Partitioning a hard drive comes with many benefits. This includes being able to run more than one operating system on a single computer, the ability to have one partition for more confidential data while the other could be more casual, or you may have multiple people using the same computer and want your data to be kept separate.
Whatever the case may be, deleting a partition will delete with it any data that is on it. You may have deleted a partition and then realized that you shouldn’t have as there were important files on it. Can you recover a deleted partition? The short answer is yes!
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Why the Partition May Be Deleted
Most of the time when a partition is missing or deleted, it is not done by the user but is the cause of some other sort of event. The most common and main reasons that your partition could either have been lost or is not showing up anymore are:
- Accidental deletion
- Partitioning error
- Power failure
- OS update
- Partition table corruption
- Hardware failure
- Malware
- Firmware Issues
Unless the hard drive has experienced physical damage, the partition should be recoverable. The quicker that you act, the higher of a chance that you have of successfully recovering the missing partition and the data that is on it.
If you notice a partition or files are missing from your computer, act quickly to ensure successful data recovery!
How to Recover Specific Files from a Deleted Windows Partition
It’s good to recover what files you can before implementing any fixes, as each action performed on the lost partition puts your data at risk of being overwritten. In such cases where you only need to recover specific files from a lost partition, you can use Disk Drill.
Disk Drill is a data recovery tool that can discover your lost partition, as well as recover data from it, all with only a few clicks. Follow the below steps to recover specific files from the partition.
Step 1. Download and install Disk Drill for Windows.
Keep in mind that when installing Disk Drill you will have the best chance of success by installing it onto an external device such as an external hard drive or thumb drive. We want to maintain wear and tear on the storage device that we’re trying to recover data from so that the data on it is not overwritten.
Step 2. Scan your Windows computer.
After launching Disk Drill, making the Data Recovery tab active will show us all of the devices/disks that are connected to our windows machine. To start a scan, click on the “Search for last data” option in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
Step 3. View the recovered data.
As our computer is being scanned, we can see that Disk Drill will start displaying the lost information that it has found with our partition being one of those items! You can wait for the scan to finish or click “Review found items” in the upper right-hand corner and any files if you need them right away.
Step 4. Choose what to recover.
Clicking on the lost partition, I can view the files that are located on it that Disk Drill has been able to recover for me. I am only looking to recover certain files off of it as there were some photos that I want to recover and put back onto my computer.
Step 5. Preview selected files before recovering.
I can double-click on a file to enter the “preview” mode and look at the image before recovering it. Once I have found and decided what files I want to recover, I can check the boxes in the lower right-hand corner as seen in the screenshot below. This helps with those files that don’t have a specific name tailored to them.
Step 6. Recover your missing data.
I can then click “Recover” and Disk Drill will take just a few moments for the deleted files to be back on my computer after I specify the location of the folder I want the files restored to.
Step 7. Verify the recovery was successful.
After the recovery has finished, Disk Drill will give me a confirmation notification along with the option to open the folder I chose for recovery.
How to Recover the Entire Partition
Method 1: Use TestDisk
If you’re recovering a partition that’s simply used for data storage, you can use TestDisk to recover the entire partition, as well as the data on it. TestDisk is an open-source partition recovery tool. It’s trusted in the recovery community for its efficiency and favored by many because it’s free. It can scan your drive for any lost partitions and recover them to their original state.
- Download TestDisk and extract the contents. Open testdisk_win.
- Press Enter on the Create option to create a log of the actions you’re performing.
- Highlight the disk that contains the lost partition and press Enter.
- Highlight your partition table type. TestDisk automatically selects the one it detects. Press Enter.
- Press Enter on the Analyse option.
- Press Enter again to start the Quick Search.
- Select the lost partition and press Enter.
- Move to the Write action and press Enter to restore the partition.
- Press Y to confirm.
Method 2: Recreate Partition Using Disk Manager
In some cases where your partition has disappeared, it may have been replaced with what’s known as unallocated space. Unallocated space is space that hasn’t been formatted with a file system, rendering it unusable. If your partition has been damaged, it could have reverted back to unallocated space. Therefore, before you can use it again, you must format it with a file system.
Follow these instructions to format the unallocated space with a file system so you can use it again.
- Right-click Start and click Disk Management.
- Right-click the unallocated space and click New Simple Volume.
- Click Next.
- Specify how large you want the volume to be. Click Next.
- Choose a drive letter and click Next.
- Choose a label for your volume and make sure it’s being formatted with the NTFS file system. Ensure Perform a quick format is ticked. Click Next.
- Click Finish.
How to Fix Corrupted Partition on Windows
Method 1: Assign or Change Drive Letter
Windows automatically assigns drive letters to storage devices you connect to your computer. If the drive letter has dropped, or if Windows failed to assign one, assigning a drive letter may be enough to restore access to the partition. Moreover, changing the existing drive letter if one is assigned may also rectify the issue.
- Right-click Start and click Disk Management.
- Right-click the volume if the partition is visible. Select Change Drive Letter and Paths.
- Click Change if a drive letter is already assigned. If there is no drive letter, click Add instead.
- Select a new drive letter from the dropdown menu and click OK.
- Click Yes if prompted to confirm the drive letter change.
Method 2: Scan for Malware
Malware has the unfortunate ability to inflict various forms of damage to your computer. If your computer has been infected with a virus, it could have attacked your system and compromised your data. Scan your computer with Windows Security to be sure.
- Press Windows Key + S and search Windows Security. Open the first result.
- Click Virus & threat protection.
- Click Scan options.
- Select Full scan then click Scan now. The duration of the full scan will depend on how large your drive is.
Method 3: Confirm the Disk Is Initialized
Before a drive can be partitioned, it first needs to be initialized. If the drive is marked as Not Initialized, it means either the drive is missing a valid disk signature (because it has never been initialized and formatted) or the formatting has broken due to corruption. Checking this allows you to plan what your next steps will be.
If you find that the disk in the Not Initialized state, initializing the disk will delete all of the files on it. Instead, recover the partition using TestDisk as it will recover the partition as well as the data on it.
- Right-click Start and click Disk Management.
- If your disk says Not Initialized, it means your partition will no longer be accessible and you should proceed with recovery.
How Can I Protect My Partition From Going Missing?
- Make a backup of your computer’s internal/external hard drives. You can plug in an external hard drive and use the Windows backup feature to prevent this from happening from here on out. Windows backup comes installed with your windows machine and is free to use. You can get reliable SSD backups that can be thrown into a bag as they don’t have moving parts for fairly reasonable prices these days. Making sure that your computer uses SSDs, in general, are more reliable than spinning hard drives.
- If a power surge was the cause of the partition issue, invest in a surge protector. They offer protection against power surges and most distance lightning strikes. While they can’t protect against direct lightning strikes, they do a good job of offering protection against everything else.
- If you’re using a laptop, make sure that you’re using the charger that came from the manufacturer! Yes, getting one from a 3rd party vendor may save you some money in the long run, but it is not worth the frustration of losing precious files and photos.
- If you do notice that your partition or other data is missing, don’t load new files onto your computer as this can overwrite them and make them unrecoverable. Also, make sure you do the data recovery as soon as you notice that the partition is no longer there to ensure that you have the highest chance of recovering your data.
Knowing how to recover a lost partition or the data off of it, is a valuable skill to know as computers do fail and mistakes do happen. With the right tools and knowledge though, you have a better chance of recovering your data should that happen.
