Virtual Hard Drives Are Missing From My 64-bit Windows

[Suranjit]

Hi All,

Having some trouble. I have created few Virtual Drives on my 64 Windows 7 but not after restarting the machine, I can not find any of those Drives, not even on Disk Management.

Need suggestions please.

Thanks,
Suranjit

 

[nate42nd]

Did you use Windows to partition the disk or a 3rd party program?

If you used a 3rd party program, maybe you forgot to hit "apply"

If you used Disk Management in Windows and it does not show the disk changes you made, I don't know what to think. Probably skipped a step.

Here are some links that may help

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/566-virtual-hard-disk-create-attach-vhd.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

 

[Suranjit]

I used Disk Management and did everything write. I could even accessed and stored some files on those drives before restarting....
But after restarting, I can not find these drives....Checked in Disk Management....Still Missing... I created 2 drives (total 150 GB) and now I'm really disturbed....don't know what to do....

 

[nate42nd]

Well, if you want to post a screenshot of disk management and let us know how big your hard drive is, it might help.

In "MY Computer" is your drive showing it's full capacity? Does the "C" drive show the entire capacity or the capacity you changed it to?

 

[Brink]

Hello Suranjit, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Sorry, but there seems to be a bug in Windows 7 for this. The VHD files is still there, but unattaches when the computer is restarted.

SEE:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/566-virtual-hard-disk-create-attach-vhd.html

When you restart the computer, any attached VHD files you have will no longer be attached and appear in Computer. You will have to reattach them to have them back in Computer until the next restart.

 

[nate42nd]

Thanks for the help Brink.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Nate. This bug wasn't in the pre-release builds, but only seems to have arrived in the 7600 build and retail. Strange.

 

[Suranjit]

Thanks for your help.
My HDD is 500GB. In "My Computer", it's showing the full capacity. But there are no virtual drives on either 'My Computer' or Disk Management.
Sorry I could not take a Screenshot, but In the Disk Management, It shows something like this:

SYSTEM Simple Basic NTFS Healthy(System, Active, Primary Partition) 199MB 165MB 83% No 0%
SYSTEM(C Simple Basic NTFS Healthy(Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) 427.37GB 208.83GB 49% No 0%

I created 2 VHDs for 150GB (100GB+50GB).....I really want to get my drives back....

Thanks,
Suranjit

 

[Brink]

Suranjit,

Using the tutorial links above, you would just need to reattach the VHD files that you had created by selecting them again in Disk Management from where they were saved at. They will stay attached again until the next restart.

 

[Suranjit]

So, whenever I will restart my machine, I have to attach those VHDs. Is that right?

Could you please tell me how to delete those VHDs? I made one drive by using shrink volume and it appears all the time. So, if I can delete those VHDs, I can create volumes using shrinking and then I don't have to do the attachments.

Thanks,
Suranjit

 

[Brink]

Correct, the bug causes you to have to reattach them after every restart. You can delete the VHD file just like any other file though.

 

[Suranjit]

Thanks a lot Brink.
One more thing to know, is there any way that I can ACTUALLY make a partition on my System drive (where Windows 7 is installed)? Not virtually. Shrinking/VHDs are not actual partitions, I think.

Thanks,
Suranjit

 

[Brink]

Suranjit,

Sure, if you have enough available free space on the Windows 7 partition, then you should be able to shrink it and create a new partition from it, then shrink the new one to create another new one etc....... The tutorial below can help show you how to in Disk Management.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

 

[Suranjit]

Thanks a lot Brink.
This forum is awesome...
Suranjit

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.