Windows 7 Dissapearing Partitions

[ravna]

Hi Guys....been a long time...busy busy.
Bought a new computer for a group member....Win7 Professional, 64bit, and was setting it up when I decided to partition the HD (1TB) using Windows own 'Disk Management' (DM) tool....just divided in two, worked fine, assigned me a new drive letter, all cool.
On reboot drive letter in Win Explorer had disappeared and was not accessible, looked in DM, partition was still visible but not active, tried to activate, no go, removed the partition, repartitioned and did a full format of the new partition, at next reboot same thing. Ended up going back to one single large partition and cut my losses......time.

Have tried Googling and other searches but to no avail.....my question....why? has anybody had this happen or have some experience/information as to why?

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Would love to hear anything.

Cheers...John M

 

[Saltgrass]

At what stage of an install, if you were doing one, did you partition the drive? Or was it a second drive you added?

To answer your question, it does not seem to be normal for a partition to be removed.

A picture attached of your Disk Management window might help.

 

[ravna]

Hi Saltgrass.....brand new computer straight out of the box, Asus...with OS installed....1TB HD....needed a pseudo 'Backup' partition so repartitioned the 1TB drive into two roughly 460gig partitions.

after partition showed as 'Healthy' (Primary Partition) with drive letter 'E\'

Computer is back to original condition so no pics but was bog standard annotation as per usual.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am still a little confused. If you have the OS installed on a partition, did you try to change it, or was it already 460 gigs? Before you started the drive had unpartitioned space after the OS partition?

Or did you orginally shrink the OS partition, and if so, was that done prior to adding another partition?

Sometimes going through the exact steps you took helps us to see what might be going on.

If you decide to try again, shrink the partition then reboot before adding the new one.

 

[ravna]

The original OS partition was just under 1TB, I opted to shrink this, the window pops up with this (this is from the computer I am on now, not the one we are discussing, but was exactly the same) accept the default size and the next window asks if you want a 'Quick Format' click yes and as far as I am aware, a new partition.

I do not want to go any further on this computer, but am not aware you could cancel out at the window after this and then reboot.

Have shrunk other partitions on other systems in the manner explained without any drama, so am I missing something?

Edit. Have just gone to several online 'Tutorials on shrinking a volume and creating a second partition and non state a reboot is required and one actually states 'No reboot required', and I did as they all state.....so am confused, but am certainly open to reeducation.

 

[davehc]

In the Windows explorer - tools - view, do you have Show drive letters, selected?

 

[ravna]

If you mean tools-'folder option'-view...yes and 'Hide empty Drives' is also unticked. besides drive letters were always visible until next reboot.

 

[Joe S]

Did you try reformatting the troublesome partition? Maybe a free partition tool would work better. Partitioning isn't something most of us do very often. I have mine partitioned with the system on one and data on the other. The second partition is Logical.
Joe

 

[ravna]

Yes....first time a quick and then a full format....no good.

 

[davehc]

You could try formatting the partition with the Windows 7 installation DVD, That would recreate the MBR, which might be where the problem lies

 

[reghakr]

I have always used Parted Magic to format and create new partitions.

It has never failed me.

 

[Joe S]

Before you partitioned how many partitions were there on the disk. I mean recovery and hidden. It seems to me that some Dells already came with the max allowed 4 I think. The MRB might be on it's own partition. I also think Dell hid some of them.
Joe

 

[ravna]

Reghakre...thanks mate, have downloaded and will look at and try it.

Joe....Not a Dell...an ASUS, one recovery and one OS partition.

Dave....My experience with the Installation disks is repairing the start-up files...go any further and stop and it always seems to want to return everything to square one. I feel sure the Format tool in Disk Management would be the same as in the Install Disk...but will stand corrected...tried a 'quick' and then a 'full' Format with the same results.

I thank everyone for all the input and am about to try partitioning the laptop I am using now...will be interested in the results...this one is 32bit the other 64bit. Hmmmmmmmmmmm