1.5TB External HDD shows in Win7 as EFI Partition, but only in WinOS

cowboyuptx · 04 Jan 2016

I'll ask the main question first, and you can decide how much more you want or need to read...

How can I get Windows 7 to stop seeing my external HDD as an EFI System Partition?

It still has all its movies on it, I can see them in Linux, but not in Windows 7 OS... Conversely my Linux OS sees the external HDD that windows cant see, but it doesn't see the other two Large HDDs

THE BACK STORY - - - I recently migrated from Ubuntu back to windows 7. After switching to Win7, I was not liking the slowness, so I wanted to try to setup a dual boot option for Windows 7 and Kodibuntu. Both OS were 32 bit, and both were to be installed on the same Samsung 250GB HDD
During the Kodibuntu install, there was an option to setup a dual boot, but that option wasn't working for me, so I had to partition the 250GB OS disk myself. I followed an instructional guide that I found on askubuntu, and all seemed to go well. It said that Kodibuntu was installed correctly and that the system needed to reboot and so it did...

When the system rebooted I was not prompted with any sort of dual boot option, it just went straight to Windows. I'm honestly not certain if all my HDDs were showing in the Windows OS at this point, I was at that time more concerned with getting the dual boot option working... So I made a USB-Key with linux "boot-repair-disk" on it, I booted it in the system, it did its thing and seemed to work, because when it rebooted I was presented with the option to load either Windows or Kodibuntu, or Kodibuntu would eventually load by default...

THE MEAT OF THE QUESTION - - - So then I loaded the Kodibuntu OS for the first time, shortly after which I discovered that ONLY my external 2TB HDD was being recognized in Kodibuntu. So I rebooted and loaded Windows 7, where I found that Windows was showing my (internal) 1.5TB HDD and my (internal) 3TB HDD, but Win7 did NOT show the external 2TB HDD. So I have 2 Internal HDDs not showing up in Kodibuntu, and my external HDD not showing in Windows 7... I did notice in Windows "Disk Management" utility, that while my external drive is not being shown in Windows explorer, it does show in "Disk Management", sort of.... for some reason the external HDD space is being listed as an EFI Drive Partition in Windows "Disk Management" utility... Also, the Windows OS does chime when the external drive is inserted or removed...
What do you guys think I should do? I'm pretty noobish...So lost here....

Thank you in advance to anybody who offers help.

paul1149 · 04 Jan 2016

You may need to run a mount command in ubuntu terminal to see other internal drives.

What is on the external drive?

whs · 04 Jan 2016

Can you post a disk management picture so that we can see the details.

cowboyuptx · 08 Jan 2016

paul1149 said:

You may need to run a mount command in ubuntu terminal to see other internal drives.

What is on the external drive?

I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to reply to my own thread, just been so busy....

I was able to get the HDDs to all be seen and functional on my linux OS by entering the correct mount commands, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do about windows not seeing the external drive...

As for what's on the drive, mostly movies and tv shows... So it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to format it, but it did take me a long time to compile all that media...

cowboyuptx · 08 Jan 2016

whs said:

Can you post a disk management picture so that we can see the details.

Again, thank you for your willingness to help... And sorry it took me a few days to reply...

For good measure, let me show you what my HDDs look like inside my Linux OS when I run "sudo fdisk -l".... The drive in question is actually a 2TB (not a 1.5TB, my bad) and it is listed as "sdd1" at the bottom.

Code:

plex@plex-TZ68K ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007f670

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   256952319   128372736    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       256954366   488396799   115721217    5  Extended
/dev/sda5       471803904   488396799     8296448   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6       256954368   471803903   107424768   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Disk /dev/sdc: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders, total 2930277168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x47d9be29

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1            2048  2930274303  1465136128    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdd'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdd: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1  3907029167  1953514583+  ee  GPT

And here's a Screenshot of what it looks like in my Windows 7 "Disk Management" utility...
The picture is kinda small so click on it and then the magnifying glass for a larger version of it... Screenshot - 1_8_2016 12_28_21 AM_zpsh7iy3wb6.png Photo by shanebuyscar | Photobucket

paul1149 · 08 Jan 2016

You should be able to change the partition type using a partition program in either linux or windows. It would be a good idea to copy the data over first.

whs · 08 Jan 2016

I would just reformat the whole disk3

cowboyuptx · 08 Jan 2016

whs said:

I would just reformat the whole disk3

Well, unfortunately I don't have an extra unused 2TB HDD laying around, so formatting would mean just giving up all of my data... I'd prefer to find some software that at least gives me a fighting chance of achieving what I've set out to do, which is to return the drive to being fully functional in Windows OS, and to retain all of my data. On the other hand, it's sad that I dont have a measly $150 for a 5TB to backup most of my data.

I know there's a lot of programs out there that can change a HDD/partition from GPT to MBR, and I'm assuming that's what I would need? Can anybody recommend a good software for this?

One more thing, did you notice that there's another large HDD on my system that's listed as a GPT volume, yet windows has no problem accessing and playing off of that HDD.... So is my problem for windows really that it's listed as a GPT volume? And if so, then why does Windows access the other GPT HDD just fine?

In the Windows OS the drive shows an "EFI partition"...... What's that? Is it the type of partition designated to an OS?

Thanks again for the help guys...

bigmck · 08 Jan 2016

cowboyuptx said:

whs said:

I would just reformat the whole disk3

Well, unfortunately I don't have an extra unused 2TB HDD laying around, so formatting would mean just giving up all of my data... I'd prefer to find some software that at least gives me a fighting chance of achieving what I've set out to do, which is to return the drive to being fully functional in Windows OS, and to retain all of my data. On the other hand, it's sad that I dont have a measly $150 for a 5TB to backup most of my data.

I know there's a lot of programs out there that can change a HDD/partition from GPT to MBR, and I'm assuming that's what I would need? Can anybody recommend a good software for this?

One more thing, did you notice that there's another large HDD on my system that's listed as a GPT volume, yet windows has no problem accessing and playing off of that HDD.... So is my problem for windows really that it's listed as a GPT volume? And if so, then why does Windows access the other GPT HDD just fine?

In the Windows OS the drive shows an "EFI partition"...... What's that? Is it the type of partition designated to an OS?

Thanks again for the help guys...

Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk

jumanji · 09 Jan 2016

Basically there is something suspicious about your Disk 3.

My observations:

1.If it is a GPT drive, Windows Disk Management will not show the 128MB MSR partition.Here it shows up in WDM as an unallocated partition. ( In comparison look at your Disk 1, the 3TB drive, which you say is a GPT drive. It does not show the 128 MB MSR partition.) Note: The 128 MB MSR partition can be seen in Partition Wizard and AOMEI Partition Assistant as 'others" but not as unallocated.

2. Also an external drive initialised as a GPT and formatted with Windows or any partitioning software such as AOMEI Partition Assistant or Partition Wizard will not show the main partition as EFI system Partition.

To me it looks like that the HDD itself was a system drive earlier on an EFI system and you have put that drive now in an external casing.

Please give the complete history of your Disk 3 including any and all formatting done earlier on that drive , and its component parts. Make, model No. manufacturer and whether it is a branded drive or consists of an external casing where you have put an HDD and made it an external drive and if so its past history.

Don't hurry and attempt of converting GPT to MBR without finding the root cause why your Disk 3 appears like this. You may lose all data in it, especially the tutorial suggested by bigmck. Quote from that tutorial "Before you convert a disk, be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose on that disk. Converting the disk requires that all partitions and volumes are deleted on the disk first." - unquote.

(One can use AOMEI Partition Assistant or MiniTool Partition Wizard to convert from GPT to MBR and viceversa without data loss but in this case of suspicion/mystery I would hesitate to do that without backing up the data on it..)

As whs suggested in a previous post, it would be better if you can copy all data to another drive and format the drive in Windows the way you want instead of trying to untangle this mystery and set it right. It can perhaps be done but it may be a laborious process involving long investigative procedures.

Edit: I also understand that Linux can format external drives as bootable drives. Hence creation of a bootable EFI system partition cannot be ruled out. In such a case it could well be that Windows will not recognise an external drive that is bootable having a EFI system partition.So a mix of Linux and Windows with drives formatted in Linux may be unreadable by Windows.

EDIT: Please upload any screenshots to Seven Forums servers instead of third party servers.
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html