pane Windows does indeed see the drive as 160Gb but in the upper pane it's reporting it as a 40GB.

How do I get Windows to report the correct capacity? The BIOS has 48 bit LBA support, so no problems there. I did read AFTER I cloned the drive that clearing the mounted devices keys in the registry would force Windows to recalculate the drive's capacity. But it's supposed to be done BEFORE cloning the drive and BEFORE the first boot of Windows.

I have some room to play here. The original drive works. It's just running out of room on it. I can reclone it if necessary. And I will be cloning two other 40GB drives onto WD 160 GB drives from similar computers. What I DON'T want to do is alter the registry on the original drive(s) without a way of restoring them should something go wrong and I have to use them.

Any suggestions?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Use clonezilla or some other cloning software that allows you to resize the partition. i think the version of acronis you have is not the full version if it doesn't have an option to resize the partition. I have acronis true image home 2012 and it definately lets me resize.

http://clonezilla.org/

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hello, & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

If you are using Win-XP, it does not have the ability to expand a partition and volume. If you cloned it over on a Win-7 OS computer, you should be able to expand the patition incorporating the Unallocated space into the Partition while connected to the Win-7 machine, in Disk Management.

Don't need to change any registry setting.

If you have the Acronis Disk, (don't need to even install it) you can choose the Proportional method of cloning, where it will expand the partitions to fit the new drive size. Wonder if you used the Manual method where it kept the Partition(s) exactly the same size as on the Old disk.

You are correct, don't delete anything on the Old disk until you have the new one exactly the way you want it, and that it works perfectly. That way you can "reclone" any number of times trying different options.

 

[n8ves]

Acronis Easy Migrate will let you resize the partition, IF YOU ARE CLONING FROM THE WINDOWS ENVIRIONMENT. I used the CD boot option from another computer since I couldn't fit the new drive in the DC5000 computer with the old drive. No space and no extra power connector. That's why I put them both in another tower and used the bootable CD. I thought about getting True Image but I didn't need all the bells an whistles. I just wanted to clone the drive. I did sucessfully resize the partition with G-Parted in Linux (again from a bootable CD). It's just that Windows doesn't want to "play fair". Part of Windows sees the correct size and the other part doesn't. Since the old drive is still usable, I can play with the registry on the new one. Just need to know where and what to play with. I can always reclone it if something goes wrong and Windows won't boot anymore.

 

[misry]

Download the latest EaseUS Home. It'll let you party all night with your partitions. Don't forget to apply after you've determined what needs done.

 

[n8ves]

Downloading additional software isn't the solution here. I CAN sucessfully clone the disk and I CAN resize the partition. The problem is how to I get XP SP3 to cooperate AFTER I clone and resize it. Even if I use Acronis to proportionately resize during the cloning process, the registry on the new drive WON'T change to reflect the change in size (it's an EXACT copy of the original). XP still thinks it's a 40 GB drive even though it's really four times bigger. I need to know how to change that IN XP.

 

[John_VanKirk]

In Windows XP - changing the system partition size is not possible without a 3rd party partition manager.

Having the New clone installed in the Win-XP computer, you should be able to make your desired partition resize that Win-XP will recognize using a 3rd party partition manager.

My favorite also is the free version of EaseUS Partition Master. www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

You could also use Acronis True Image (trial 30 day full version) but it is a much larger download, has to be installed, requires a key, and then uninstalled.

 

[n8ves]

I did go ahead and download EaseUS Home version. I had to shrink the partition and then expand it before XP would see the full size.

 

[n8ves]

Best answer selected by n8ves.