How to view contents on a partition with no drive letter?

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  1. davidhelp
    Posts : 83
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #11

    I have 4TB of files on the 14TB drive....

    I found a way but it looks like I have to copy the partition to somewhere else first before I can convert to NTFS.
    How to Convert exFAT to NTFS on Windows 10/11

    Maybe I can resize the partition on the drive and then copy the exFAT partition there then convert. Then copy the files over to the now NTFS partition. OR get another external drive and copy the files.

    UPDATE: It looks like I cannot resize the partition. The controls will not let me move the slider or type in a number.
    Looks like a copy of files to another hard drive is need.
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  3. SIW2
    Posts : 4,646
    several
       New #12

    not sure what you mean.

    you can access and copy from/write to an unlettered partition with diskgenius free.

    If you dont want the esp partition on the external disk, just delete it. Delete only the esp partition, do not delete any partitions that contain your data.

    Click the unlettered partition in the left pane to select it, then click the FILES tab on the right window.

    rt click context menu allows copy out file/folders, or copy in files/folders, or delete files/folders

    How to view contents on a partition with no drive letter?-dg-files2.jpg
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  4. spunk
    Posts : 4,838
    Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit 22H2
       New #13

    You can also move/resize your partition with Minitool which you already have.
    Or you co do it as stated, in DiskGenius, download from my signature. Use either without loosing data.
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  6. davidhelp
    Posts : 83
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #14

    UPDATE: I removed the Western Digital 10TB hard drive from the my G-Drive external drive enclosure and put it in a SIIG enclosure. It was able to read the drive and I am in the process of copying all the files off to another hard drive on the HP pc I have. I will then format the Western Digital drive. WHEW!... I got lucky in recovering. I blame the G-Drive interface.
    TIP: Have a spare enclosure to test if it is the hard drive or the enclosure that is at fault.

    I have another Seagate Expansion 14TB External Hard Drive HDD - USB 3.0 drive arriving on Wednesday and will format to NTFS and will copy the files from the first 14TB drive over then format that drive to NTFS. Next step is to mirror the files between the 14TB drives. UPDATE: The new Seagate 14TB arrived and it was partitioned same as the other Seagate 14TB drive. Now NTFS!

    Question: Do I initialize the disk?
    It looks like I do not have a choice. Any ideas?

    I decided to use my G-Drive 10TB external drive to copy the files over and it is not detected in Window 10 22H2 64-bit. in my Gigabyte pc so I moved it to my HP z240. It took these steps just to detect it.

    Device manager detects the G-Drive 10TB external drive.
    Disk management takes several minutes then this pops up:

    "You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it"
    (the link below says Yes or No to loss of files. I have files on that G-Drive so do not want to lose them)
    Options are:
    MBR
    GPT

    One solution besides this was to delete the driver and USB driver in Device Manager and restart the pc. This I did. Still detected in Device Manager and Disk management shows the same message.

    How to view contents on a partition with no drive letter?-disk-management-initialize.jpg

    MiniTools Partition Wizard shows "Updating partition information. Please wait"
    Now shows: "Disk 3 MBR 0.00GB

    How to view contents on a partition with no drive letter?-g-drive-0gb.jpg

    MiniTool help on subject:
    4 FIXES: You Must Initialize a Disk Before Logical Disk Manager Can Access It - EaseUS

    - - - Updated - - -

    I have to backup my files first so I need another drive....

    You can’t resize exFAT partitions on Windows directly. Instead, you need to back up the data on the exFAT partition and then format it to NTFS
    Resize exFAT Partition: Extend/Shrink exFAT Partition - MiniTool Partition Wizard
    Last edited by davidhelp; 06 Mar 2024 at 20:16.
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  7. Berton
    Posts : 14,102
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #15

    The only real reason to keep exFAT formatting was given me on the package for the 2 x 4TB USB drives by the statements about being for PC and Macintosh. Mac OS X can read NTFS but not natively write to it until adding another program [don't know about the newer macOS]. I no longer had a Mac so reformatted as NTFS.

    Didn't see mentioned but Windows needs a drive to be formatted before it can assign a drive letter.
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  8. Steve C
    Posts : 7,925
    Windows 11 Pro 64 bit
       New #16

    Bree said:
    A partition without a drive letter can be explored with MiniTools Partition Wizard, right-click on it and select Explore.

    Attachment 406463
    That's what I do too.
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