Solved Additional drive appears (drive f) while forematting new drive

[D Ryan]

This is a new built computer, I have installed win7 64bit on a 500 gig hard drive (tosheba), this is drive C. Everything works fine!

I was wanting to use windows 7 backup, so I went and got another 500 gig hard drive (WD), I connected the HD and powered up the computer and that's all I did! Device manager showed the new drive and the primary drive! However the computer did not show the new WD drive, . The new drive was not formatted so with the help of a friend using partdisk I formatted the new WD drive, the new drive now shows up in computer as drive G. But now I also have a drive F, and its 100MB in size. (see screen shot)

What have I done? and how can I fix it?

 

[VistaKing]

Drive F which is your System Reserved partition should be hidden and not have a letter .

Can you right click on the drive click on Change Drive letter and path and remove the letter ?

 

[D Ryan]

Drive F which is your System Reserved partition should be hidden and not have a letter .

Can you right click on the drive click on Change Drive letter and path and remove the letter ?

It does not look like I can remove it safely! Get warning about programs not working (see screen shot) I do get a option to change it... a drop down box appears with letters A_Z

 

[VistaKing]

There shouldn't be any files there except for boot files . So you should be good if you click on Yes

 

[D Ryan]

There shouldn't be any files there except for boot files . So you should be good if you click on Yes

I clicked on REMOVE and got another warning. (screen shot)

I have nothing backed up!

 

[VistaKing]

When you installed Windows 7 it should automatically make the Systems Reserved partition hidden . Did you install the second hard drive after or before the installation

 

[gregrocker]

You can ignore the warning since the System Reserved partition should not have a letter under any circumstances. Remove the letter now before making your backup image.

 

[D Ryan]

When you installed Windows 7 it should automatically make the Systems Reserved partition hidden . Did you install the second hard drive after or before the installation

I installed the first hard drive about 4 days ago, the 2ed last night! I'm sure I must have done something I should not have done while installing last night. F drive did not appear until last night! If I remember right I was having a problem with what was disk 0 and disk 1.

I just backed up C drive and "back up and restore ( win 7 program)" wrote to G drive, also made a recovery disk!

If you think i'm good to go! I try it!

Thank you for the push!

 

[D Ryan]

You can ignore the warning since the System Reserved partition should not have a letter under any circumstances. Remove the letter now before making your backup image.

To Late! I never done this before but cant I just do the backup again?

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, after removing the Sys Reserved letter.

 

[D Ryan]

Its done the drive is longer there! (screen shot)

I still haven't rebooted, If I don't come back you know what happened!

 

[gregrocker]

We don't look at Explorer, we look at Disk Mgmt. We could tell you by looking at it if there's something wrong that could affect its bootability. As long as it still has the System Active flags then nothing should change.

 

[VistaKing]

The System Reserved partition isn't showing inside Computer which is what you want . Try a restart and see if you could get back onto the desktop

 

[D Ryan]

I'm back! The unwanted drive F is gone! I tried my win95-98 programs and they work! I'll do the backup again, and the image if possible!

Thanks guys for the help!

 

[VistaKing]

You're welcome

 

[D Ryan]

This iss what Disk management looks like now!

 

[gregrocker]

Mark G Inactive or else it may steal the boot from System Reserved when Repairs or Reinstall are done. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

The installer or Startup Repair writes the boot files to the first Active partition. Only OS partitions or their boot partition should be Active.

What would be safest is to have the OS in DIsk0 slot, but if that's not possible be sure to also unplug the data drive during any reinstall or repairs, or set its partitions to Logical so they cannot receive boot files: http://www.partitionwizard.com/video-help/setpl/set-primaryorlogical.html

 

[D Ryan]

Mark G Inactive or else it may steal the boot from System Reserved when Repairs or Reinstall are done. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html

The installer or Startup Repair writes the boot files to the first Active partition. Only OS partitions or their boot partition should be Active.

What would be safest is to have the OS in DIsk0 slot, but if that's not possible be sure to also unplug the data drive during any reinstall or repairs, or set its partitions to Logical so they cannot receive boot files: Video help on how to set partition as Primary or Logical.

I downloaded the program and set drive G as inactive! I checked the disk management page and it did change.


Currently my sata data cables are:

Sata3 0 DVD
Sata3 1 C drive operating sys

Sata2 2 G drive Backup drive
Sata2 3 (empty)
Sata2 4 DVD #2

Can I just swap these cables around? ( power off and unplugged)

 

[VistaKing]

Try a replug between the cables .

 

[D Ryan]

Try a replug between the cables .

I swaped the cables around where C drive resides in the 0 mother board slot, then rebooted!

Although I did this "disk management " page shows no change! (screen shot) Had no problems booting up!