Just converted external HDD from fat32 to ntfs. Not displaying in My Computer now

Im trying to transfer .mkv files over to my external hdd and i had read that if its fat32, it wont accept files over 4 GBs, that it needs to be ntfs. With a simple conversion, i went to the command prompt and typed "convert G: /fs:ntfs". success a few minutes later but now the drive letter wont show up in My Computer. It does under device manager, devices and printers and says its working properly and everything. I can even eject it. Ive read that i cant just convert it back to fat32 as well, not without erasing my data. Id be sad but not completely heartbroken if i had to wipe it, only about 750 GB of stuff. Can anyone help out?

 

open disc manager assuming it's already inialised all you need do is assign a drive letter,right clik on the partition & do it.the left column where it lists discs if the word intialise is there do it before assigning a drive letter.You are correct you can't revert back however there is free software available to retrieve the data that's there so don't do more than what i've mentioned & do not format or anything else

 

disc manager? im assuming device manager

 

admin tools-computer management-disc manager

 

Where the hecks admin tools? lol im sorry, i thought i was a bit smarter.

And thanks a lot for helping

edit: found it

 

cant figure out how to assign the drive letter, under disk 1 it only offers me to click down below and to see the properties or Convert to Dynamic Disk

there are several "blan k" Volumes under the list to the left and they add up to about 1.2 TBs, but my drive is 2 TBs...right clicking them doesnt give me anything to do.

 

OK Don't do anything like add or change whatever until you understand what it is your looking at.

 

roger that, ive sent you a private message if youd rather chat in there.

 

You need to determine which volume or disc is your external,if you only have one internal then we can assume disc 1 is the external hdd,best way to find out is disconnect the external have disk manager open & reattach the external & see if it appears back in disc manager if it does you set it to basic NOT dynamic,it may have to be initilised it will say so in left column if it needs it,if not then right clik in empty space to the right where it says disc 1,in other words the right column where it has a coloured strip DO NOT TOUCH DISC 0 or do anything to partition C

blank volumes or geyed out should be dvd drives or card readers

 

I'll check back in the morn you may have to post a screen shot of disc manager with your usb attached if nothing works

 

Seems to be Disk 1, when i right click everything is grey except, "Convert to Dynamic Disc," "Offline," "properties," and "help."

 

disc 1 is the 2tb drive

There's a major issue here the partitions in blue on the 2tb should've been set as extended with a primary partition in the very left unallocated space.

1-Was the partition to the very left formatted as fat32 or was it left empty when you first created the fat 32 partitions same question for the very end unallocated space


2-Do you have the data backed up on another drive if so skip to last 3 paragraphs

the following is a live cd solution for seeing if we can see the data on the hdd if you don't have it backed up elsewhere DO NOT HIT INSTALL,you can stop it it at anytime if you do.

download either puppy linux or ubuntu from here http://distrowatch.com/ burn either to a rw disc if you have one or just a std cd-r,that picture of the disc & partition layout you have above keep it handy you'll need it for the following

once cd is burned with either distro of linux & you have picture above,reboot comp & let the linux distro boot,if you have the puppy distro you have two desktop options xorg or xvesa choose xvesa if it doesn't work (screen will be black or there's just a wash of color)reboot & choose xorg.

4-once on desktop find "computer" locate partitons on what would be disc 1,you do this by the picture you have,the partitions on disc 1 correspond by size in linux,either double clik the partition or right clik & mount (icon of mounted drive should now appear on desktop),you can also tell whats what by the data once partitions are mounted,can u see the data if you have another hdd transfer the data to it once all data is saved reboot back to windows.you'll need to mount the spare hdd so you can transfer to it



download easeus partition manager (free version) or minitool free (you get free partition recovery & data recovery from these two if needed),install either to windows or both.

before continuing is the smallest partition with 27gb at the right side free of data if so delete it so it becomes unallocated,this should leave two outer unallocated spaces & three primary spaces in between in,i'll check back later

edit: to locate linux of puppy or ubuntu use search box at left on distrowatch page near top

 

as soon as I saw all of your insructions a month ago I got so frustrated I've refused to anything about it til today. just going to format now and start fresh since the data isn't too.important.

thanks a lot for your help