[SOLVED] External HDD partitions

Oct 21, 2020
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Hi!

I bought a case for HDD of my previous laptop and made an external HDD from it. I opened (now external) HDD and it was with 3 partitions. In total HDD was 200 GB and since I wanted to have only one partition I checked in internet how to remove 2 out of three partitions. So, I did it through Disk Management by deleting two partitions. The problem is that now I have one partition but with only 60 GB. It seems that two other partitions deleted took 140 GB with. How to recover those 140 GB?
 
Solution
a screenshot of the disk management page would be very helpful to see how it is all laid out. how the space is used (or unused in this case) makes a difference as to how to merge it into the last partition.

easiest way of course is just to delete EVERY partition and then create one single new one with all the available space. that's the easiest way to go about it.

Math Geek

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a screenshot of the disk management page would be very helpful to see how it is all laid out. how the space is used (or unused in this case) makes a difference as to how to merge it into the last partition.

easiest way of course is just to delete EVERY partition and then create one single new one with all the available space. that's the easiest way to go about it.
 
Solution
Oct 21, 2020
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Thank you for your promptness Math Geek. If I understood well, you are suggesting to delete the last one partition, too. How to create one single new one with all available space? I hope after deleting the last one partition I will find where the external HDD is?
 

Math Geek

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it should still show up in disk management. once that last partition is gone, then it will be all free space. now right click the drive and create a new volume and follow the wizard that opens.

pretty easy as other than naming it (which you do not have to do) you can let all the defaults stay and go from there. this will do a quick format of the new partition and have it all ready to go.

WARNING: do be sure it is the right drive and partition as once it is deleted, there is no undoing it!! so don't remove the wrong one :)
 
Oct 21, 2020
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I deleted the last partition and after refresh I have in disk management as in the attachment. In the main wondow there is nothing about external HDD, whereas below it is shown with all three partitions. It is tricky to me where to click and what to do. If I click in first partiton a drop down appears with new simple volume, new spanned volume. It is the same with two other volumes. Should I do anything with the other two volumes? Edit: I tried to attach a printscreen but failed. Sorry.file:///C:/Users/alber/OneDrive/Desktop/Untitled1.png
 
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Math Geek

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no do nothing with the other drives. you only want the external to be messed with.

on the external, click the external drive and select new simple volume from the drop down. then follow the wizard, if it does not show up in the list, then try disconnecting it and then reconnecting it. it is likely when you do, that it will pop up the wizard anyway as it will know it has no partition to work with.

and you can't directly attach a pic on the forum. it has to be uploaded somewhere and linked to. such as a site like imgr that will give you a sharable link to the pic.
 
Oct 21, 2020
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OK. As you will see in attachments, in lower part you will see Disk 1 which is external HDD with all three partitions. If I click in New Simple C=volume it gives only 62 GB and if I click in New Spanned Volume it doesnt allow to go Next.( I am talking about drop down menu when I right click one of partitions)
View: https://imgur.com/mep2CDn

View: https://imgur.com/LLhBNFH

View: https://imgur.com/vLRhtW7

View: https://imgur.com/lWoiT97
 
Oct 21, 2020
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you have 2 options then, you can use another disk manager program and see if it will work on it. i use this one myself.

https://www.diskpart.com/free-partition-manager.html

second option is to use the command prompt and use diskpart to attempt to clean out the drive. method 1 right at the top is this piece.

https://www.diskpart.com/diskpart/delete-partition-4125.html
Alright Math GEEK. Thank you indeed for your answers. I will let you know for outcome. Right now i am not sure to work with Command prompt but I will do it next days. Regards.
 

Math Geek

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command prompt can be intimidating. i prefer the program for less experienced users. it looks and works like disk management but can do some stuff disk management won't/can't.

i'd start there before resorting to the command line if you are not comfortable working with it.
 
Oct 21, 2020
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Actually, I did command prompt following this: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/format-hard-drive-command-prompt,37632.html
It is formatting very slowly> I will let yo know what happened.
Edit: It was successful formatting and after the formatting but external HDD was not recognized by system. o, I went again to Disk Management and clicked on New Simple Volume and now everything is OK. I am writing because others might need this info. I thank you again for your advises which helped me to solve the issue.
 
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