Are you saying that when you view drive properties, Windows XP reports that your hard drive is only 43 GB? What system model is this?

Its Windows XP Professional Version 2002, with SP2, im not sure if thats what you mean. i originally had windows xp home edition, but i dont have my reinstall CD and dell said i would have to re-purchase, so he put pro on it. (and yes, when i look at properties it says only 48.8gb when I originally had 80.)

When XP Pro was installed, was the hard drive partitions deleted?
I'm not sure...I don't know how to check. I can ask my uncle but it will take awhile for a response (vacation.) I asked my friend about it and he said that there wasn't anyway it would still be there...but he didn't actually look at my computer and I have no idea where to start.

Did you uncle see the whol 80 gb when he formated the drive?
Yes, before we reformatted it it had 80gb on local disk properties.

Are you using the format NTFS?
Yes, or when I check properties it says "File System: NTFS"

There are some limitations to FAT32, but I don't think is your problem

And, in the BIOS settings is the hard drive set to "Automatic" or a specific size?
The hdd says 80gb, which I guess is a specific but it only shows as 48 in my computer.

Ok, Are there two physical disks showing in My Computer?  The system I'm on now has two 40gb partitions that show as C drive and D drive.  If I look at the bios information there is 1 x  80gb hard drive.  If I look at the c drive is says 40gb.  Chances are you have two partitions a C and a D drive are the most common.  If you format one, the other stays intact unless you delete the partitions while setting up windows.

Hope this helps.

yes it definitely helps, im really not computer-savvy but it kinda sounds like the memory is there and not completely gone. The only problem is, when I check D properties, there's NO free or used space... it says file system: RAW.

Sounds as though you have two partitions.  The C drive has your Operating system and is formated NTFS.  The D drive looks as though its not formated.  The D drive may be used as a restore partition, but not 40gb.  Make sure you dont have any data on it you want to keep (Very important) and do the following.

Right click on My Computer and select Manage.

Select disk management on the left hand pane.  This will show all drives on the system.

On the right hand side there are two sections top and bottom.  On the top half right click on the d drive and select Format.  It should ask what type of file system and such select NTFS and follow the promts until complete.  Only do this for that drive to ensure all of your C drive remains intact.

Hope this helps you out.

Just an addition when your in disk management it should tell you a little bit more about the partition next to the drives.  You will never get a full 80gb on the drive either.  The formating and disk partitioning will take some of that up.

 

Message Edited by crstacy on 02-22-2006 05:08 AM

By the way, hard drive space is not called memory.

Delete the partition and recreate it.

You can read how to here

crstacy (first off, thanks for helping me out this far) I went ahead and selected format for D, the only problem is, it gets to 12% and then stops. It took less than 10min to get to 12%, and after I left it there for another 30min. and no increase, I restarted and did the same thing to see if maybe my computer had just frozen. Same thing. Is there anything else I can do?