How do I remove a Local Disk that is not supposed to be there?

[damian18]

Hello Everyone. I'd like to start off saying thank you, as this forum has helped me a lot in the past, and now I have an issue that this forum does not address. This is my first post.

Back to business:

Goal: I do not want my computer thinking that there is a Local Disk (I).

Here is a screenshot of my computer

Disks C and D are HARD DRIVE 1
Disk E is HARD DRIVE 2
Disk H is HARD DRIVE 3
Disk I is THE DISK I WANT TO REMOVE and it stems from HARD DRIVE 3
HARD DRIVE 3 = 80GB

I am running on Windows 7 professional, 64but version

"Disk I" was created probably because I installed Windows XP on it a while back (at the time, there was no H partition). After removing it, I could not boot back into my windows 7 because of some missing file. I am assuming that it was looking for a file created by windows XP. So what I did was I unplugged hard drive 3 from my computer, and things were smooth. When I booted back into Windows 7, Local Disk I appeared and I just could not get rid of it. I tried formatting it, but obviously, a dialog box appeared saying windows could not format it (probably because its unplugged). In the windows disk management utility, Drive I did not even appear.

NOW....
I plugged that hard drive back in. I deleted the entire partition, so HARD DRIVE 3 turned into unallocated space. I created partition H so I could use for storage, leaving about 20 gigabytes free for an operating system I would like to try out. Disk Management utility shows hard drive 3, with 55GB partition and 20GB unallocated space. Local Disk I is still not represented the disk management utility, but it is still there in My Computer (screenshot above)

So, I would like to know how to remove Local Disk I from My computer.
Thank you

 

[emaraszek]

Can you post a screen shot of the disk management utility window?

 

[damian18]

Here it is:

 

[emaraszek]

So in this image, Disk 1 is the problem drive?

 

[damian18]

That's correct. My apologies for small size.

 

[emaraszek]

That's correct. My apologies for small size.

No problem

Have you tried making a partition that takes up that entire disk? Try extending the partition that's on there right now to fill up the disk and see if the non-existent drive disappears

 

[damian18]

After extending partition H to the full capacity of the hard drive, hard drive H is now 74.5GB (as expected). Local Disk I, however, is still there.

EDIT:

I rebooted the computer as well to ensure a fresh reading

 

[emaraszek]

Try filling the unallocated space in disk 0 as well

 

[damian18]

I cannot couple 225GB with 8GB

I probably can couple 8GB with 75GB, but I get a dialog box saying that I am converting from DYNAMIC to BASIC disk. Is this operation safe, keeping in mind that I do not have an OS installed on neither of the disks?

EDIT:

I do not want to lose any data or corrupt the E (225GB) partition

EDIT:

Actually, it says it is converting BASIC to DYNAMIC. Still wondering if it is safe to do so

 

[emaraszek]

Windows probably won't let you expand the E: volume to occupy all of disk 0 because it's your system drive. However, if you run a third party application, you should be able to.

Try this:MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition - Reviews and free MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition downloads at CNET Download.com

 

[damian18]

The software you recommended does not allow to move/resize partitions on dynamic disks.

 

[damian18]

Instead of merging the unallocated partition on disk 0, I created a new volume. Right now, there is absolutely no unallocated space on any of the disks in the machine.