Remove EFI partition from portable HDD

Wildkarrde

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Hi all,

I have received my portable HDD back from Seagate where they have recovered all my data, which is great. However, when i plug it into my media player the HDD is not recognised and only come up with EFI and no files to play?
When i plug the HDD into my laptop i can see and play all the files. Is it possible to remove this EFI partition safely so my media player can play my files? I've attached a screenshot of what it shows using disk management -
My PC is Windows 10 home edition and the HDD is Seagate 4TB.

Thanks.


1606138751731.png
 
Removing the EFI partition would not be a good idea and would probably result in all your data being lost. If you look at the main Movies partition the answer is there - Bitlocker.

To get the drive to work with your media player you need to switch off bitlocker using your laptop.
 
Removing the EFI partition would not be a good idea and would probably result in all your data being lost. If you look at the main Movies partition the answer is there - Bitlocker.

To get the drive to work with your media player you need to switch off bitlocker using your laptop.

Thanks for the reply.

Ok, next question; How to turn off bitlocker? Is that fairly straightforward task?
 
Just google it. Not difficult to do.
 
Difficult when what google tells you to do doesn't work....


When i enter the command prompt it tells mw that manage-bde-off F: is not recognised as an internal or external command.
 
Looks like you omitted a space from that command line after bde and before -off
 
Looks like you omitted a space from that command line after bde and before -off

Thanks Nigel.

I've tried all different variants and get the same prompt - Any other ideas anyone?

1606240806265.png
 
Not that I have ever needed nor tried this myself, but from what I see, none of those command lines are correct. According to the link above it's

manage-bde{space}-off{space}{drive letter}{colon}
 
Thanks for the simpleton explanation, Nigel :laugh:

Looks like it's now decrypting so fingers crossed that works :smashin:
 
Ok, so after 4 days of decryption i have plugged in the HDD to my media player and still it only reads the EFI partition.
Does anyone have any other ideas?


1606595466981.png
 
What is your media player ? It may not be equipped to read exFAT partitions.

Do you have any other suitable HDDs that you could check work with the media player before copying the data off the drive?
 
Thanks for the reply.

Media player is an egreat A5.
I have 2 other portable HDDs which work, one is a Western Digital and the other is a Seagate.
 
Do you know what format each one is in ?
Can you test each one with the media player ? e.g. put some music/video files on each one and see if the media player can see them.
 
Sorry I should have been more specific. Both the HDDs have files on them which the media player can read.
I'm unsure of what format each is on. I will check and report back.

Thanks for your help.
 
Do you know what format each one is in ?
Can you test each one with the media player ? e.g. put some music/video files on each one and see if the media player can see them.

I've plugged in both HDDs and both state they are NTFS whilst the other is exFat. Is it possible to change this without losing data?
 
No. You will need to copy the data off the drive before reformatting it to NTFS.
 

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