Solved Partitioning, Windows 7 will not show 2nd partition in My Computer

[Techmenot]

Hi,

I sure hope someone will be able to help me on this.
I partitioned a 2Tb hardrive into 3 partitions but Windows 7(64bit) is hiding the 2nd primary partition, it is not showing up in the My Computer.

It shows as hidden in EaseUS and I can't change the drive name via Disk Management because the options are all grayed out except for the "Delete Volume" and no option to change drive letter in EaseUS..

I have formatted the drive and had deleted it too and create a new partition but still the same. All 3 partitions are NTFS and the 3rd one is logical.
I have made it unhidden by the Partition Manager and it shows up in My Computer until I reboot and it's hidden again.

I am hoping to create a dual boot system that's why I created 3 partitions (2 OSes and 1 storage).
Does anyone know what's wrong here?
Thanks for any input.

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums, Techmenot.

Please post a screenshot of your expanded Disk Management layout so that we can give you good advice.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[Techmenot]

Here are the screenshots, thanks.

 

[Techmenot]

The partition mark "OS" 122.11 GB is the one that is not showing in My Computer.
The "STORE N GO"(G) on the left .png is a flashdrive that someone had left plugged in when the screenshot was taken..

 

[seavixen32]

Thanks for the screenshots, but we need to see which is the active partition.

Can you please expand Disk Management so that we can see which is the active partition and post another screenshot?

 

[Techmenot]

I'm sorry I don't know how to expand Disk Management, if you don't mind telling me how to do it would be great.

I thought the active partition is only the C:\ since that is where Windows 7 is and I didn't make the other drives active.

 

[Techmenot]

When I stretched the window bigger, it is the C:\ that shows:

Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition.


The drive with 122.11 GB shows Healthy (Primary Partition)

The Storage (H) shows Healthy (Logical Drive)

The 9.77 GB drive(which I didn't create) shows Healthy (Primary Partition)

 

[Techmenot]

Is this what you want to see, I thought was a specific "expand" button somewhere in Disk Management.

 

[seavixen32]

I'm not absolutely sure what has gone wrong here, but I'd be inclined to delete the three partitions after your OS drive and start again.

When you use Partition Wizard, how are you using it?

If you download PW to your hard drive and run it from there, experience has shown that doing things that way can lead to problems.

The best way is to download the Partition Wizard ISO, burn the ISO to a blank disc, and then boot into it to carry out your drive partition creation and resizing.

I'll be away from my computer for the rest of the day so I'm hoping someone else will jump in if you need more help.

 

[Zomby88]

If your talking about the 122 GB partition, and it gives you the option to delete it.
Do that and then format it and give it a letter. That should be all you have to do.

 

[DeaconFrost]

The drive doesn't have a letter assigned to it, so it isn't usable or even able to be displayed in other areas of Windows.

 

[Techmenot]

seavixen32,

Yes, I download the EaseUS Partition Manager straight to my C:\ Windows 7 and I shrink the C:\ and made 2 more partitions with the rest and that when only one partition shows up in My Computer.
I might have to do what you suggested, I ws hoping that I won't have to start all over again since I already have lots of files in the other 2 partitions. Only the one that is hidden has nothing in it.


Zomby88,

Yes I did that before and I did it again following your advice and it is still hidden.
I just don't understand why windows 7 keeps it hidden. Is it something to do with being a 64bit?

Thank you both for your input, much appreciated.

 

[Techmenot]

DeaconFrost,

I did assign a letter to it when it was created and I assigned (G), the drive letter is there when I unhide it.
Also, there is another hidden partition formatted in FAT and when I unhide both partitions the drive letter of the 122 GB drive was changde to I and the FAT partition had the G.

 

[gregrocker]

Assign it a letter in Disk Mgmt and it will be seen.

If this partition is where you want to install the Dual Boot, just boot the installer and install there and it will assign a drive letter.

 

[Techmenot]

gregrocker,

That was the first thing I thought of doing, but I can't assign a drive letter(again) because all options when I rightclick on the partition in Disk Management is grayed out except for the "Delete Volume" and "Help".

While via EaseUS, I also couldn't assign any drive letter because that option is not available. For me to do that I would need to delete the partition first(I have done that a few times already). The assigned drive letter is there if I unhide the drive but at reboot Windows hides it again.

What I have noticed is that if I make it into a logical drive it will show up in My Computer, I tried it just then to check if it makes a difference(and it did). So it seems it has something to do with it being a primary partition. Surely Windows 7 64bit does not have a limit of 2 primary partitions in one physical drive right?

Yes, this is the partition where I want to install the dual boot, I haven't tried just booting the installer because I thought I might encounter more problems so I wanted to fix this issue first.

Again, thank you all for all your input.

 

[seavixen32]

You can have a maximum of four primary partitions on a hard drive.

If you still need more partitions then you can create logical partitions within the fourth primary partition.

I still think if you delete the two partitions without a drive letter and the logical partion you'll then be able to create a new partition for your dual-boot system.

I think your problems stem from the fact you have a logical partition between two partitions that haven't been allocated a drive letter.

Currently, your logical partition is part of your first primary partition that doesn't have a drive letter and I'm sure that's what's confusing Windows.

If you delete those three partitions and start again, I'm sure that'll solve the issue.

 

[gregrocker]

Agree. Use Disk Management. It will offer Logical for the fourth partition. Accept it.

 

[Techmenot]

"I still think if you delete the two partitions without a drive letter and the logical partion you'll then be able to create a new partition for your dual-boot system."


I deleted the 2 partitions which didn't have a drive letter and also deleted the logical partition, created and formatted 2 new partitions but the 122 GB next to the Windows 7 will still not show up while the 1.2 Tb shows up.

Now I lost my recovery partition, but didn't matter if this issue has a solution. I haven't installed another OS to any of the 2 drives since with my searching I've also read those missing OS.

 

[Techmenot]

>>>"Use Disk Management. It will offer Logical for the fourth partition. Accept it. ."<<<


There are only 3 partitions in this PC:

1. C:\ where Windows 7 resides
2. the problematic partition (is hidden)
3. the other primary partition (is okay)

There was a 4th hidden partition that I did not create the "Recovery" partition which is now also been deleted.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
just right mouse click on these unlabelled partitions and choose change (or assign) drive letter

Hey presto the disk will mount and off you go using the assigned letter (say D or E or whatever)

I sometimes get this problem with external USB drives -- there's no letter assigned so windows explorer doesn't see them.


As soon as you assign a letter they work normally.


Note that this could also be a GPT disk drive in which case other methods need to be used -- I don't have experience of using GPT drives directly so I'll hand over to someone more experienced.

However I do know that a GPT drive also removes the restriction of 4 partitions per drive (max) and does away with the need for things like Logical Partitions which are always a pain.

With larger multi-TB drives appearing the 4 partition restriction was becoming a real pain so GPT removes this.

However I assume that all these newer larger 2 TB and above drives will use GBT rather than the MBR system on W7.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463524


Cheers
jimbo