A Windows partition is simply a logical volume for storing data. There can be several scenarios when you can face the missing partition problem such as: while installing, re-installing or updating the Operating system.
Sometimes it happens that the partition is not visible to you (.i.e. missing partition) or you can see it but cannot access its contents (.i.e. inaccessible partition). Majority of Windows 7 users have to face this issue after they have reinstalled Windows 7.
In this article, I am going to discuss the way to fix “Missing hard drive/partition in Windows7”.
Hard drive partition can be missing/accessible/lost due to several reasons such as:
- Corrupt logical structure of the hard drive.
- Partition header corruption due to virus or malware
- Power surges while working on the system
- Partition corruption due to hardware issues
- Bad sectors in hard drive
- Bad RAM etc.
Consider one of the commonly faced problems with Windows 7 users: While installing the Windows 7 operating system, I have formatted my drives (named D :\). I installed the OS then. But after the process is done, I cannot find one of my drives, it’s missing.
How to get it back?
Solution:
First check your disk status with Device Manager and ensure that everything is fine with drive, it’s not going to die soon. Simply, go to My Computer->Manage and Select Disk Management. This will enlist information about installed disks.
If everything is fine then go ahead with the next step.
Check whether the partition exists in "Disk Management" or not.
To do so:
- Open the Run dialog box by holding the “Windows” key & pressing the "R" key.
- Run diskmgmt.msc. This will open "Disk Management".
- Check if there is any partition without a drive letter
- If there is such partition then do:
- Right-click it
- Go to "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." > "Add" button --> Add --> Select the drive letter -->
- Finally Click OK.
See if this helps. If the problem still exists, opt another possible way for fixing the issue.
Fix the issue by running diskpart.
To do so:
- Open command window.
- Type 'diskpart' and enter. This will open the disk partition manager window.
- In the command prompt window type 'list volume' and enter. The output will be the list of hard disk volumes. There, type “select missing_volume(eg. D:/ drive)”. Hit enter.
- After selecting the missing volume, Type 'assign' and Open my computer to check whether the drive is visible or not.
If the problem still exists, try changing ‘partition Drive Letter and Paths’.
To do so:
- Go to> Control Panel> select ‘All Items view’ > Administrative Tools> Computer Management
- If the UAC window prompts, select ‘Yes’.
- Close the Administrative Tools window.
- From the left pane go to Storage> Disk Management. Here, all connected hard drives and partitions will be shown. From the enlisted partitions, choose the missing one.
- Click ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’.
- Click Add
- Click ok
You can also open Disk Management by running diskmgmt.msc command.
To do so:
- Go to start > search bar> run diskmgmt.msc command. The Disk Management interface will be opened.
- From lower half of your disk management interface, select Drive without any drive letter.
- Now choose the option “Change Drive Letter and Paths”.
- Click the Add button. Choose a drive and click OK to assign selected drive letter.
- Now restart and check whether the missing drive is shown or not?
If you are still not able to access your Windows drive data then, try using standard hard drive partition recovery tools. These software are a kind of Do-It-Yourself utility that can scan your windows for the missing hard drive partitions and let you recover the data back along with the lost or inaccessible partitions. If the lost partition isn’t shown in the scan result, you will not be able to recover it. Try out various software, opt the one that provides the best results. If still nothing helps, No Good luck then! Your drive might be beyond recovery. You may require sending it to some professional recovery company that can anyhow recover your lost data and send it back to you. er
