Win 8.1 Disk Management Shows Two OEM Recovery Drives
Jul 18, 2014
HP 15-d005TU
-3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3110M Processor (2.4 GHz)
-500GB Hard Drive Toshiba MQ01ABF050
-4096MB DDR3 SDRAM
-DVD Optical drive hp DVDRAM GU90N
-Windows 8.1 64bit
On delivery it had 9 Windows updates installed ( 8, dated Nov 13 and the last one dated 07 Mar 2014, perhaps just before it left the factory). My first priority was to update Windows. A total of 78 updates including the last major Windows 8.1 update 1 akin to a Service Pack - KB2919335 and all this took a lot of time. All updates went on well with no problems.
Now I find that Windows Disk Management lists two OEM recovery partitions D: ( What it was earlier, I did not notice but I presume it was showing one correctly since any abnormality would have caught my attention.)
Diskpart lists all the partitions correctly. And so also bootice. Now what is causing this and how do I fix it?
I find there is a Intel Manageability Firmware Recovery Agent - [URL] .... My own guess is some Intel driver/firmware may be causing it. As I said it is only a guess. I tried the update with it but so far Intel servers could not be reached though my internet connection is OK.
Over the last couple days, I built a new PC and installed windows 8.1. Initially I had some issues installing windows, so I unplugged all my drives except the SSD and DVD. I installed windows to my SSD.
Everything works great!
Now I started adding my drives back in 1 at a time. When I plugged my 2nd SSD in, it showed up in BIOS, but not in Disk Management or Device Manager. So I booted back into the install CD, it showed up in the disk manager there. Since this was also a blank SSD, I partitioned and formated the drive from the install CD, then exited the installer and booted back to my windows drive.
I have 2 SSD drives working great!
Now to add my 2TB HDD... Same issue, it shows up in BIOS and the install disc, but not in Disk Management or Device Manager. This drive does not have a boot partition on it, however, it does have two existing data partitions. They were made from my previous windows 7 system and the option to delete these partitions is grayed out in the install disc menu. I also have some data that I would like to keep on it. I have a USB dock that I can use to read the contents of the disk just fine. Everything is there and in working order.
What is different about Windows 8.1 that is preventing my hard drives from showing up in windows proper? I am reading things about UEFI online, but nothing seems to fit my exact scenario. I will try and post some screen shots when I get back at it.
Unable to start Disk Management. I tried the following without success:
- Check file integrity - Repair with DISM - Start the Virtual Disk Service and Volume SHadoy Copy manually and set them to Automatic and Manual (it starts, but Disk Management cannot connect to it) - Disable Firewall and Antivirus - Verified that my system is malware free - Tried opening it in Safe Mode
This is what Windows Explorer and Disk Management show.
Drives G, H, I, and L are completely non-existent. When clicking on them, Windows asks to format them. Properties shows 0 bytes Used space/Free space. I need removing these "drives" from Windows Explorer.
Is it still possible to bring a disk offline using Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) in Windows 8 the same way it was possible in Windows 7 or is using Diskpart.exe the only way?
I pay a used laptop Sony Vaio SVF 143100c from china , they install windows 8 Enterbrise and no other software or drivers
when I check I found a recovery volume on the hard disk I assign this volume and copy all the recovery content to external Hard disk, size is 18 GB
and the product key is valid for Win 8 RTM CoreCountrySpecific OEMM,
I don't have a Recovery Media disk or usb to return to Factory condition, how to create a recovery disk to access tis image and re install tis laptop to Factory condition
I originally built my computer with two 1 TB hdd as RAID1 with Windows 8 Pro 64 Bit as the OS.
The boot files eventually became corrupted. I could not reinstall Windows 8 on the RAID 1 array. So I then purchased two 2 TB HDD and created a new RAID 1 array which Windows 8 readily loaded onto.
I then added the two original 1 TB HDD to the computed to use for photography and media storage. They also showed when booting my computer as a separate RAID 1 array, but were listed as "repair." I went into the RAID BIOS and separated the array. I connected only one of the 1 TB HDD, and the drive was the "E" Drive in my computer, but I was unable to access it. "E: is not accessible. Access is denied." Disk Management showed the drive as DISK 1, but as two partitions: System Reserved 350 MB NTFS Healthy (Active, Primary Partition) and 931.17 GB NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition). I used Diskpart to create a Primary partition and format the disk. That HDD now works fine. Unfortunately I did not backup the data on that HDD, which I would like to have.
I did try the second mirrowed 1 TB HDD on the computer before formatting the first and was able to access all of the data on the HDD.
Now after formatting the first 1 TB HDD, I added the second 1 TB HDD from the original RAID 1 array back onto the computer, wanting to retrieve the data on it. This HDD does not show on My computer and is not assigned a drive letter. However the HDD is listed in Disk Management as DISK 2 and partitioned into System Reserved 350 MB NTFS Healthy ( active, Primary Partition) and 931.17 GB NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition). Looking for retrieving the data on this disk, copying it to another HDD, and then creating one partition on this HDD? How to assign the HDD a drive letter. I would like to format this HDD after copying the data, and have my computer assign it a drive letter so that I can use it.
After installing Windows 8 my computer had four partitions; I thought they'd be fine but want to change it to have two big ones, one for Media and one for typical C: usage. I moved everything out of D: to delete the volume so I would have free space to the right of C:, which I've read is what you need to do in order to extend partitions using Disk Management. However, the option is still greyed-out when right-clicking C: as shown:
I did this because I've read mixed things about using 3rd-party software to extend partitions; some that don't truly extend it and just trick your computer into merging the two... I like doing things the purest way possible and would like to truly combine C: with the free space to the right of it. Why the option is not available?
I have a laptop with Windows 8 installed in a 256Gb SSD. There's a 32Gb recovery partition whose purpose is to recover the drive to factory install. Since I already imaged this recovery partition to an external drive I would like to delete it and merge it to the main C partition to increase capacity. I know I can do this easily with 3rd party solutions (Easus, etc), but I'd like to do it using the Windows 8 built in Disk Management. I tried but when I right click on the 32Gb recovery partition the only option that shows up is "Help", it does not show any other option that shows for the other partitions (Shrink, etc).
So I've been playing around with FreeNAS on another rig, you install the server on a USB drive and run the server form the flash drive. I've decided to go another rout and not use free nas so I went to format the 2 flash drives I was messing with and there are some partitions I can't remove with disk management, and space missing.
disk 1.jpg
Disk 3 should be 4GB large but I can only find the 943 MB
disk 2.jpg
disk 3.jpg
It doesn't give me any options to change the volumes on Disk 4.
I have Samsung Laptop with Windows 8 installed. I have 2 partitions 200 GB and the rest whole drive as C drive which after recovery drive amounts to be around 700 GB. Yesterday, I tried Samsung Recovery to get a factory image of C drive. Firstly recovery failed twice and then the third attempt worked almost fine. Recovery said boot file was corrupted and it recovered. But when I opened my computer I had two drives, 60 GB and 200GB. The rest of the space wasnt there. I checked in disc management, Partitions map said C drive had 700 GB. But in the description it shows only 60 GB. The other partition 200 GB is intact. I tried doing samsung recovery again and again but the problem persists.
The disk management tool on my windows doesn't move on and hangs at "connecting to virtual disk service" forever:
My HP desktop is new, windows 8.1, hard drive having ample space. I searched the web and tried, but to no avail. Or where can I download a free windows disk management tool to fix the issue?
Disk management won't allow me to extend empty 46GB volume. The windows disk management will not allow me to delete any partitions. Do I need to do an Fdisk ? or use a third party program to do this ?
Before I do this I must create a windows setup disk because I do not have one at the moment , all I have is a Dell usb Restore. would be good if there was a video clip of how to delete the partition.
I have a Western Digital external hard drive. Model WD5000C032 500GB. It's an older device that was working just fine on my Mac (I don't know what OS it was running and do not have access to it any longer). I have brought this HD with me and am now trying to use it on my Windows 8.1 lap top. When I plug it in, the device is not assigned a letter. I can search for it in disk management, but it is uninitialized. I have right clicked on the drive to initialize, and receive an error message "the specific disk is not convertible because the size is less than the minimum size required for GPT disks." I searched and suggestion is downloading and using Partition Wizard. I downloaded the program and opened the wizard, but it does not see my hard drive. The screen shot will display as far as I've gotten.
I was going to reinstalling windows on my computer and i thought put 200gb for windows 8 and and 1300gb can be for windows 7(for gaming), So i install windows 8 and shrink the hard drive size so windows 8 has 200gb. And use windows 7 for gaming but my pc is a bit s#*t and a dont do gaming any more. (only on the ps3).
So can i unshrink or something so i have 1.5tb together for windows 8?
I've long been an XP user, just purchased a new desktop with 8.1 and a 2TB HDD this week.
I was partitioning some drives to organize things, and i am stuck. On a 2TB drive, i have so far allocated 900GB over 4 drives for files, etc. [100,200,300,300]
I have 946.42GB left on my C, and i was hoping to get at least 2-3 more 200/300GB drives before leaving the remainder to C, but when i attempt to shrink my C drive, Disk Management tells me ive only got 20835MB/20GB available space to shrink. Wtf? I have literally added nothing to the computer except uTorrent, ive used Disk Optimizer to defrag the C drive 3 times, and still all of this space is unavailable? The OS has unmovable files scattered that loosely??
Drive 1 : OS Win 8.1 for general web, office and junk running
Drive 2 : OS Win 8.1 for tweaked hobby work; Audio recording etc
Whilst I wish to not physically disconnect the drives on each boot. I would like to have the alternative drive hidden and not impacted when the other drive is running for the OS.Boot up from Drive 1 this currently shows as Drive C: and the secondary drive with the OS installed as D:
Boot up from Drive 2 this currently shows as Drive C: and the secondary drive with the OS installed as D:
End aim
Boot up from Drive 1 this currently shows as Drive C: and the secondary drive with the OS installed not running or showing on the system and vice versa. Is the online offline function what I need to use or is this going to put the drive offline for the system as a whole.
The program Acronis True Image failed when attempting to clone win 8.1 C drive. The destination disk is now hidden in File Explorer but is present in Disk Management (and in Device Manager). The Disk Management command "Change Drive Letter ..." is grayed out. How can I unhide the drive?
The drive in question appears in attached screen shots as Disk 6 but is missing from Explorer.
I have read some threads other info about shrinking the c drive where the os is,but none have ever said that it cannot be shrunken using the windows provided disk management but seems to talk around it?
My hard disk crashed. I have a recovery cd created on the time of purchase. I bought a new hard disk for this purpose. Now when I am trying to recover from the same cd it is getting stuck at 40 % showing error. I searched for this error and got something as such recovery disk can work on OEM hd. As my old hd has crashed how can I recover over there. Is there any system that dell provide me with necessary operating system so that atleast I can use my system.
This morning when I turned on my PC, I noticed these 2 weird icons appearing in front of my two drives (local, and backup disks). The 2 icons were not there before? They look like the standard Microsoft User(s) icon, but why are they suddenly/randomly appearing?
I have this problem since Windows 7, i don't remember this happens on Windows XP.
I have 2 computers with Windows 8.1 installed: desktop and laptop. I am trying to access local disk drives of "desktop" from "laptop".
For example, i type in Windows Explorer "desktopc$". "Windows Security" window pops up where i am typing credentials. If i specify "desktopadministrator" user and then provide correct password everything is fine, i can access disk C. But, if i type "desktopjohn" and provide correct password i am getting error "Access denied". "john" is my main account, it's in "Administrators" group of "DESKTOP" computer.
If i try to access the same resource over "cmd net use" i receive error "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied."
Why "john" can't access "DESKTOP"'s disk C over LAN?
I used four drives in my hard-disk. I needed to extend volume for my C drive. So using the Disk management utility I was trying to shrink the drive F (as it was very next to C, as in Disk management). But something happen accidental here. I found that two of my drives E & F went missing after the operation. Also my laptop suddenly restarted (after perform a checking task). I am not sure how this happened and looking for a way to recover the lost partitions as they are seen still exist, including the data.
I was only trying to shrink around 283 mb of volume from a drive with 138 gb, as an experiment basis, to see it work. On that process the drives were lost and those are not shown into my windows now. Using a software EaseUS Partition Master, I could still see the drives still exist as they contain the data as used spaces, and also show the unallocated space of 283 mb but I am not finding a way how could I recover my partition without affecting the data.
I have (had) a dual boot with Windows 8.1 and win7 and I was using EasyBCD to edit the boot order. Now, when I try to reboot, I get a blue screen - saying 'RECOVERY - Your PC needs to be repaired'. I have a bootable USB recovery medium for win 8 but the problem is that I can't boot to it and fix the problem because I can't access the boot menu in my BIOS. The usual F12 option to select the boot device isn't showing up no matter what I do. I read that it has something to do with Windows 8's hybrid shutdown system. Is there any way to get out of this 'hybrid shutdown' so I can once again access the boot menu?
I have an HP Envy notebook. bought it 3 months ago. made recovery disk (actually it's on a flash drive). Had troubles with the notebook. HP support walked me through factory reset. Twice.
Never used the flash drive. used whatever was on the computer. Whether or not to keep the recovery stuff I put on the flash drive? Just wondering if its a waste of a perfectly good flash drive, seeing as I never used it when I reset.
