hard drives registering as 8gb only?

Ok, i'll try to explain this as best I can.

When I go to setup windows (xp) on full install(format)I get to the partition screen (the one that displays the hard drives and partitions), but I get this:

Unpartitioned space: 7052mb

The drive is 80gb, where did the other 70GB go?

I think no worries, I put in a 40GB drive, and I get this:

Unpartitioned space: 7052mb

If I hit create partition on unused space, it doesn't let me.

I have tried different ide cables, other hard disks, as slave and master, but the same thing.

What is going on?

Is it the Hard drives? Ide cables?

 

Does the BIOS show the correct specs for this hard drive?

 

One every drive but one, yes. One drive registered as 11gb, (it was 80gb). However, I plugged the drives into the secondary ide slot on the motherboard, and they worked fine...all showed up as normal sizes.

 

Think you found your answer then. Faulty IDE controller.

Just under 7 gigs is an odd size for hard drive BIOS limitations or OS LBA limitations.

 

You might also look at the BIOS settings for that drive and/or the location it was installed in when the readings were wrong. Is it set to automatic detection or did someone enter sizes manually for some other hard drive? If so, change it to auto.
By the way, how old is this hardware?

 

I tested a cd drive in that same ide slot, and it worked However, drives still coming up as 7gb.

Motherboard is sorta old, it's an Acer Aspire core 2 dual. The HDD's were all kinds of age..

 

C2D vintage ain't old!

Certainly new enough not to have any BIOS limitation regarding LBA.

NoOne had a good idea also...the settings for that controller.
Try to get into the BIOS and reset to factory defaults.