Unable to see the unallocated volume after shrinking

Hi everyone,

I was shrinking one of my volumes to get some unallocated space for a new volume, where I want to install Windows 8. However, I did not pay too much attention of the state of the disk and it is possible that I might have performed the shrinking on the volume when it was "unhealthy" or something, I didn't think it is going to be a big deal. Now, the shrinked volume does not show in the old volume, but I don't see it as unallocated either. I tried using software like partition wizard and easyUS, but they don't seem to recognize the unallocated volume either. The question is, is there a way to ...find that unallocated volume without formatting the relevant volume? Attached is a screen shot, where this capacity "phemomenon" can be seen. Thanks in advance!

The problem is that you converted your HD to Dynamic which is only meant to be used to span a partition across multiple HD's. Apparently you didn't see the warning message when you added a partition.

You can only have four Primary partitions or 3 Primary and unlimited Logical. Had you asked us we would have advised you that to keep HP Recovery and Diagnostics tools (OEM) partitions bootable you'd need to convert C to Logical to add another adjacent partition.

The solution to reconvert to Basic non-destructively is to boot free Partition Wizard CD version 4.2 which is the last one which offers this as a free feature: pw422.zip ISO - Windows Live.

Download the ISO, rightclick to burn it to CD using Windows Image Burner, or use ImgBurn.

Back up the files on partition which tipped disk to Dynamic which will need to be deleted before disk will convert back to Basic. If it won't boot you can Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console.

Boot CD, follow these video steps: How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard?

After conversion to Basic, set C to Logical then create a new adjacent Logical partition for Win8:
How to set partition as Primary or Logical.
Partition Wizard Create Partition Video Help

If you need further help post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image - Windows 7 Help Forums and describe what you want to do.

awesome! Thanks a lot! :)