dsperber, don't get the wrong impression, I was not questioning your instructions or saying you were wrong. I just thought you saw something in the last screenshot I didn't. I also agree that your solution should solve the problem. I wasn't questioning you, I thought I may learn something.
No offense taken.
Nope... I was just confused by the screenshots and verbal description of "cannot assign a drive letter". I was trying to make sense out of it all, like we all were.I just thought you saw something in the last screenshot I didn't. I also agree that your solution should solve the problem. I wasn't questioning you, I thought I may learn something.
I've never used DISKPART (preferring other programs, like Partition Wizard) and so just didn't know what a "volume" was, although matching its output up against DISKMGMT it's kind of intuitive I guess. Certainly the order of objects shown seemed to be shuffled, depending on what screenshot was looked at, and again I was confused.
All in all, I just didn't think there was going to be any further revelation coming which would explain why this external drive could not get a drive letter assigned to it by OP. Yes, it is unexpected and uncommon to see TWO partitions marked "active" (although they're on different hard drives, so I wouldn't think that should prevent a drive letter from going to that second drive's partition), but I really just felt it was time to take a course of action that would get the situation resolved satisfactorily.
And as we know, my "recipe" is nothing at all unusual or non-standard. It's straightforward and vanilla, just using Partition Wizard and preparing a drive for partitioning using the "delete all partitions" operation which pretty much undoes anything harmful that you've previously done to the drive.
I just wanted to introduce OP to PW, and provide the step-by-step method that's familiar to those of us who have done this same thing many times before, but might seem daunting to someone who's never had experience with multiple hard drives or multiple partitions before.
Again, no offense taken. We're all just trying to help.
Hi fellows. I followed dsperber instructions and I am uploading the results. Unfortunately when I plug the external harddrive into the PC, I receive a message stating check the local disk for consistency. It takes forever to scan the disk. I had a power surge, so I had to start over. Why is it asking to check the disk? It is showing in disk management as healthy. I am a little scared to place files on this external hd, because they might disappear. What do you think? deanie
Not quite sure what you have done there - but G appears not to have been formatted - at least not with a filesystem windows understands.
Try rt click G and do a quick format.
Next run windows checkdisk on G and then M
NOTE - You can put an extra set of boot files on there - always handy.
Looks like you didn't do the right thing on G.
It is shown with no file system, when it should be NTFS. I don't know what else it could be, but it's not showing NTFS as it should. I'm sure that's why CHECKDSK is kicking in, because it doesn't know what it's looking at.
Also, it is a "primary" partition, whereas your other M partition is a "logical" partition. I honestly recommend you make G logical as well as M. There's really no mandatory reason for any "primary" partitions on drives other than your first hard drive with the "active" and "boot" partitions.
So, start again. I don't know how you got G to have no file system on it, but forget it. Once again, use PW to "delete all partitions" and start again.
Then "create partition" (type "logical", file system "NTFS") for the 184GB partition and then repeat it for the second 48GB partition (again, "logical" and "NTFS").
Report back if this time it works.
P.S. - thank you very much for maximizing that DISKMGMT presentation and spreading the columns. Much more readable, I think you must agree. Certainly MUCH more useful for us, looking at your screenshots.
Hi dsperber. I tried to start from "scratch", but the disk is reading as unallocated so I cannot delete it. Here a picture of what I am talking about. deanie
You HAVE started over. The whole disk IS UNALLOCATED! You're all set to go... for the next step, which is to create the partitions. This is where you were earlier, but somehow caused a 182GB partition to be created that did not show NTFS.
So whatever you did to get back to where you are now, that's where I wanted you to be. You obviously have now deleted those two partitions from your earlier screenshot, and are now back to "step (7)" in my earlier recipe.
Now you click on the space itself (i.e. the word "unallocated", below the "Disk 2" title) and that should light up the set of operations on the left side which permit you to "create partition"... as in "step (7)".
And as I requested, when you get the "create new partition" window, specify both a type of "logical" and a file format of "NTFS". The size is up to you, but go with the originally specified 184GB if that's what you want again. Push OK, and the operation will get queued into the lower-left corner of the screen.
You'll also see that second line (which a moment ago showed "unallocated 232GB") has now become divided, with the left side showing your 184GB NTFS partition (not yet actually applied, but it will be when you eventually push the APPLY button) and the right side showing the remaining 48GB now as "unallocated".
Again, click on that new 48GB "unallocated" space, and again on the left side select "create new partition". Again, from the popup "create new partition" window select "logical" partition type and "NTFS" as file system. And again, OK. Now this second operation will appear in the queued operation list at the lower left corner of the screen. The "unallocated" space will also have changed into a 48GB NTFS partition on that second line... which it will become, once you push APPLY.
Now push the APPLY button, and your two partitions will be created. This happened for you earlier, but somehow you must have made a mistake creating that first partition G because it came out incorrect (i.e. with no file system, when it should have showed NTFS).
Worst case... boot to the standalone Partition Wizard CD, and do these exact same sequence of operations standalone, not under Win7. There's nothing you should be able to do on Disk 2 while booted standalone that you can't also do while under Win7 on Disk 2, so this really shouldn't be necessary... although it would be good practice for you, to experiment with standalone boot CD use of Partition Wizard.
But I don't think you need to do that. Under Win7 right now, you're exactly at where "step (7)" wanted you to be. You must have already repeated the "delete all partitions", because your current screenshot shows the entire 232GB unallocated and your previous screenshot showed two partitions.
So... just start with what I enumerated above, namely "step (7)" from my original recipe, and the rest of the instructions that followed.
Go.
Deanie44 clearly states he has not deleted anything.
There is at least one bug in Partition Wizard v5.2.
I reported it to MT a while ago.
Got a reply from them straight away.
I now understand that others have also reported the issue.Thank you for the feedback.
Your information is very valuable for us to identify this problem.Our developer is working on this and hope we can fix it in the next release.
And yet, we have two apparently conflicting screenshots:
(a) first is from DISKMGMT and shows two partitions, one of which has no file system and the other of which is NTFS.
(b) second is from PW and shows all unallocated space.
Are we to believe nothing took place in between, but that these are two simultaneous views of the same hard drive? Hard for me to believe.
I'd like to see a fresh pair of simultaneous screenshots right now, of the same exact hard drive from the two programs. If they're really this different, it is a very interesting mystery.
And I'd still like to suggest booting to the standalone PW CD, to eliminate something Win7 is doing because of a failed CHKDSK or something, which may be feeding wrong information to both DISKMGMT and PW while they're running under Win7. I'd like to hear what standalone boot PW shows is on that drive.
Anyway, the last screenshot we see absolutely shows that all the space seems currently unallocated to PW. Unfortunately, he's got the "Disk 2" title bar selected, so what's shown on the available operations does not include "create partition". But certainly that's what WOULD appear, if he'd instead selected the "unallocated" space below the "Disk 2" title bar.
So... however he got back to what we last see, he's ready to "create partition" again... if you ask me.
What is this problem?There is at least one bug in Partition Wizard v5.2.
I reported it to MT a while ago.
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