GUID Partition Recovery in Windows 10: Recover GUID Partition Easily

On this page, users can get to learn about what is GUID, why do GUID partitions get lost, and what’s the most important, how to recover GPT partitions.

Lora

By Lora / Updated on June 22, 2022

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I have two 2 TB drives and both of them are GPT drives but accidentally in one of the drives I deleted the partition table that held the information about the disk and made it unrecognizable. So anyone knows any tools or any way to restore a GPT partition? Thanks a lot."

       

- Question from tom’s Hardware

   

Have you ever gone through a GPT partition loss like the situation above? Maybe right now you are busy as a bee searching for a remedy to save your partition, and yes, you have come to the right place.

Users who are using MBR have reported issues and need methods to achieve MBR partition table recovery.

GPT (GUID partition table) as mentioned before is designed with many edges compared with MBR, but it seems that users who run their PC with GPT are still prone to run into partition loss issues.

mbr-vs-gpt

To know how to restore GUID partition, the first course of action would be to take a look at the overview of GUID.

Overview of GUID partition recovery issue

Before viewing the solutions to solve a GUID partition recovery in Windows 10 issue, we may as well get some info on GUID, and the reasons behind GUID partition loss.

What is GUID?

GUID, whose full name is Globally Unique Identifier, refers to a 128-bit label to describe information in a computer system.

But when it comes to the GUID partition, we are referring to the GPT partition. GPT is a standard for the scheme of partition tables. Generally, the partitioning scheme contains two types, one is GPT, and another is MBR.

gpt-hard-drive

GPT is the latest style of partitioning and it came out to come over the shortcomings of the MBR, which is known as a successor of MBR. Here are some key differences between the two schemes.

Capacity. The capacity of MBR is 2TB, while for GPT is 9.4ZB.
Quantity. For MBR, the amount of partitions it can possess is 4 (primary partitions), while for GPT, the number is 128.
Specification. BIOS works with MBR, while UEFI works with GPT.
OS support. Windows 7 and older versions like 95/98/XP can work with MBR, while for GPT, the latest versions like Windows 10 can work with it.

Though GPT features lots of advantages compared with MBR, encountering a partition loss is not very rare to see. Then, what are the reasons behind a GUID partition loss? Let’s move on to the next part.

How does a GUID partition get lost?

In case of getting to know how to retrieve GUID partition, we’d better take a look at the reasons for a GUID partition loss in advance. Reasons behind the GUID partition loss vary a lot. Check it out in the list below.

Missing drive letter. The drive letter may get missing during the operations like resizing the partition, thus the partition is invisible in the File Manager.

Unexpected deletion. Users may do some improper operations like be willing to readjust the partition but accidentally click yes to delete the GUID partition. But you could recover accidentally deleted partitions using professional software.

Unexpected shutdown. A sudden power outage or unexpected power off may cause an unstable current flow, leading to damage to the disk, resulting in an inaccessible disk or partition.

Partition table error. Virus attacks, misoperation, and interruption may lead to a corrupted partition table, then the disk is not recognizable.

Conversion between partitioning schemes. All partitions must be deleted before you convert MBR to GPT, and vice versa. Thus your partitions will be all lost without the help of a third-party tool.

mbr-to-gpt

Methods to perform GUID partition recovery in Windows 10

It is time to get a tutorial about how to perform GPT partition recovery now. Two easy ways are prepared for users below. Choose anyone that fits your preference and budget.

Method 1. Recover GUID partition via CMD

If here you found that you have encountered a missing drive letter, the following method fits your situation perfectly.

Attention:

  • This method is not foolproof, if it does not fit your circumstance, it is recommended for you to try the second method.
  • Check if there is unallocated space in your disk via Disk Management. Right-click on the Start menu, click Disk Management, and remember the size of the unallocated space.

Step 1. Start Command Prompt on your PC, and click Run as administrator. Input diskpart to utilize this embedded tool.

Step 2. Then input list disk to see all the disks on your device. Find the disk that contains the lost partition, then input select disk m. m refers to the number of the disk you choose.

Step 3. Input list volume to view all the partitions on this disk. Input select volume n. Here n refers to the number of the partition that lost its name.

Step 4. Input assign letter = x to name this partition. Here x must not be a number that has been used before.

cmd-recover-lost-partition

Then you will have successfully performed GPT partition recovery.

Method 2. Recover GUID partition with AOMEI Partition Assistant

If the inbuilt tool CMD does not fit your situation, you may try an easier way to restore GUID partition with the help of a third-party useful partition recovery tool named AOMEI Partition Assistant.

It supports users to recover deleted/lost partitions on HDD/SSD/SD card/USB on external/internal hard drives in Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP OS.

What's more, as a versatile tool, it can also help users manage their partitions - create/merge/split/align/format partitions, and so on.

With its help, users who are green hands without any troubleshooting experience and expertise can retrieve GPT partitions effortlessly.

Attention:
  • Fast Search and Full Search are two types of scanning schemes to locate your lost partitions. Try the fast one for the first time, and you can utilize the Full Search when Fast Search fails to do so. 
  • Correspondingly, Full Search will cost more time, please wait in patience.
  • If you are using Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012, etc., you could upgrade it into Server Edition.

Step 1. Install and run the AOMEI Partition Assistant. You can download a Demo version to try the features for free.

Download Demo Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 2. Find the Partition recovery wizard in the sidebar > choose the disk in which your lost partition lies > click Next.

click-partition-recovery-wizard

Step 3. Select Fast Search to save your time for the scanning > Next.

fast-search-full-search

Step 4. In the list box, you can check for the file system, capacity, location, and flag of your lost partitions. Select the one you want to recover > Proceed.

select-lost-partitions

When you receive a congratulation notice, it means that you have safely and easily recovered GUID partition.

It also applies to external hard disks. You could use it to perform external hard disk partition recovery.

Summary

This article offers methods to achieve GUID partition recovery in windows 10. Several means are ready to help you recover GPT partitions in a breeze.

Users run into partition loss issues no matter how cautious they are, and beyond all questions, trying to fix it with the help of a professional program is a better bet.

If you have encountered physical damages like bad sectors detected in the disk, it is highly recommended to turn to the professional recovery service for help as soon as possible, do not try to do some further operations like repartitioning, resizing, emptying, formatting, and so on.

To check if there are any bad sectors, you can also utilize a handy tool installed in AOMEI Partition Assistant named Check Partition.

bad-sectors

Seeking help to restore deleted data from a GUID partition, choose MyRecover as your helper.

This application is embedded with advanced data searching methods: Quick Scan locates your deleted data, and Deep Scan navigates to your missing files.

Lora
Lora · Editor
Lora is an editor of AOMEI Technology. She is also a tester and editor of AOMEI Data Recovery Tools. -- "Keep testing, write the most useful tutorials for helping people recover the lost data for Windows and phones" is the most meaningful thing for her. Dedicated to creating helpful tutorials, she hopes her tutorial can assist users to effortlessly solve data loss problems on their personal computers and mobile phones.