Cannot remove second virtual DISK from Win 8.1

[Asus User]

We aimed to create a second partition in Win 8.1 to host XP to utilise some bespoke software designed for a Youth Employment Project; upon not being required Virtualbox was removed. Somehow we find ourselves with a boot drive C: of 30GB (now crammed full) and a second superfluous drive D: of 470GB!
We reinstalled Virtualbox but the removal process did not work; on reviewing forum articles we found and manually deleted the VMs folders and files; all to no avail.
When viewed via the Disk Management tool the table shows one DISK above another DISK, not two partitions on the same horizontal line - so the Merge Partitions facility is 'greyed out' and not available! We assume some code still lurks somewhere.
Please help!!!

[scottgus1]

Please post a screenshot of the Disk Management window, in the Upload Attachment tab under the textbox where you type new posts. Be sure the screenshot shows both these drives.

[Asus User]

Please see attached screenshot of Disk Management utility - thank you

[scottgus1]

Thanks for the screenshot! I think you're going to have to crack open the case and see what's physically inside. Your Disk Management is extremely typical of having two physical disks in the PC: a 32 GB disk (shows as about 30GB, probably an SSD) and a 500GB disk (shows as 465GB typically). I have never seen a Disk Management look like that and not be two disks, nor can I think of any way for a large partition on one disk to be split off and appear as another disk (although there may be a way). FWIW, disk manufacturers measure their disks by the base-10 1000's, not the binary 1024's as a computer shows. 500GB measured in 1000's calculates back to 465GB in binary, and a 32GB disk measures back to ~30GB, which numbers fit what your total disk spaces show in the Disk Management. If this was originally a single disk, then the original disk size would have been sold as 532GB. Never heard of one of those before. Thus I think you have two disks inside.

In any event, if there really is a single disk, and it was really split off to appear as two disks, this arrangement wasn't necessary to put a Virtualbox guest on the PC and whoever did it will have to undo it, or you'll have to ask on a Windows forum or a local PC repair person if you actually find only one disk inside. Regrettably, this isn't a Virtualbox-supportable question.

I will pass on one idea to clear space on the C drive: In File Explorer, right-click the C drive, then Properties, then Disk Cleanup, and set it to look at System files after the first scan (Google all this). You probably have some Windows Update files cached and other things you can get rid of, probably amounting to a decent number of GB. (We have some tablets with 32GB SSDs and Windows 8.1, and the space is rather tight. Disk Cleanup gives a bit of wiggle room.) You caould also get a larger SSD and clone the Disk 0 over to the larger SSD. Get the local PC repair shop to help.

[Asus User]

Hi, thank you very much for your comprehensive and considered reply, much appreciated. What a strange situation. And thanks for the clean up tip, frustratingly I have already done that.
Weirdly, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be best to make the second, bigger disk the boot up one and consign the smaller one to a backup role! Either that or revert to plan A and configure the big disk to Windows XP and load all the bespoke software on that to extend their useful life!
Anyway thank you again, an impressive forum service.
Yours, Ian.
PS: Fingers crossed I can get the employment, sports and social projects up and running shortly and all will be well with the world! Cheers.

[BillG]

As Scott noted, this is not a VirtualBox thing but Windows. I think that it happened before you even installed VirtualBox when you tried to create a new partition, and somehow created a new logical drive instead. (I have no idea why it appears as a separate disk). You should be able to remedy that by deleting the new volume and hopefully get the space back as unallocated space on Disk 0. If you are worried about deleting it, you could shrink it if it is totally or mainly empty and get the rest back as unallocated space. Or you could just use it as a second hard drive without changing anything, as you said. You can rename it if you don't want it saying New Volume forever.

Your title for this post is misleading. You did not create a virtual disk. You created a new volume on your hard disk. You can create a virtual disk (VHD or VHDX) from Disk Management but it appears as just a file in your file system, not as a partition or volume.

[Asus User]

Thanks Bill. Funnily enough I didn't do anything disk or partition wise other than via Virtualbox; and once I found and tried using the Disk Management utility following a web-based tip, I both deleted the new volume and shrank it hoping to reallocate the space - however the option to increase C: was 'greyed out' and not available!
I could use D: purely for data, but I have already experienced a 'lack of space' warning stopping the full installation of Office.
But once again I thank you and your forum colleagues for your time and efforts.
Cheers, Ian

[BillG]

I'm sorry, but that cannot be true. There is no way that VirtualBox can create or change partitions on the host. There is also no way that you could do it from within a VirtualBox guest. How exactly did you "aim to create a second partition in Windows 8.1" without using Disk Management? A third party partition manager?

[Asus User]

An online article in PCWorld suggested using Virtulbox to create, in their words, a 'Virtual Machine', within which you could install Win XP and thereby continue to run XP programmes that are not available in Win 8.1. So I followed their instructions and installed XP. Hence D: appeared on the pc as a partition. I don't know how, but somewhere there is some computer code active that is a residue from the Virtualbox initialisation.

[socratis]

An online article in PCWorld

[Citation needed]

there is some computer code active that is a residue from the Virtualbox initialisation.

No, there is not.

scottgus1 gave you the explanation. Why you chose to ignore it and believe in hocus pocus, is beyond me...

I think you're going to have to crack open the case and see what's physically inside.

[mpack]

In the Disk Management window OF YOUR HOST, right block the box which says "Disk 1 Basic" (don't click on the partitions area to the right). Select "Properties" from the menu. Post a screenshot of the resulting dialog. The info will include disk device type, manufacturer and bus location. None of it will say VirtualBox.

You can also click the "Driver" tab to get the driver provider and date. Again this will not mention Oracle or VirtualBox.

My guess: you copied some VHDs onto your PC, and mounted one of them with Windows VHD image mounting tool.

[scottgus1]

On my Windows 10 and Windows 7 PCs, mounted VHDs show a blue icon in Disk Management (I don't have 8.1 for exact comparison, unfortunately):

Disk Mgmt VHD drive Win10.PNG (4.39 KiB) Viewed 3417 times

Disk Mgmt VHD drive Win7.PNG (4.12 KiB) Viewed 3417 times

I would assume 8.1 would also show mounted VHDs as blue. Asus User's C and D drives are both showing gray.

Interestingly my Win10 VHD is mounted on my 1TB Q drive:

Disk Mgmt Q drive.PNG (4.38 KiB) Viewed 3417 times

which still shows a complete 1TB (931GB in binary) even though one of the large files on it is the 60GB fixed-size VHD. So mounted VHDs don't take away from the shown size of the physical disk the VHD is stored on. And a VHD would need a physical disk to be stored on before it could be mounted.

Now I did just try an experiment: I made a dynamic 1TB VHD on a 128GB SSD (117GB in Disk Management) with 71GB data already on it and mounted and partitioned it with quick-format, and put something in it (not 1TB, mind, that ought to be interesting to try...) The dynamic VHD shows ITB space available, but there's no way more than 45-ish GB data would go in it before some sort of limit is reached. The hosting SSD still shows its full size in Disk Management. The point of the experiment is that a larger-than-possible VHD could be mounted on a smaller physical disk, but the original disk size wouldn't drop in Disk Management, and the mounted disk would have a blue icon (unless there's a way to change the icon or 8.1 changed then 10 changed back).

Asus, there's just about no other way to diagnose this: you have a second physical disk in the PC. No more hocus-pocus, as Mpack points out. Open the case and look.

[erdeslawe]

This is my pure speculation as the OP hasn't provided any details of the Laptop/PC in use, but given the 'username' I presume (perhaps incorrectly) it was manufactured by ASUS.

ASUS has released several 'laptop' models in the 'Transformer' range with either a 24 or 32 GB eMMC 'Drive', which is typically set up as SSD Cache, + a 'normal' 500 GB HDD. This arrangement would presumably show up as 2 separate 'hard drives' in Disk Management, though internally you would not see 2 typical hard drive enclosures as the eMMC board looks more like a memory board.

Of course, if the OP could also check the precise specs of his/her machine with the manufacturer's website and all should become much clearer.

[Asus User]

Hi, the PC is an Asus T200TA notebook/tablet; 32 Bit; 2GB Ram; 500GB HD; Win 8.1

Please see screen shot attachments as requested. I hope this helps.

PPS: I am not attempting to lay blame or be awkward, I am merely seeking help to resolve a situation which seriously threatens a youth project close to my heart.

Ian

[scottgus1]

Can you please do one more screenshot, like this?

Device manager Disks.PNG (33.62 KiB) Viewed 3397 times