WIN7 - Disk not Accessible

I am running Win7-64 ultimate. I have a 1.5T HDD with 2 partitions. Win7 installed on the first, storage on second. Its been fine until this week. It takes a long time to start up and I cant access the storage partition from win7. The recycle bin also takes a long time to respond. When I click on the D drive it eventually says: "D:\ is not accessible. The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error." I was initially able to access some of the files on that partition. But now I cant access it at all.

I booted from another HDD running XP and had full access with no problems.
I backed up everything, reformatted that partition and restored all my files to it with no problems. But when I went back to win7 no access. Ive been working on this for days and cant figure it out.

 

Greetings, korok.

Do your symptoms change when you boot into Safe Mode?

 

Thanks For the quick reply!

No, Its the same in safe mode.

 

Strange. What does Disk Management show (Start > Control Panel > Admin Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management)?

 

Disk Management Shows:

Win-7 (C: ) Layout > Simple Type > basic File System > ntfs Status > Healthy(system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary partition) Capacity > 390GB Free Space > 342GB % Free > 88% Fault Tolerance > no Overhead > 0%

(D: ) Layout > Simple Type > Basic File System > RAW Status > Healthy(Primary Partition) Capacity > 1000GB Free Space > 1000GB % Free > 100% Fault Tolerance > no Overhead > 0%


This is really messed up. Im comparing to an XP machine but shouldnt Layout be Partition on both C and D and File System should be NTFS on D. Also there is ~800GB of data on D. Its there and accessable when I boot from my XP HDD. And I think status is screwed up on both. You cant have 2 primary partitions can you?

Disk management takes a couple minutes to open up. While its loading, it says "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service" in the bottom status bar. My XP machine does it so fast that I can hardly read it but Im pretty sure it says "Connecting to Logical Disk Management Service"

This gets me thinking. Im not real sure on the timing but I started having this problem shortly after trying out "XP Mode". I Downloaded Virtual PC and XP Mode from MS. I thought I could use it to play some older games that dont work on 7 but it didnt work very well so I uninstalled XP Mode and Virtual PC.
Anyway, just a thought.

I should add, I dont really care about the data on D, I just dont want to have to install Windows again.

I usually know enough to get by but sometimes it seems I know just enough to get myself in trouble

Thanks again for your help.

 

Don't we all...

That RAW listing for D:'s File System is glaring at me: check the attached screenie (this is an OEM machine, so that first partition is probably a recovery area). Note that both C: and D: are NTFS, and that all are listed as primaries.

You're right: that XP Mode and Virtual PC install could have very well been the cause. Now - what to do about it?

While in Disk Management, right-click on the D: partition - is the 'Format' option available?
.

 

The format option is available.

 

Hi,

You can wait for Caliban--I think he comes on in the late evenings, so he may be back within the hour.

You said you've already reformatted the D: partition so I think deleting it entirely would be the next step.

If you don't care about the data on D: and already have it backed up then you could try deleting the D: partition in Disk Management. Reboot (not sure if this makes any difference but I would do it anyway since you've been having problems). Then see if Disk Management opens more quickly. If it does then it may have been a problem with the D: partition or partition table.

You could then create a new D: partition (primary is fine--or extended. You can have four primary partitions on a HD (maybe more with Win7). Format the new partition, copy back a few files and see it disk management opens at a normal speed. This would help test if has something to do with the D: partition itself rather than your Windows installation.

 

Thanks for the input sach2. This forum is awesome. Everyone is always so willing to help.

Like I said before, I know just enough to get myself in trouble, so please forgive me if I dont know what Im talking about but........

.....If there was a problem with the D: partition or partition table wouldnt I get the same results when booting from any OS? It doesn't make sense to me that it would boot fine from XP but not from 7. It is fine when booting from XP. See SS below.

If you still think deleting the partition is the way to go I will do that. Im just trying to understand this all. Awaiting your Reply.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/picture.php?albumid=316&pictureid=1114

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/picture.php?albumid=316&pictureid=1113

 

Technically, yes it should be the same on any OS but sometimes things are just quirky. Much like an external USB hard drive and all its files will be seen fine by one computer and another will see it as RAW. I just figured since you have already tried formatting the partition that deleting it might be worth a go.

Now, looking at your screen shots, I'm a bit more confused. What is bothering me is that in the Win7 disk management shot there is no Disk 0 in the graph section. I see the XP hard drive up top but I don't see it in the graph section. That is strange.

In Win7 and Disk Management if you click on the the XP drive in the list, does it change the graph view at all? Normally, when you click on a partition in the list it highlights it in the graph section. (I'm trying to figure out if this could be related. Perhaps a SATA cable could be causing problems?)

 

Good shot - that's certainly worth a look.

Something seems to be preventing Win 7 from reading or reacting properly to the drive's boot sector and/or partition table. If a cable switch or deletion of the partition don't work, you might consider loading something like Partition Master or TestDisk, see if you can repair the process.

 

I noticed tonight that it took a while for all the graphs to come up. Maybe I took that SS before Disk 0 showed???


Ok, I tried a different SATA cable in a different port on my MB. It didn't help. So I deleted D: and things seem to be working fine now. 27 seconds from beep to logon screen. Disk management is up in under 2 seconds. Recycle bin, less than a second. Im going to set up D: tonight and will post my results tomorrow. Hopefully all will go well.

I hate when things are "just quirky".:confused

Sounds like a good sig.

 

That's a nice improvement! Fingers are Xed - keep us posted.

 

Format stopped at 62%. I let it run for 18 hours.

 

There seems to be something wrong with the HD. You definitely want to do a full format on the new partition.

A couple things you could try.

1) Download the HD diagnostic tool for that HD and run the long test to try to fix any errors found. (This should mark any bad sectors so they will not be used in the future)

2) Try formatting (full version) from the XP OS to see if it gets any further.

3) Try Gparted to do the formatting. Gparted is a Linux program so i would have to be run off a bootable CD or off an empty USB thumb drive (about 140mb download for the ISO file).

 

So I was thinking 62%....I should be able to format about 600G.
I was able to format 7 100G partitions and then wouldnt format any more.

I downloaded SeaTools and it passed all the tests. No errors were found.

I will try your other suggestions and post results.

 

Sounds like good troubleshooting. I had been wondering if it could be something about the PC not liking a large 1TB partition but could find no evidence that such a problem exists for anyone.

If you have 7 100gb partitions you might try creating 3 more. Then try formatting the last two. See if they format. That would tell you if the only problem is in the 8th 100gb partition.

 

I created the next partition. It asked me if I want to format the new partition. When I cancel, it says "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error." When I tried to create another partition computer management stopped responding.

Another thought. I booted up in XP again and just noticed that the 100M System Reserved partition is gone. Im not sure when it dissappeared.

 

I'm not sure what is going on here. SeaTools says the HD checks out but it sure looks like a HD problem to me.

You could try using a different software to create and format the partitions. Partition Wizard or Easeus Partition program will work. The thing is that I believe they use Windows formatting behind the scenes--I'm not sure about this but I am fairly sure they will only quick format. Because something is not quite right I think full formatting is the only way to go if you want to be confident that the partition is good.

You could try letting one of those programs create a partition for the last 300gb of the drive and see what they can do for formatting. If they quick format then you ould try to do a full format in Disk Management. (They are both Windows programs available here at MG so it would be fairly easy to test.)

***
Gparted might be a good option as I remember a recent thread where someone had a similar problem and Gparted created and formatted the partition with no problem. Since it is Linux based it may use a different process to complete the procedure. (If you have an empty USB thumb drive then the Unetbootin option is easy. Get the program and choose Parted Magic form the list of distributions and it will download and write the file to USB automatically. Or use a CD if you have one around.)

 

Sorry for the delay. Things have been busy here.

I tried to format with Partition Wizard. I also stopped at 62% just like Windows. I followed the instructions for gparted and created the thumb drive but couldnt figure out how to boot from it (assuming I was supposed to boot from it). So I decided to format another HD with Win7 and was able to format D: with Disk Manager from the new install in about 30 seconds. I booted up from the old install and was able to access D: from there. I have not copied my files back to D: so Im not claiming victory yet. I still think there is a problem with my Win7 installation. The disappearing System Reserved Partition, Computer management isnt right, every test Ive run says the HD is OK and I can format and partition it from XP and another Win7 install but not from this install. I will get back to you after I transfer files.