Unable to see volume contents, unable to bring volume online

[John7]

I have W7-64 installed on an MBR SATA SSD, and in use for several years. This disk has 2 partitions, one system & the other one is data.
Now I have installed W10-64 1909 on a GPT NVMe SSD on the same system in a UEFI dual boot setup. (I unplugged all other disks while installing W10)
This is functioning, it can boot cleanly into either one.

At first, I could see both SSD disks from both systems. Now, I cannot see the W7 disk contents from W10 (the other way still works). W10 can see that the other disk is there, but it cannot see its contents. Drive letters are assigned. In windows explorer, the disk contents are blank (while I know they are not blank).
(BTW there are two other GPT data mechanical drives in the system, no problem accessing them)

Using diskpart on the W10 system, I noticed that the disks are all online, but the 2 volumes of the W7 SSD are offline. I tried to bring them online by selecting them and then applying the diskpart "Online volume" command, but diskpart responds:
"diskpart could not online the selected volume"

Why not?
How do I fix this?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi John,

have you looked in Computer Management > Disk Management by right clicking the partitions to see if they are active or not?.

 

[Snuffy]

To see the easy way, FREE MinitoolPartitionManager... and you can see all partitions, K = 2nd OS and as you can see It also show 1 more part than Disk Management as it should. I notice your Drive 0 the 16GB and 25GB partitions have no drive letter..

and all 5 SSD/HHDs show GPT and MBRs

Drive K is my 2nd OS

 

[davehc]

It is Wolfies partition that have no drive letters. The op has not posted his yet.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Snuffy,

the two partitions on the right of my pic are Linux partitions and Windows won't allocate a drive letter to them as they are not active under Windows OS!.

 

[Snuffy]

ah so was not mentioned prior thanks.

 

[Bighorn]

ah so was not mentioned prior thanks.

My experience with Linux is that Windows and Mac OS X/macOS doesn't work with many of the drive formats Linux can.

 

[Snuffy]

suddenly we are on Linux whenthe OP mentions nothing about... so why - might i ask... due to Wolfie not mentioning in his original answer.
see #2

I have W7-64 installed on an MBR SATA SSD, and in use for several years. This disk has 2 partitions, one system & the other one is data.
Now I have installed W10-64 1909 on a GPT NVMe SSD on the same system in a UEFI dual boot setup. (I unplugged all other disks while installing W10)

 

[davehc]

Wolfie’s text made a useful suggestion - disregard his picture. You made the enquiry, which had to be answered with a reference to Linux.
Still awsiting a response from the op

 

[John7]

Hi John,

have you looked in Computer Management > Disk Management by right clicking the partitions to see if they are active or not?.

View attachment 11431

By my memory, in W10 disk mgmt it does not show this status either way. Though drive letters are assigned, it thinks the partitions are not accessible.
I am presently working on the same machine in W7, in ~2 hours I'll be able to shut that down and reboot into W10 to check that for you.

 

[John7]

By my memory, in W10 disk mgmt it does not show this status either way. Though drive letters are assigned, it thinks the partitions are not accessible.
I am presently working on the same machine in W7, in ~2 hours I'll be able to shut that down and reboot into W10 to check that for you.

Yes, when viewed from W10 Disk Management, the W7 system partition is marked as Active, Primary, and the other partition on the W7 SSD is marked as Primary.
However, if I select Explore, then it says that 0 bytes are used of 0 bytes!

 

[Saltgrass]

You may be crossing some lines by using a NVMe M.2 drive which, if run in that configuration, needs the UEFI Bios. Windows 7 configured as MBR can't use the UEFI bios..

Win 7 will run as UEFI but if it is installed that way, the bios settings have to show it as an alternate OS and will not work with Secure boot.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi John,

further to the comments made by @Saltgrass , how are yours hard disk drives connected in terms of what SATA ports are attached to what connection on the motherboard.

As an example. SATA 0 should be your first primary drive if you are using an SSD or HDD. SATA 1 would be the 2nd drive and so on!.

 

[John7]

You may be crossing some lines by using a NVMe M.2 drive which, if run in that configuration, needs the UEFI Bios. Windows 7 configured as MBR can't use the UEFI bios..

Win 7 will run as UEFI but if it is installed that way, the bios settings have to show it as an alternate OS and will not work with Secure boot.

Thank you for the ideas but Windows 7 runs fine with the present Bios settings and the present allocation of drives to SATA ports.
Accessing the W7 SSD from within W10 is what is not working. It did work earlier [with the same Bios settings], so it should be possible again. I do not know what made the change that stopped it. But I think I might have found the problem in that from within W10 the 2 volumes of the W7 SSD are now marked as being Offline, and so I'd like to know how to mark them as Online.
(No drives have been switched from one SATA port to another in the time period - while it was working and while it is now not working.)

 

[Wolfie]

(I unplugged all other disks while installing W10)

Are you absolutely sure you didn't switch the SATA cable connections around during this phase of installing W10?.

 

[John7]

Are you absolutely sure you didn't switch the SATA cable connections around during this phase of installing W10?.

Yes I am, I unplugged the power lines only, and then plugged them in again
AND
since the installation of W10, I was initially able to access the W7 SSD from within W10, so I really don't think that is involved.

 

[Wolfie]

W10 can see that the other disk is there,

Hi John,

I have never done the following but it might work for you?. Open Control Panel > Device manager and remove one of the drives with a right click (uninstall device), that is assuming it is indeed showing in the window!:

Shut down your computer (remove the power cable too) and remove both the SATA and power cable from that drive that you uninstalled. Reboot the PC once. Shut down the PC again (remove the power cable too) and then reconnect the SATA and power cable to the drive and then reboot again and see what happens?. Let us know if this helps!.

 

[John7]

Tried it - no change unfortunately

 

[Wolfie]

Hi John,

that's a shame, the only thing I can really recommend is a system reset which is a bit drastic but might solve the problem????.

Re-install W10 and keep your files/app data intact

BACK UP ALL YOUR FILES ON TO AN EXTERNAL DRIVE (OR OTHER PARTITION) BEFORE YOU START TO RESET YOUR PC!. Hi all, This is a quick run-down of how to reset W10 and keep your files/data intact, you will have to do a little work but you will find all your files, data and app settings in a folder...

www.windows10forums.com

Or try a system restore:

https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/system-restore-in-windows-10.36/

 

[John7]

Hi John,

that's a shame, the only thing I can really recommend is a system reset which is a bit drastic but might solve the problem????.

Re-install W10 and keep your files/app data intact

BACK UP ALL YOUR FILES ON TO AN EXTERNAL DRIVE (OR OTHER PARTITION) BEFORE YOU START TO RESET YOUR PC!. Hi all, This is a quick run-down of how to reset W10 and keep your files/data intact, you will have to do a little work but you will find all your files, data and app settings in a folder...

www.windows10forums.com

Or try a system restore:

https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/system-restore-in-windows-10.36/

Well, I'd rather find the problem and fix it rather than apply a generic system restore.
Besides, then the problem can come back again and then what - I'd be in an infinite loop.