Windows has confused my harddrives

Cory M

New Member
Messages
7
I'll do my best to explain my situation. I recently reinstalled windows 8 on a computer with 3 drives. 1 operating (drive A) on its own and 2 drives (Drive D) that were in a pool together. For some reason after the reinstallation windows decided that drive D was drive A. Now the drive is inaccessible and all recovery tools that try to search drive D seem to assume it is drive A. I know this because the quick search they pull has the folders that would have been on drive A. Drive A remains functional. Is there any way to recover this data? Nothing new has been written and I've yet to reformat the drives. I'm honestly not even sure WHY windows would be doing anything to the drives other than reading them. The pool drives are displaying the error "Error unrecognized configuration" in the storage spaces setting. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Drives A: and B: are reserved for floppy disks. Are you thinking of two separate HDDs ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Post a screen shot of your expanded disk management screen please.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Drives A: and B: are reserved for floppy disks. Are you thinking of two separate HDDs ?
I have been using A and B for backup drives A internal 3 TB and B eSATA 3 TB seems to be working ok for me.

Applying the scheme discussed above on a fairly modern Windows based system typically results in the following drive letter assignments:

  • A:Floppy disk drives, 3.5" or 5.25", and possibly other types of disk drives, if present.
  • B: — Reserved for a second floppy drive, if present.
  • C: — First hard disk partition.
  • D: to Z: — Other disk partitions get labeled here. The letter D: or E: are often assigned to CD-ROM, DVD drives but not always. In fact, Windows assigns the next free drive letter to the next drive it encounters while enumerating the disk drives on the system during installation. Drives can be partitioned, thereby creating more drive letters. This applies to MS-DOS, as well as all Windows operating systems. Windows offers other ways to change the drive letters, either through the Disk Manager (Windows NT, 2000, XP and later) or through the Device Manager found in the Control Panel. MS-DOS typically uses parameters on the line loading device drivers inside the CONFIG.SYS file.
  • F: — First network drive if using Novell NetWare.
  • H: — "Home" directory on a network server.
  • L: — Dynamically assigned load drive under Concurrent DOS, Multiuser DOS, System Manager and REAL/32.[SUP][6][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP]
  • M: — Drive letter for optionally memory drive MDISK under Concurrent DOS.[SUP][6][/SUP]
  • N:, O:, P: — Assignable floating drives under CP/M-86 4.x, Personal CP/M-86 2.x, DOS Plus 1.2-2.1 (via BDOS call 0Fh), a concept later extended to any unused drive letters under Concurrent DOS, Multiuser DOS, System Manager, REAL/32 and DR DOS up to 6.0.[SUP][6][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP]
  • Q: — Microsoft Office Click-to-Run virtualization.
  • Z: — First network drive if using Banyan VINES, and the initial drive letter assignment for the virtual disk network in the DOSBox x86 emulator. It is also the first letter selected by Windows for network resources, as it automatically selects from Z: downwards.
Drive C: usually contains all of the Windows operating system files required for operation of the computer. On many modern personal computers, only one hard drive with one partition is present, so it is designated C:. On such a computer, all of a user's personal files are often stored in directories on this drive as well. These drives can, however, be different.

Reading this I could have an issue using B as a back up drive? I got this from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_letter_assignment Although I have not experienced any. That could be since theoretical I'm using it as a floppy replacement a back up drive?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro MC
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G75VW / Z97 Pro
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3610QM / I7-4790K
    Motherboard
    Z97 Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Hyundai HTM315156CFR8C-PB PC3-12800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M (GF114M)
    Sound Card
    VIA 6.0.10.1600
    Screen Resolution
    1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
    Internet Speed
    30 down 3 up
    Browser
    Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    NIS and Malwarebytes
Drives A: and B: are reserved for floppy disks. Are you thinking of two separate HDDs ?
I have been using A and B for backup drives A internal 3 TB and B eSATA 3 TB seems to be working ok for me.

You can use those drive letters if you want, but I think what CountMike is saying is Windows won't assign them to hard drives on its own.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Capture.PNG
The drive currently marked drive Z (Disk 3) is the stand alone drive that is working properly. Disk 1 and 2 are the pooled drive that windows seems to think is drive Z. I have also included a screenshot of the contents of drive Z, and a recurva scan of the Disk 1. None of the folders appearing in the scan should not be there as they did not exist before the reinstallation.z.PNGz2.PNGRecurva.PNG
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
I'm sorry if my original explanation wasn't clear. The drive letters themselves are not the issue. Windows is looking at the pooled drive and expecting it to be drive Z (Disk 3). I have no idea why it's made this decision and as far as I can tell that's what has made the drives inaccessible. I did have an additional harddrive installed when I did the fresh install of windows, but was forced to remove it when windows would not boot. The drive itself is working (tested with a usb drive mount), but that's an another issue altogether.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Drives A: and B: are reserved for floppy disks. Are you thinking of two separate HDDs ?
I have been using A and B for backup drives A internal 3 TB and B eSATA 3 TB seems to be working ok for me.

You can use those drive letters if you want, but I think what CountMike is saying is Windows won't assign them to hard drives on its own.

Yes sorry to barge in, the OP just got me thinking I hope I haven't confuse the OP
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro MC
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G75VW / Z97 Pro
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3610QM / I7-4790K
    Motherboard
    Z97 Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Hyundai HTM315156CFR8C-PB PC3-12800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M (GF114M)
    Sound Card
    VIA 6.0.10.1600
    Screen Resolution
    1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
    Internet Speed
    30 down 3 up
    Browser
    Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    NIS and Malwarebytes
I have been using A and B for backup drives A internal 3 TB and B eSATA 3 TB seems to be working ok for me.

You can use those drive letters if you want, but I think what CountMike is saying is Windows won't assign them to hard drives on its own.

Yes sorry to barge in, the OP just got me thinking I hope I haven't confuse the OP

No problem as far as I'm concerned. Actually the OP confused things by calling the drive, drive A when that was not its actual drive letter.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
I think what you have to do is resetup your storage pool. Then just reassign the drive letters to what you want them to be.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
It seems as if windows wrote the partition data for disk 3 onto disk 1, 2. Would there be any way to simply rebuild the partition?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
I don't know? I've never used storage spaces. I think you may have lost what's on them. Depends on what Reset does?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
There was likely something you should have or could have done before the reinstall to prevent this from happening. I guessing, anyway.

EDIT: You could always wait a bit and see if another forum member has a solution.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
It seems as if windows wrote the partition data for disk 3 onto disk 1, 2. Would there be any way to simply rebuild the partition?
I have no Idea what is going on but I did find this article it seems that Storages Spaces is a dynamic volume https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831739.aspx you would have to rebuild after an reinstall? I don't understand anything about dynamic Volumes but it seems that a new OS would have to know how it is set up which it would have lost the information with the reinstall?
Perhaps this article will help or what ever software you used to create the dynamic Volume would have some answers?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro MC
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G75VW / Z97 Pro
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3610QM / I7-4790K
    Motherboard
    Z97 Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Hyundai HTM315156CFR8C-PB PC3-12800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M (GF114M)
    Sound Card
    VIA 6.0.10.1600
    Screen Resolution
    1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
    Internet Speed
    30 down 3 up
    Browser
    Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    NIS and Malwarebytes
It seems as if windows wrote the partition data for disk 3 onto disk 1, 2. Would there be any way to simply rebuild the partition?
I have no Idea what is going on but I did find this article it seems that Storages Spaces is a dynamic volume https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831739.aspx you would have to rebuild after an reinstall? I don't understand anything about dynamic Volumes but it seems that a new OS would have to know how it is set up which it would have lost the information with the reinstall?
Perhaps this article will help or what ever software you used to create the dynamic Volume would have some answers?

I glanced it over, looks like software RAID. If the configuration info is lost, I would say the data is lost?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
OP mentioned drive contents not accessible -- MiniTool Power Data Recovery is just one of many very good data recovery programs.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Pro 64bit [MS blue-disk set]
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2 Acers & 1 Antec[?]
    CPU
    i7 in 2 Acers, i5 in desktop
    Motherboard
    Desktop w/Gigabyte
    Memory
    Two w/16GB, 1 w/8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Laptops GameWorthy; Desktop maybe GameWorthy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    flatscreens; 2 are BluRay worthy
    Screen Resolution
    1368x768; 1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB internals; 2 ext usb WD 1TB HDs
    PSU
    what's PSU?
    Cooling
    Regular plus external fans
    Keyboard
    desktio w/PS2
    Mouse
    desktop w/PS2
    Internet Speed
    DSL middle level [160?]
    Browser
    from Netscape 0.9 to FF 36
    Antivirus
    well-balanced, well-configured mult-layered defense is best
    Other Info
    From MS-DOS 3.3, MS-DOS 6.22, from Windows 3.1 to WFW 3.11 to Windows 95-98SE, now to Windows 7 Pro.
    Security for now: Windows 7 Firewall, Emsisoft AM, MSE [scan-only], SpywareBlaster, Ruiware/BillP combine
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