1

On Windows 10

I have a 16 GB (14.3 GiB) USB flash storage which I have partitioned into two NTFS partitions, a 2 GB and a 12 GB partition. Windows 10 drive properties

And I have done this with Windows 10's Disk Management as you can see: Disk Management

On Windows 8.1 or 7

I have tested the USB device on a Win 8.1 PC and Win 7 laptop and they both fail to read or mount the second partition (the 12 GB partition). They both only show and mount the first partition.

Win 8.1 and 7

Disk Mgmt on older windows

If I right click and try to check properties or try to change drive letter for the second partition, I get this error in disk management:

change drive letter

errored

I tried diskpart but I realized that it's not able to change drive letters for partitions but only for volumes which doesn't help in this situation:

diskpart

I tried connecting the device to an Ubuntu 18.04.2 and an old windows 7 Ultimate build on VMWare (both are VMs) and both failed to recognize the device.

Just to make sure the device works on another Windows 10 setup, I tested it, and it mounted both partitions successfully as expected.

  1. What is the problem? Is my partitioning wrong? (Should I not have made them both NTFS?) How can I successfully mount the second partition?

  2. What can I do to prevent such things to happen in the future? Because I expect things to work right out and I needed my files on the devices where I had no access to my own Windows 10 laptop, so what can I do to recover the files in dire situation?

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    Older versions can't recognize multiple partitions in an external device. Nothing to do about that.
    – user931000
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 19:30
  • 1
    You're right.. I just checked on Windows 8.1 and I was not able to delete any of the partitions, so I cleaned the devices with diskpart and I tried allocating the space, I was able to create only one partition. Since it also did not work on Ubuntu.. I wonder if multiple partition works on any OS other than Win 10.. Also is this limitation on USB sticks? Or all external devices? For example a 1TB external HDD?
    – Shayan
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 19:39
  • 1
    I also found this question which is similar to mine kind of superuser.com/questions/271245/…
    – Shayan
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 19:45
  • 2
    Ubuntu can read multiple partitions anywhere.
    – user931000
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 21:21

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

This is either a limitation programmed into windows or the ntfs version not being backwards compatible for this feature try using Exfat instead that might work. Making it in an older version of windows might also work.

In this case for file recovery a vm of windows 10 is the solution you can download one from microsoft it is 20gb and expires in 8 days from date of download. https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .