They have really small drives now days.
I make my own... I buy a 2.5 laptop hard drive, and then put in an external case made for 2.5 drives.
I always restore right before leaving z hotel... that way, I'm getting rid of any bugs I may have picked up.
Can't wait till they have 500gig thumb drives!
I believe there's someplace in the registry that stores recent drive letter assignments. I have docking stations and plugging in a drive the OS is "used to seeing" usually gets the expected drive letter assignment. But if I plug in one from the drawer I haven't used in quite a while, I have to assign it. Likewise I used to Net Use to assign drive letters to shared folders. Lately I haven't bothered. But I notice if I click on a folder shortcut in Explorer favorites in Navigation Tab that's on the other machine, it will do the drive letter assignment for me. The things are developing a mind of their own!!!! Woooo Haaaaaa Haaaahhhhh!!!!
Always use Disk Mgmt to do operations that it can do more safely than any other. In this case Partition Wizard should only have been used if Disk Mgmt could not shrink C enough after defrag, then you should only use the PW boot CD because any other manager besides Disk Mgmt and PW boot CD can fail with data loss during resizing..
The anomaly you're experiencing sounds typical of the kind of built-in corruption which comes with factory preinstalled Win7, which is why most tech enthusiasts will not run such an install but choose to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 without the bloatware that throttles Win7 from its native state, or at least Clean Up Factory Bloatware .
One thing that might help in your situation where a drive not seen in Explorer is seen in Disk Mgmt is to run Partition Wizard Check File System, since Disk Check requires Explorer.
You can also move the data off on another PC or using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console to wipe the external with Diskpart Clean Command, then repartition in Disk Mgmt which almost always solves these issues.
I would also keep your Acronis image on External in case of HD failure. The second partition is popular to keep data in copied User folders linked to Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums so the image is kept smaller, only the OS and programs. But the data should also be backed up or sync'd to external or cloud.
But if I plug in one from the drawer I haven't used in quite a while, I have to assign it.
I’ve never had this problem with Windows.... when functioning properly, you should be able to plug and play automatically.
Yes, I just did a clean OE install... and this still happened
The problem is not with my USB drive and I tried several different USB drives that all function perfectly on other computers.
Did you wipe the HD first before following the steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7?
There may be anomalous boot code that's interfering with another drive as seen rarely.
Can you post back a screenshot of your maximized DIsk mgmt drive map with listings, using SNipping Tool in Start Menu?
It was a brand new drive that I had just installed...
I'm not going to continue chasing this issue.
I'll be re-formatting and installing fresh tomorrow.
I just someone might have knew what this was and had a quick fix.
Never hurts to ask...
Wasn't trying to be rude... I'm just running out of time and installing again fresh without needing to run the partition program again will solve the problem, which at least there's an end that won't take hours and hours like continued diagnostics will take and not provide a known outcome because it may never be fixed going that route.
Well what happened when you ran the Partition Wizard Check File System?
It's frustrating to type out a list of everything that's worked for others over the years and have it just ignored, asking instead for a "quick fix."
That said I think the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 is a great idea especially if you wipe the HD first with Diskpart Clean Command as suggested. Formatting is an inconsequential step that would be done on its own if you forgot it.
It all checked out fine and the computer is working great, no issues with the other partition either.
But, when you plug a USB drive in... Windows doesn't automatically pick it up like it normally does.
Since Windows is already on the drive, it would put all existing Windows files in a separate folder when installing... and I don't want that, so I'll format the drive so it's a true clean install.
A Clean Install is done from boot, not running the installer so that it would put windows in a folder as you describe. During Custom install choice, use Drive options shown in Steps 6-7 in Clean Install Windows 7 to delete all partitions, create and format new as you wish.
In addition I suggested to wipe the HD first using Diskpart Clean Command from the Command line accessed by pressing Shift + F10 at first screen after installer boots.
If you're inclined at all to take other's advice you could benefit greatly by reading Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which has helped countless thousands of users get a perfect reinstall.
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