How to Recover Lost Partition in Windows?

Sometimes, you lost a partition in Windows or accidentally deleted it. It doesn’t appear in Windows File Explorer or appears as unallocated in the Disk Management. When a partition gets lost or deleted, all the data stored in that partition might also get lost. Nevertheless, you can recover the lost partition easily. In this post, we’ll be discussing some easy and effective methods to recover the lost partition in Windows. Before proceeding, let’s take a look at some factors that may lead to a lost or missing partition. 

Factors that may lead to a Lost Partition

Here are some common factors that may result in a lost or missing partition.

1. Improper Disk Management: While resizing a partition, mistakes could happen. You might lose a partition due to an error while resizing it. You may also lose a partition due to accidental deletion or formatting. 
2. Corrupt Operating System or File System: The Operating System or File System may get corrupted due to updating errors, mismatched versions, power fluctuations, or abrupt power outages. Due to corrupt OS, a partition might not appear in File Explorer.
3. Virus/Malware Attack: A virus or malware attack impacts a system in many ways. It may also result in the inaccessibility of a partition.  

Methods to Recover Lost Partition 

Here are some effective methods that can help you recover lost partitions in Windows. 

Recover Lost Partition using Command Prompt

If the issue was caused due to an unassigned letter to the partition, you can use the DiskPart utility in Windows to assign a letter to the partition. Follow the steps below:

Step 1: Right click on the ‘Start’ icon at the bottom left corner of your screen and select ‘Disk Management’.

Note: You may access Disk Management from the ‘Run’ window. For this, press Windows + R keys to open the Run window, type diskmgmt.msc in the empty box, and click OK.

Step 2: Check if the partition you are looking for is available under the volume list. If not, then the Operating System has marked it unallocated.

Step 3: Click the ‘Start’ icon and scroll down to find ‘Windows System’.

Step 4: Open the folder and click ‘Command Prompt’.

Step 5: Open ‘Command Prompt’ as administrator by right-clicking and selecting ‘More’.

Step 6: Type Diskpart in the Command Prompt window and press ‘Enter’.

Step 7: Type the command list disk and press ‘Enter’ to see all the storage devices connected to the computer.

Step 8: Type select disk x and press ‘Enter’ (Replace x with the hard drive letter from where the partition was lost).

Step 9: Type assign letter=Y and press ‘Enter’ (Y could be replaced by the letter you want to assign to the partition).

Step 10: ‘Diskpart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point’ message appears. Close the Command Prompt and check if you can access the partition. 

2. Restore Lost Partition from Unallocated Space  

If the partition is still not discoverable, it might have been marked as unallocated. Follow the steps below to restore the lost partition:

Step 1: Open ‘Disk Management’ and search ‘Unallocated’ tab in the disk volume split up section.

Step 2: Right-click on the ‘Unallocated’ tab and select ‘New Simple Volume’.

Step 3: Specify the size of the volume.

Step 4: In the new window, select ‘Assign the following drive letter’ and then select a letter.

Step 5: Click ‘Next’ and select ‘Do not format this volume’.

Note: Don’t forget to select ‘Do not format this volume’. Otherwise, the data in the partition would be deleted.

Step 6: Click ‘Next’ and then click ‘Finish’. The unallocated partition is converted to a RAW partition.

Step 7: Again, open the Disk Management window, right-click on the partition box you just created, and select ‘Open/Explore’.

Now, you would be able to view and access your files and folders.

3. Recover Lost Partition in Windows using a Data Recovery Tool

If you are still not able to access the partition, use a third-party data recovery software, like Stellar Data Recovery Professional to recover the lost partition. This software can find and recover missing/lost/deleted partitions on a drive. Follow the below steps to recover lost partition on Windows:

• Download the professional data recovery software and launch it.
• Select the type of data you want to recover and click ‘Next’.
• On the ‘Recover From’ screen, select ‘Can’t Find Drive’ under Connected Drives section and click ‘Scan’.
• In the ‘Select Hard Drive to Search Lost Partition’ section, select the drive from which you lost the partition.
• The software will perform a scan of the selected drive and show ‘Search Completed Successfully’ message with the number of partitions found.
• If the partition is still not there, run the ‘Extensive Partition Search’ at the bottom left.
• Your partition will be listed under ‘Select Partition to Recover Data’.
• Select the desired partition and click ‘Scan’ to recover the data.

To Conclude 

Losing a partition in your Windows system may result in the loss of valuable data. You can follow the methods explained above to recover lost partitions in Windows. If manual methods do not work, use a specialized partition recovery software such as Stellar Data Recovery. The software can get back the lost partition and recover the data in it.