New
#91
good.
good.
no mix of drives seems to make any difference
OK. Disconnect all drives except for C drive.
Does Win 7 run?
yes, starts normally
Did you make a System Image backup?
I'm not talking about a backup where you tell it to backup files and folders, but rather a system image backup, which incidentally makes a a copy of your C drive including all files and folders.
First, the question is do you have one. If yes, then you will be able to recover from any disasters with a minimum of effort.
If you made a system image backup before when you had all drives connected with no grevious problems, then we can recover that way.
I do not understand why diskpart does not see you other drives.
To solve that problem, then we will try booting from a Partition Wizard cd.
Partition Wizard is the only non-MIcrosoft product which I will recommend for partitioning, etc.
Partition Wizard - free download
Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD
I think though that before we go further, I'll ask a couple of the other chaps who have much more experience with Partition Wizard to guide/advise you on its use.
I will also ask them how it is possible for the bios to see a drive and diskpart not see the drive. Let's hope that I learn something.
did not make an image. should I do so now, just c:?
I will download the Partition Wizard meanwhile
back in a few.
burning Partition Wizard & saving System Image C:
Can you see the other drives with Partition Wizard?
I think this is where things went wrong. I have had issues with add-on controllers causing issues just like this especially if you BIOS Flash them. Many times the vendor will change the way the add-on controller works and now the OS will NOT see it, nor will any other OS. You will most likely have to go to the vendor’s web site and download a driver for that add-on controller card. -WS