Thank you for your help. I had to wait until Monday to look at the disk
management since the troublesome computer is at work. Here is what is says:
volume layout type file system status capacity free
space fault tol.
C partition basic NTFS healthy System 4.01 GB 501 MB
no
E partition basic NTFS healthy 37.27 GB 37.08
GB no
Lee


"Rock" wrote:

> "Lee" <Lee@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:DE15AD5F-4385-4B3B-8D61-6F8E8A0B4ED9@microsoft.com...
> > The c"/ drive says there is 3 GB.
> > --
> > Lee
> >
> >
> > "Rock" wrote:
> >
> >> "Lee" <Lee@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> >>
> >> >I added a second (used) 40 GB hard drive to my Dell Dimension L500r pc.
> >> >It
> >> > runs on Windows XP professional. In the process, somehow the original
> >> > 40
> >> > GB
> >> > hard drive shrunk to 3 GB. The added drive also showed only 3 GB, but I
> >> > was
> >> > able to initialize, partition and format it to show 37 GB. How can I
> >> > restore the lost drive space without losing my operating system?
> >>
> >> What shows in disk management?
> >>
> >> --
> >> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
> >>
> >>
>
>
> You mean in disk management it only shows a drive that is 3GB. It doesn't
> show other space?
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>
>