How to Recover a Lost/Deleted Partition in Windows 11/10

Updated on Jun 14, 2024 | by Edwards

As a Windows user, you've likely created multiple partitions to keep your work organized and make it easier to manage. Having separate partitions can serve several benefits, such as allowing you to isolate different types of data, protect sensitive information, and improve overall system performance. By dividing your hard drive into multiple partitions, you can create separate spaces for different purposes, such as storing your operating system, programs, and data files, making it easier to maintain your system and access the files you need.

⛱️ Protects data by creating multiple partitions to separate personal and professional files, making file management easier and improving search speed.
🏷️ Running multiple operating systems on a single system allows for a new version of Windows to be installed on a distinct partition without affecting the current one. This approach also helps reduce fragmentation, stabilizes the system, and extends the hard drive's life.
🗃️ Keeping Windows system files and other data in separate partitions can prevent data loss in case the system crashes and needs reinstalling. This way, your files will remain safe and intact.
📈 Partition creation helps boost performance by reducing the number of strokes of mechanical HDDs.

If you can't access your partition and want to recover the saved data, this article can help. It provides five solutions to recover deleted or lost partitions from a hard disk in Windows 11/10, which you can try to find the partition and retrieve your data.

Quick Navigation: Part 1. What is a Partition and Common Causes of Partition Loss; Part 2. 4 Ways to Recover Deleted Partition in Windows 11/10 (Free and Paid); Part 3. Comparison of the 4 Partition Recovery Methods; Part 4. How to Repair Corrupted Partitions; Part 5. How to Avoid Partition Loss or Deletion

Part 1. What is a Partition and Common Causes of Partition Loss

A hard drive is divided into several partitions to make the disk available to the operating system and personal data, including boot, root, and home partitions. The boot partition contains the operating system's boot loader, the root partition contains the operating system's files, and the home partition contains personal data and user files. There are also other types of partitions, such as swap and extended partitions, which are used for virtual memory and additional storage.

🖥️ Primary cells: Stores the operating system
💽 Extended volumes: Stores the extra disk partition
📑 Logical partitions: Helps organize the data files

A hard drive typically has a primary and active partition where the operating system is installed by default, alongside one or more logical partitions for storing documents, movies, images, videos, and personal files. However, users may encounter issues where a partition is deleted or lost due to various situations, such as accidental deletion, formatting, virus attacks, or hardware failures.

😭 Accidental deletion or formatting errors can cause a partition to disappear.
🚧 Improperly partitioning or resizing files can result in partition loss if not done carefully.
🤖 Computer malware and virus attacks can cause system and hard drive damage, leading to partition loss or removal.
🔌 Frequent and unexpected shutdowns, such as power outages, irregular BIOS upgrades, or infected applications, can cause system malfunctions, which in turn affect the partitions of a hard drive.
🚨 To avoid damaging the partition table, it's essential to ensure that the disk is not accessed or written to during the process of creating a new partition or modifying an existing one. This can be achieved by booting from a live USB or CD, which loads the operating system from a temporary environment without touching the original disk. This way, you can safely create or modify partitions without risking data loss or corruption of the partition table.
📀 If a user mistakenly selects to clean the hard drive instead of the system partition during the system reinstallation, it can result in the loss or deletion of a partition, leading to potential data loss and system instability.
⌛ Bad sectors on a hard drive fail to correctly recognize the data and drive, leading to corrupt partitions.

Part 2. 4 Ways to Recover Deleted Partition in Windows 11/10 (Free and Paid)

A deleted volume can become a data catastrophe if you fail to take the required measures in time. You were finding a volume has become relatively easy with the help of multiple ways. Here we present before you the top five methods and the quick steps to use them to help you recover partition in Windows 11/10 for free and paid. Go through all the methods and select the one best fits your needs and requirements.

Way 1. Restore Partition Using Diskpart:

DiskPart is a free and inbuilt Windows feature that allows you to recover a lost partition due to a missing drive letter. This command-line utility works via various command lines to perform disk partitioning tasks, and it is compatible with Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

To access the Diskpart command-line utility, type "Diskpart" in the search box, then click "Run as administrator" to open it with elevated privileges.
Type in List disk and press Enter.
Select the disk that has lost the partition and press Enter on it.
Type List volume and press Enter
The command to select the volume m, where m is the lost partition, is simply "select volume m" followed by pressing the Enter key. This is a straightforward command that initiates the process of recovering the lost partition.

To assign the letter "g" as a drive letter, you would follow the steps below. First, you would go to the "This PC" or "Computer" section, then click on "Map network drive" (if you don't see this option, you can right-click on the Start button and select it from the context menu). In the "Map network drive" window, select a drive letter (in this case, "g") from the dropdown list and click on "Finish".

When the whole process of operation takes place, Windows Explorer will show your volume as unallocated space. However, if the partition table is deleted mistakenly, the DiskPart might not be able to recover the deleted partition efficiently.

Way 2. Recover Deleted Partition Free by Deep Data Recovery:

After the partition table is lost, the saved files will also disappear. To recover the lost files, we should first ensure that the data is extracted correctly and then rebuild the partition. A powerful data recovery freeware, Qiling Free Data Recovery, can be used to help us retrieve files lost after partition deletion. It uses its two scan modes, Quick Scan and Deep Scan, to scan every sector to ensure any data is fully recovered, and is highly compatible with all Windows OS and Mac computers. The complete steps to free recover deleted partition in Windows 11, 10, and more can be followed using this software.

Download and install the Qiling Free Data Recovery tool to your Windows PC, then launch it to recover lost data.
Irrespective of the partition deletion on your system, Qiling will quickly find and display all the hidden and deleted partitions as a yellow warning icon and the name "Lost Partition -1/2/3 or Local Disk (*)". You can select the one you lost based on Capacity and click the Scan button.

Once the scanning process is complete, all files will be categorized and displayed on the right side, allowing you to easily select and preview the ones you need.
1. Select the ones you need to recover and hit the "Recover" button to save the files to drives.

Open Disk Management and select the volume shown as "Freespace." Then, right-click on "New Simple Volume" and follow the wizard to complete the partition reconstruction.

Finally, copy the recovered files to the newly created partition.

Way 3. Get Deleted/Lost Partition Table with DiskGenius

Disk Genius is a free tool that can recover lost or deleted partitions in Windows 10, 11, and 8, and fixes corrupt or damaged partition tables. It also provides features such as backing up data, disk utilities, and disk partition management, making it a useful undelete or unformat partition software.

Download and launch the Disk Genius app
1. Select the disk where the lost partitions are located in the left panel.
Select the Partition Recovery button directly from the toolbar.
Select a search range and hit the Start button to initiate the search for the lost cells.
To recover a lost partition, scan the system with a partition recovery tool, select the lost partition, and save the file.

recover deleted partition with diskGenius

After saving the file, right-click on the target partition and select "Create New Partition" from the context menu.

Way 4. Partition Recovery Using a Disk Recovery Service:

If you're unable to recover a lost partition using the methods mentioned, it's best to seek the help of a professional disk recovery service provider. They have the expertise and technical knowledge to assist you in recovering the lost partition, minimizing further data loss.

Losing data can be a significant problem, especially if you're unable to recover it. One possible method is to try and retrieve the lost data, but this can be time-consuming and may not be cost-effective. Even if you're successful in recovering the data, there's a risk that sensitive information could fall into the wrong hands, compromising your privacy.

Part 3. Comparison of the 4 Partition Recovery Methods

After going through the thorough details of all the methods, you would indeed be looking forward to checking them for quick highlights. Here is a comparative analysis of all the three ways with their prices, simplicity in usage, and pros & cons to assist you in making your decision seamlessly.

recovery success rate
may be potential risks of privacy leakage
repair corrupt data
file preview
user interface
[P]rice

Diskpart
★★★☆☆
only a command line interface, which is challenging to use
Free

Qiling Free Data Recovery
★★★★★
friendly
2GB for free, Personal License: $49.95

DiskGenius
★★★★☆
difficult to use
$69.90

Disk Recovery Service
★★★★★
-
-

The Diskpart interface is complex, and Disk Genius has a lower success rate in partition table recovery. Additionally, the disk recovery service provided by Disk Genius is expensive and raises privacy concerns. In contrast, Qiling is a free and user-friendly data recovery software that doesn't require professional help, making it a more suitable option.

Part 4. How to Repair Corrupted Partitions

Here we have listed some common errors that might make the partition inaccessible. If your device is exposed to any of the reasons listed below, you must quickly act upon the given solution to repair the corrupt cells and avoid further damage.

Error 1. File or Directory Is Unreadable and Corrupt

Solution: The file system error can be repaired using chkdsk, which may be caused by issues in the File Folder, damage to the File Allocation Table (FAT), or problems with the Master File Table (MFT).

Steps: To run the Check Disk utility on your Windows PC, press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box, type "cmd" and click Enter, then type "chkdsk /f drive letter:" (e.g.

Error 2. Partition Turn into Unallocated Space

Solution: To recover partitions and files, use powerful recovery software like Qiling Free Data Recovery Software. Once the files are recovered, you can then use the Disk Management tool to create a new partition on the recovered drive, allowing you to access and utilize the recovered data.

Error 3. Access is denied

Solution: Format your drive to resolve the issue.

Steps: To fix a corrupt drive, connect it to your system, right-click on "Computer", then select "Manage". In the Disk Management window, right-click on the corrupt drive and choose "Format", then click "OK" to confirm.

Error 4. Drive Letter Is Missing

Solution: To assign a drive letter manually, open Disk Management, select the unallocated drive, and right-click to initialize it. Then, assign a drive letter that is not currently in use. This will allow you to change the drive letter and path, effectively retrieving the missing drive letter.

Steps: Right-click on the partition, then click Change Drive Letters and Paths, followed by Add, and finally select OK.

Error 5. USB Device Not Recognized

Solution: Ensure the USB is enabled in BIOS and the OS, check the USB interface voltage, and use Disk Management to unhide the drive.

Part 5. How to Avoid Partition Loss or Deletion

Data is crucial for users and is often stored on hard drive partitions. However, it's essential to identify potential reasons why a partition might hinder your files and system in the future.

📜 Before splitting your drive partition, make sure to take a backup of your data - make a drive image (if possible) and then proceed with the partition split.
📐 Choose partition sizes that allow your operating system to have enough space to function properly.
🔋 Ensure a consistent power supply during the partition splitting process.
🔍 Run a disk check using the CHKDSK command to scan and examine the partition's overall health before splitting it, and fix any errors that may arise to prevent data loss and system crashes.
📤 It's generally not recommended to split the drive partition with your operating system as this can cause changes to your device's settings, potentially leading to malfunctioning.
🎖️ Use a reliable third-To split a drive partition safely, use a reputable partition tool from a well-known developer, such as EaseUS Partition Master, AOMEI Partition Assistant, or Disk Management (built-in on Windows). Avoid tools from unknown developers or unverified sources to prevent potential data loss or system crashes.
⛱️ Ensure the protection of the partition table from damage to prevent any partition deletion or loss.
🎛️ To avoid data loss, it's recommended to not format or partition your disk yourself. This approach helps prevent accidental deletion or overwriting of important data, ensuring that your files and information remain safe and intact.

Conclusion

Although you can recover a lost partition, it's advised not to load any new data until the recovery of the deleted partition to avoid overwriting issues and make the possibility of recovery slim.

Qiling free partition recovery software is fully compatible with recovering lost/deleted partitions in Windows 11/10 for free, working efficiently even if files are lost due to deletion, repartition, hard drive crash, or improper cloning. This software does not require technical expertise, and your data stays safe.