Inaccesible partitions after Windows 7 install

I have installed Windows 7 next to my old Windows XP (so it's a dualboot situation). I have 2 physical HDD's (320 GB each) and 6 logical drives (2 + 4 primary partitions, all NTFS). After installing Windows 7, two of 4 partitions in one hdd have become inaccessible - disk manager still shows them, but I can't neither set a drive letter, nor view properties. I get the following error:

"The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh the view by usin the refresh task. If the problem persists close the Disk Management console, then restart Disk Management or restart computer."

Both of the inaccessible partitions are fine in Windows XP. Any ideas or solutions ? ;/

laikinasis said:

Both of the inaccessible partitions are fine in Windows XP. Any ideas or solutions ? ;/

Check permissions to these partitions of course from Win 7 level
Folder Permissions - Vista Forums

Users group should have following permissions to parttions: read,read & executete,list folder contents

Administrators grup and System account -full control (checked all)

As far as I understand, you have to give the partition letter before doing that and I can't...

Flavius said:

laikinasis said:

Both of the inaccessible partitions are fine in Windows XP. Any ideas or solutions ? ;/

Check permissions to these partitions of course from Win 7 level
Folder Permissions - Vista Forums

Users group should have following permissions to parttions: read,read & executete,list folder contents

Administrators grup and System account -full control (checked all)

Holy Over-Partitioning, Batman! This is yet another reason why I despise dual-booting.

Depending on your system specs (they aren't filled out yet), this advice might not be valid, but here goes anyway. If it was my system, I'd back the data up, wipe both drives clean, and install Windows 7 on one. I'd make the second one my data drive (D:\) and then go about using my system. Anything that's needed in XP can be virtualized one way or another, and you'd easily avoid these issues because your setup would be far simpler.

laikinasis said:

As far as I understand, you have to give the partition letter before doing that and I can't...

Sorry I didn't notice before...

Open regedit and navigate to key

HKEY_LOCALE_MACHINE\System\MountedDevices


Show image of this key or import this key but in *.txt format (not in *.reg format!) and attache to post

Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Class Name: <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time: 2009.09.14 - 20:48
Value 0
Name: \DosDevices\C:
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 44 52 20 69 00 c0 76 e2 - 04 00 00 00 DR i.Àvâ....

Value 1
Name: \??\Volume{f838b3e6-a154-11de-ad82-806e6f6e6963}
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 2e 68 13 a3 00 90 7d 00 - 00 00 00 00 .h.£..}.....

Value 2
Name: \??\Volume{f838b3e7-a154-11de-ad82-806e6f6e6963}
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 2e 68 13 a3 00 a0 9e 8b - 08 00 00 00 .h.£. ......

Value 3
Name: \??\Volume{f838b3e8-a154-11de-ad82-806e6f6e6963}
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 44 52 20 69 00 7e 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 DR i.~......

Value 4
Name: \??\Volume{f838b3e9-a154-11de-ad82-806e6f6e6963}
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 44 52 20 69 00 c0 76 e2 - 04 00 00 00 DR i.Àvâ....

Value 5
Name: \??\Volume{f838b3ec-a154-11de-ad82-806e6f6e6963}
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 5c 00 3f 00 3f 00 5c 00 - 49 00 44 00 45 00 23 00 \.?.?.\.I.D.E.#.
00000010 43 00 64 00 52 00 6f 00 - 6d 00 54 00 53 00 53 00 C.d.R.o.m.T.S.S.
00000020 54 00 63 00 6f 00 72 00 - 70 00 5f 00 43 00 44 00 T.c.o.r.p._.C.D.
00000030 23 00 44 00 56 00 44 00 - 57 00 5f 00 53 00 48 00 #.D.V.D.W._.S.H.
00000040 2d 00 53 00 31 00 38 00 - 32 00 4d 00 5f 00 5f 00 -.S.1.8.2.M._._.
00000050 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 - 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 _._._._._._._._.
00000060 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 - 5f 00 53 00 42 00 30 00 _._._._._.S.B.0.
00000070 33 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 - 5f 00 23 00 35 00 26 00 3._._._._.#.5.&.
00000080 31 00 39 00 66 00 34 00 - 37 00 38 00 26 00 30 00 1.9.f.4.7.8.&.0.
00000090 26 00 30 00 2e 00 30 00 - 2e 00 30 00 23 00 7b 00 &.0...0...0.#.{.
000000a0 35 00 33 00 66 00 35 00 - 36 00 33 00 30 00 64 00 5.3.f.5.6.3.0.d.
000000b0 2d 00 62 00 36 00 62 00 - 66 00 2d 00 31 00 31 00 -.b.6.b.f.-.1.1.
000000c0 64 00 30 00 2d 00 39 00 - 34 00 66 00 32 00 2d 00 d.0.-.9.4.f.2.-.
000000d0 30 00 30 00 61 00 30 00 - 63 00 39 00 31 00 65 00 0.0.a.0.c.9.1.e.
000000e0 66 00 62 00 38 00 62 00 - 7d 00 f.b.8.b.}.

Value 6
Name: \DosDevices\D:
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 2e 68 13 a3 00 90 7d 00 - 00 00 00 00 .h.£..}.....

Value 7
Name: \DosDevices\G:
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 5c 00 3f 00 3f 00 5c 00 - 49 00 44 00 45 00 23 00 \.?.?.\.I.D.E.#.
00000010 43 00 64 00 52 00 6f 00 - 6d 00 54 00 53 00 53 00 C.d.R.o.m.T.S.S.
00000020 54 00 63 00 6f 00 72 00 - 70 00 5f 00 43 00 44 00 T.c.o.r.p._.C.D.
00000030 23 00 44 00 56 00 44 00 - 57 00 5f 00 53 00 48 00 #.D.V.D.W._.S.H.
00000040 2d 00 53 00 31 00 38 00 - 32 00 4d 00 5f 00 5f 00 -.S.1.8.2.M._._.
00000050 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 - 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 _._._._._._._._.
00000060 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 - 5f 00 53 00 42 00 30 00 _._._._._.S.B.0.
00000070 33 00 5f 00 5f 00 5f 00 - 5f 00 23 00 35 00 26 00 3._._._._.#.5.&.
00000080 31 00 39 00 66 00 34 00 - 37 00 38 00 26 00 30 00 1.9.f.4.7.8.&.0.
00000090 26 00 30 00 2e 00 30 00 - 2e 00 30 00 23 00 7b 00 &.0...0...0.#.{.
000000a0 35 00 33 00 66 00 35 00 - 36 00 33 00 30 00 64 00 5.3.f.5.6.3.0.d.
000000b0 2d 00 62 00 36 00 62 00 - 66 00 2d 00 31 00 31 00 -.b.6.b.f.-.1.1.
000000c0 64 00 30 00 2d 00 39 00 - 34 00 66 00 32 00 2d 00 d.0.-.9.4.f.2.-.
000000d0 30 00 30 00 61 00 30 00 - 63 00 39 00 31 00 65 00 0.0.a.0.c.9.1.e.
000000e0 66 00 62 00 38 00 62 00 - 7d 00 f.b.8.b.}.

Value 8
Name: \DosDevices\S:
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 2e 68 13 a3 00 a0 9e 8b - 08 00 00 00 .h.£. ......

Value 9
Name: \DosDevices\X:
Type: REG_BINARY
Data:
00000000 44 52 20 69 00 7e 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 DR i.~......

System detect 4 partitions C,D,S,X (G: CD-ROM),and 2 are missing.I think try manually to enter values to this key Multi-Booting with Windows in an Extended Partition
Details we'll discuss tomorrow.

In addition to Flavius excellent advice, this shows how to edit the Mounted Devices Reg key :

How to restore the system&#47;boot drive letter in Windows

Before trying manually try use Partition Wizard to assign letters Partition Wizard is a Windows based FREE Partition Manager. It works as partition magic and supports Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 server and Windows 7. FREE for Home and Business user.

(SIW2 suggestion)

You could see if a 3rd party partition manager would add a drive letters and update the system information for you.

Paragon is my preferred partition manager - but it's not free.

There is the free one from MT that Flavius posted - looks like it would do the job :