How can I free a drive letter having a drive type of 1 ("not root directory")

Question

I uninstalled the Ubuntu system that I was dual-booting with Windows 7 by deleting Ubuntu's partitions. After booting up and running bootrec /fixmbr bootrec /fixboot, I was able to boot back to Windows 7.

Unfortunately, my second hard drive (not the same hard drive where Ubuntu was installed) has been unmounted. It was previously mounted on the D: drive letter on Windows 7.

There is now a Local Disk (D:) item on the Computer page of Windows 7 under the Other subcategory.

I can't see it under the Disk Management. I tried unmount it using mountvol D: /d or /p and even /r but they all die with the message The system cannot find the file specified. mountvol also can't see the volume:

Possible values for VolumeName along with current mount points are:

    \\?\Volume{51270ec5-54ee-11e2-858a-806e6f6e6963}\
        *** NO MOUNT POINTS ***

    \\?\Volume{202f0a04-091a-11e3-8129-c8be19280f7d}\
        F:\

    \\?\Volume{96225788-7443-11e2-b481-c860006e78fb}\
        G:\

    \\?\Volume{51270ec6-54ee-11e2-858a-806e6f6e6963}\
        C:\

    \\?\Volume{13729d51-c791-11e2-81cc-806e6f6e6963}\
        E:\

and neither can DiskExt:

Volume: \\?\Volume{51270ec5-54ee-11e2-858a-806e6f6e6963}\
   Mounted at: <unmounted>
   Extent [1]:
       Disk:   0
       Offset: 1048576
       Length: 104857600
Volume: \\?\Volume{202f0a04-091a-11e3-8129-c8be19280f7d}\
   Mounted at: F:\
   Extent [1]:
       Disk:   1
       Offset: 1048576
       Length: 120031543296
Volume: \\?\Volume{96225788-7443-11e2-b481-c860006e78fb}\
   Mounted at: G:\
   Extent [1]:
       Disk:   2
       Offset: 32256
       Length: 120034091520
Volume: \\?\Volume{51270ec6-54ee-11e2-858a-806e6f6e6963}\
   Mounted at: C:\
   Extent [1]:
       Disk:   0
       Offset: 105906176
       Length: 255951948288
Volume: \\?\Volume{13729d51-c791-11e2-81cc-806e6f6e6963}\
   Mounted at: E:\
   No Extents

wmic displays the following:

C:\Windows\system32>wmic logicaldisk get description,name,drivetype,filesystem
Description         DriveType  FileSystem  Name
Local Fixed Disk    3          NTFS        C:
Unknown drive type  1                      D:
CD-ROM Disc         5          CDFS        E:

I'd also like to add that the old volume that was mounted on D: is fine! I could still mount it on another directory and I could still access the files inside it. I want it to be mounted on D: again.

Answer 1

Run cmd as Administrator.

DISKPART

List available disk numbers:

> LIST DISK 

Select a specific disk number:

> SELECT DISK <disk number>

Select a specific disk number, example:

> SELECT DISK 0

Show details about the selected disk:

> DETAIL DISK 

List partition numbers on the selected disk:

> LIST PARTITION

Select a specific partition at disk:

> SELECT PARTITION  <partition number>

Select a specific partition at disk, example:

> SELECT PARTITION  2

Show details about the selected partition:

> DETAIL PARTITION 

Change to standard NTFS:

SET ID=07 OVERRIDE