Win 7 Pro 64-Bit is unable to see my 3TB hard drive partitions

[MTL777]

I have a 3TB hard drive on which I created three logical partitions and no primary partition at all. This was done in Windows XP. I am able to see the partitions in Windows XP and access them perfectly. But when I mount the drive on a Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit system that I recently created, Windows 7 is unable to see the partitions - they are seen as unallocated space in Disk Management. Also, the drive does not show up in Windows Explorer.

I'm guessing that the reason for this is because I don't have a primary partition on the drive. So I would like to try changing the first logical partition to primary using MiniTool Partition Wizard. Is my guess correct? And is it safe to change a logical partition to primary and I will NOT lose any data on it?

Thanks in advance for your much appreciated help!

 

[Megahertz07]

Don't try to fix or you may loose your data.

All partitions created under Win XP should be usable under Win 7.
Did you use any software under XP to create the partitions?

 

[MTL777]

Don't try to fix or you may loose your data.

All partitions created under Win XP should be usable under Win 7.
Did you use any software under XP to create the partitions?

Yes, I used MiniTool Partition Wizard under XP to create the three partitions. It is an MBR disk, not GPT, and I was able to create the three partitions, each less than 1TB, and be able to see them and access them in XP. I think there is supposed to be a 2TB limitation for MBR disks but I was able to cheat and overcome the limitation by creating three separate partitions of less than 1TB each.

 

[Megahertz07]

I wrote a P Message to Jumanji asking for help. Wait for him.

 

[AddRAM]

You should have just made it a GPT drive, that`s what I did with all 4 of my 4TB data drives.

But don`t do anything until you hear from someone else

Also, I don`t believe there has to be a Primary partition, you only need a Primary partition on a system drive, but not a data drive.

Here`s an article on converting a logical partition/s to a primary partition.

Free to Convert Logical Partition to Primary Partition

 

[MTL777]

You should have just made it a GPT drive, that`s what I did with all 4 of my 4TB data drives.

This drive was partitioned and used in Windows XP which does not support GPT AFAIK.

 

[AddRAM]

Ya I figured that

 

[MTL777]

Ya I figured that

No worries.

I contacted MiniTool Partition Wizard support and they gave me this answer:

Probably your Windows 7 computer is using the old version of Intel® Rapid Storage Technology driver. Please refer to this post: https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmanager/3tb-drive-shows-746gb.html

More details on my problem: Prior to installing the AMD All-In-One driver (which includes the AHCI SATA driver) on my Win 7 machine, the 3TB drive did not show up in Windows Explorer at all. Now that I've installed the AMD All-In-One driver, it is showing in Windows Explorer but with a size of 746.52GB only, all of which is unallocated space.

The solution suggested by MiniTool Partition Wizard support is to install the latest Intel® Rapid Storage Technology driver. The problem is, my system is AMD (Phenom II X3), not Intel, so I need the equivalent updated driver for AMD. Does anyone know where I can find that?

Thanks!