Partitions visible in disk director but not in Win Explorer (Win 7)

[redtuiop]

[SOLVED]Partitions visible ......but not in Win Explorer (Win 7)

I have 3 drives in my PC - the largest of which I'd recently copied the contents of a smaller drive over to (8 partitions). This also held my old copy of XP as my backup OS. Since moving everything it wouldn't work, so I decided to reinstall XP today, but even after doing so it still wouldn't run, & when I looked closer at the drive setup I noticed there was 1Mb of unallocated space prior which I presumed was the problem.

SO, I returned to Win 7 to sort that out, but then discovered that 6 of my 8 partitions were no longer visible. I used Partition Wizard to recover them, but while they now show in a disk management program, I can't access them nor view them in Explorer.

Obviously getting quite desperate now to ensure I've not lost them for good as while I have some of the most vital info backed up, I certainly haven't it all given there's the guts of 400 odd Gb in the missing sections

Any help (& encouragement) would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks, Romayne

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Post a picture of what you see in Windows Disk Management.

 

[redtuiop]

Gosh that was quick !!

Ok - I'm using 2 DMs to deal with this as each offers something the other doesn't.

In Partition Wizard (on the right) it shows the unallocated 1 Mb before each partition (& seemingly in a lot of other places too on other drives). While it shows it, the program apparently has a bug which won't allow me to add it into any of the partitions. I've done everything the program suggested in order to recover the partitions but unsure if that's what perhaps caused this issue of extraneous space (& whether it's actually there or some sort of ghosting).

Acronis DD on the other hand neither shows that nor makes it available to add in to any of the partitions.

But you can see how they're all showing ok. Just unable to be accessed from within Win 7 as you can see from the WDM at the bottom.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I doubt if the 1 MB unallocated spaces have anything to do with whatever issues you have.

But we need a picture of Windows Disk Management. None of the above pix are Disk Management.

Type Disk Management into the start button search box and follow the link.

 

[redtuiop]

Apologies - unsure of the difference but here you go

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Apologies - unsure of the difference but here you go

Notice that on the C partition, we can read "system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary".

We can't read what it says on the D partition because of the column spacing. What does it say there other than "active"?

Can you boot from the XP drive or do you care?

The only problem you have is that you cannot see 6 of 8 partitions in Explorer?


Lastly: is there some strong reason why you have that big drive chopped up into so many partitions? I'd think it would be much simpler and more space-efficient to have 2 partitions on that drive--D and E. D for XP and E for everything else, subdivided by folders for religious, programs, personal, etc.

Clarify the above. I don't know if I can resolve your issue, but others who might would likely need answers.

 

[redtuiop]

"We can't read what it says on the D partition because of the column spacing. What does it say there other than "active"?"
It says "Active, Healthy, Primary partition"

"Can you boot from the XP drive or do you care?"
No to both questions although I'd ideally like to get it working at some point in order to have an alternate OS for those times Win 7 goes pear shaped.

"The only problem you have is that you cannot see 6 of 8 partitions in Explorer?"
Yep - The first 3 show but the last 6 won't.

"Lastly: is there some strong reason why you have that big drive chopped up into so many partitions? I'd think it would be much simpler and more space-efficient to have 2 partitions on that drive--D and E. D for XP and E for everything else, subdivided by folders for religious, programs, personal, etc."
Hmm - well, I suppose somewhere along the way I read that it was better to split a drive into multiple partitions rather than just a couple, esp if a large drive, and have always done it, but it's not set in stone certainly & ultimately if it was going to be a fix of sorts I'd not worry how I achieve it - regaining the info is more important than how it's sitting on the drive.

My other concern is that I've only got about 4 hrs max before I'm going to be hitting bed & even that's quite late, so ideally would also like to know if shutting down/rebooting is likely to cause any further issues, (if the problem hasn't been resolved beforehand).

Thanks again for your patience & input on this problem - truly appreciated

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I have no immediate answer to why you can't see 6 of the partitions on the large drive in Explorer. Nor a solution.

You say you installed XP earlier today. Could you see all of your partitions prior to installing XP today?

Was the Windows 7 drive connected when you installed XP today? I'm guessing it was.

The XP drive appears not to be marked "system". I'd guess that's why it won't boot. Something went wrong during that installation attempt.

I wouldn't think a shutdown overnight would have an effect, but if you are worried let it run overnight.

There is no advantage to chopping that big drive up like that. And it is wasteful of space---with many smallish partitions, you tend to run out of space on a partition, whereas you would not if you had a single large partition.

My inclination would be to get rid of XP at least temporarily. If Win 7 goes pear-shaped, use an imaging program to restore it, rather than rely on XP as a fall back position. Unless you have some over-riding reason to keep XP.

I'd use a single partition on the big drive and back up my data to an external. I'm guessing you have no external to which you could temporarily offload all data on the big drive?

I assume you have no way whatsoever of seeing all of your data on the big drive and have no backups of that data?

Do all of your partitions now show as simple, NTFS, and basic in Disk Managment?

Greg, WHS, or others may have ideas about how to access your data.

 

[redtuiop]

I disconnected my other 2 drives before doing the XP reinstall to make sure I didn't overwrite anything on them accidentally (hard as it should be!), & yes on the 1st attempt all the partitions were showing. When the installation finished & rebooted it came up with some error about the XP OS, which is when I figured I'd maybe try again, but I didn't bother once I spotted those unallocated spaces figuring it better to sort those out first. It was just odd that it didn't install correctly but ever since I moved everything onto this drive, there's been a problem with that XP partition which is why I ended up just reformatting it entirely & starting over.

I do have an external drive, but stupidly haven't backed up as much as I should have done.

I'm a webmaster & all the important data of all 3 sites I manage is on that Websites partition - I do have some of it backed up but certainly not all. Old story - takes SO long to do large backups I get impatient so give up & don't bother. So nobody to blame but myself as I'm more than aware for the need to do them.

If I could access ALL of the partitions fully once more I think I'd be inclined to remove them all off to my old drive, & reformat the large one, & start over but differently i.e. do as you say & just have 2 or 3 and organise things differently.

Can but hope I can get back to that point which hopefully should be possible given they ARE showing up at least in some of the Disk managers.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Stand by. I've placed a request for more assistance.

 

[redtuiop]

Tks - I'm just running TestDisk which I vaguely remember helping me a few years back with something similar - it's turning up a ton of errors . Will post up info when it's completed.

 

[Petey7]

I've noticed that in disk management some of your partitionx do not have drive letters associated with them. You need to right-click the partitions that do not, and click "Assign Drive Letter" (or something similar) and manual assign each of them a different drive letter.

 

[Britton30]

Adding to what Petey said, do you still have the XP drive with the 8 partitions you copied from? Try another copy with only those two drives connected and wipe the current copy first.

 

[F5ing]

Be careful with testdisk. The "errors" you may be referring to might actually just refer to "deleted" or "missing" partitions that were replaced by you or installs that were truly and correctly desired.

It might be best to first use testdisk to copy out all data that you might want to recover before using it to correct errors.

 

[F5ing]

Try that Disk Management screenshot one more time, with the window maximized and the panes/columns adjusted to display maximum info.

For some reason it seems none of the logical partitions in the extended partition on Disk1 got drive letters. Using DM to add drive letters for them will allow you to see them in explorer.

 

[redtuiop]

SORTED & solved!! )

I've noticed that in disk management some of your partitionx do not have drive letters associated with them. You need to right-click the partitions that do not, and click "Assign Drive Letter" (or something similar) and manual assign each of them a different drive letter.

WAYHO!!!!! Unbelievably that appears to be all that was needed & my huge apologies that I stupidly never even noticed that fact .

Thanks SO much guys - can't tell you how grateful I am for all of you who've put in ideas & for this one finally getting me sorted. Each partition is showing up perfectly now & all data intact.

I'll organise a proper & fuller backup now before anything else happens, & figure out what to do with XP another time, taking on board all the suggestions put forward.

THANK YOU!!!
Romayne

 

[Petey7]

I'm truly glad to have been of service. Funny how sometimes its the simplest things. Go ahaed and get those backups done. They are a life saver.

 

[Britton30]

You're welcome Romayne, as a friend said today, he learned something by "dumbing into it" which is how I've learned.

 

[gregrocker]

Good catch, Petey! + Rep

 

[Petey7]

Thanks Greg. You deserve some of the credit. You were the first person to teach me to look for that.