Can't see HD

To change/assign a drive letter to a given CD/DVD drive, or to a hard drive partition, click on it. In the case of the hard drive partition, click on that partition (making it cross-hatched, thus selected). Then right-click on it to get the popup menu, and select "change drive letter and paths...".

Please explain what I am doing wrong in the video below, because "change drive letter and paths..." is still not available for the big unassigned partition. To make things more clear I right clicked on all the necessary partitions to show what is available and what is not.

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MichaelNewmann said:

Please explain what I am doing wrong in the video below, because "change drive letter and paths..." is still not available for the big unassigned partition.

I don't know how you got that second drive to look like that. Has that drive ever been used before? Did you get it from an old system?

Since it's not accessible right now, I'm sure you wouldn't be against just starting over on the drive, right? If you could get the 300GB back, and then partition it any way you want (one or more partitions that were usable, with drive letters of your own choosing) that would be good, right?

My suggestion is that you "start over" on that drive.

Download [free] Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.2 from this page, and also download the ISO for the standalone boot CD for Partition Wizard.

The program installs and runs under WinXP and Win7, and some of its more complex functions (i.e. when involving the OS boot C partition) need to run outside of Windows itself... most conveniently when booted from the standalone boot CD.

But manipulation of the second drive can be done while using the under-Windows installed version of the program.

Install and run the program, and use it to "delete partition". As with the Win7 DISKMGMT you will be able to select a partition from the second drive, and then on the left side of the PW window you select the "delete partition". Click OK.

Do the same for the second 10GB partition on the second drive.

Or, you can simply select "DISK 2" from the PW interface, and then on the left side click on "DELETE ALL PARTITIONS".

Then click on the "APPLY" button in the lower-left of the window, and your entire second drive should now be empty and unallocated.

Now, start creating new partitions. Select the unallocated space (all 300GB) and then "create partition" on the left side, and pick your size. I would suggest "logical" partition type as opposed to "primary" partition type, for maximum future flexibility. There is no limit to size or number of logical partitions, unlike primary partitions of which there can only be a max of four on a drive. Otherwise, the difference is transparent and invisible to you.

So you can allocate one large logical partition to use all of the second drive, or you can partition it into several smaller logical partitions. Each one can then be given a letter (also using Partition Wizard).

As I said previously, if you want to change the drive letters for your CD/DVD drives you'll have to use Win7's DISKMGMT.MSC. Partition Wizard can only be used to manipulate drive letters on hard drive partitions.

First of all, I have nothing against starting all over again so the more easier you make it, the better! - anyway I have to ask a few things since I'm not familiar at all with disk management or any softwares whatsoever.

Can I simply go to to Windows Disk Management and simply right click on the partitions and select delete or do I need the program you mentioned, Partition Wizard?

Because all I want is, that disk back in use and accessible through My Computer.


And thank you for your help, I was getting quite desperate. :)

MichaelNewmann said:

First of all, I have nothing against starting all over again so the more easier you make it, the better!

Excellent.

But you still didn't say where you got this drive from, nor how it ended up in the partitioned state that it's in.

I suspect this disk is currently in a "dynamic disk" state, rather than in a "basic disk" state. Perhaps it was part of a RAID setup in its previous lifetime.

Personally, I've never played with anything of the "dynamic disk" variety, so I don't even know how/why you would ever do this.

Anyway, when we get it back to "ground zero factory" state it will be a standard normal "basic disk" with partitions that have letters, and be usable by Windows.

Can I simply go to to Windows Disk Management and simply right click on the partitions and select delete or do I need the program you mentioned, Partition Wizard?

The video you made showed that when you right-clicked on the two partitions of the second drive, the only option from the popup menu which was not grayed-out was "delete volume". Nothing else was even possible. Again, this strongly suggests "dynamic disk".

If anything, we want to convert this "dynamic disk" to a "basic disk". I've never done that before (never had to), but perhaps using DISKMGMT.MSC (i.e. Windows' Disk Management) and selecting "delete volume" will do the trick... and just return all the space on the drive to "basic" and "unallocated".

However whatever you can do with Windows Disk Management (DISKMGMT.MSC) you can do with Partition Wizard and LOTS AND LOTS MORE with Partition Wizard. Furthermore, the user interface and inherent functional capability of Partition Wizard is far more user-friendly and intuitive and colorful and powerful and flexible and capable than that of Windows Disk Management.

Believe me, if you use Partition Wizard to do the current tasks, you will probably never go back to Windows Disk Management.

Because all I want is, that disk back in use and accessible through My Computer.

No problem. That's what you shall achieve.

But you need to provide some closure here, and tell us where you got that second drive from. It certainly didn't arrive in the mail from Amazon looking like that.

Anyway, my recommendation is to use Partition Wizard and do everything with it. I suspect it can also convert a "dynamic disk" to a "basic disk", which really is step one for your project. From there, partitioning is trivial.

OK will try this!

And what comes to how the disk got messed up like this. I re-installed Windows 7. I formatted C: aka the system partition and did a fresh install of windows 7, after that the big partition was gone. The partitions were originally made up by the manufacturer.

Glory hallelujah! Took me 3 minutes to do, and now its again visible in My Computer.


Can I kiss you now?

MichaelNewmann said:

Glory hallelujah! Took me 3 minutes to do, and now its again visible in My Computer.

Can I kiss you now?

No thanks...

But I'm very glad Partition Wizard did the trick for you. It truly is a superb product, and everybody should really use it and be familiar with it. Of course having knowledge of partitions is also basic computer knowledge that I feel anybody who's reasonably computer-savvy should also possess. In particular, the notion of and difference between "logical" and "primary" partitions, and the consequences of using each type in a multi-drive environment... this is all very important to know if you do have multiple drives.

Just for closure, did you use the individual "delete partition" approach twice, or did you click on DISK 2 and then use the "delete all partitions" method?

Did you have to convert from "dynamic disk" to "basic disk", or did Partition Wizard simply do the job straightaway? Was it even a "dynamic disk" at all, or did the current drive configuration simply present no problem at all to Partition Wizard?

Did you allocate one large "logical" partition as I recommended? Or is that new G partition allocated as "primary"?

Are you saying that your machine always had two hard drives, and that the partitioning of both drives was pre-fab? Came that way? And all you did was reinstall Win7... onto hard disk #1? It's still not clear how that second drive's partition became unusable.


Finally, if you want to provide one final screenshot (using DISKMGMT.MSC or Partition Wizard), showing both drives as you now have closed things out, that would be informative.

Don't forget to first spread the columns wider from their default width, so that we can see the full detail text in each column, as everything that is presented is of interest.


Glad you had a "happy ending".

MichaelNewmann said:

First of all, I have nothing against starting all over again so the more easier you make it, the better! - anyway I have to ask a few things since I'm not familiar at all with disk management or any softwares whatsoever.

Can I simply go to to Windows Disk Management and simply right click on the partitions and select delete or do I need the program you mentioned, Partition Wizard?

Because all I want is, that disk back in use and accessible through My Computer.


And thank you for your help, I was getting quite desperate. :)

Yes, you can use Disk Management.
Partition or Volume - Delete
Partition or Volume - Create New
No need for 3rd party app.