Guide: Recover Deleted or Lost Partition in Windows 10 or 11

In this post, you can recover deleted or lost partition in Windows 10 easily with the help of reliable partition recovery software - AOMEI Partition Assistant. You can also try CMD.

By @Lora Last Updated October 31, 2024

Is it possible to recover lost partition?

“In my effort to fix my previous problem, I resorted to a fresh install of Windows 10.  But I accidentally deleted a partition on my HDD when asked to format the drive for a fresh install. It contained a lot of important data there. The HDD shows up as a Disk Drive in Device Manager, but it doesn't show up in File Manager. It shows up as Disk 1 in Disk Management but as 465GB of unallocated space. I'm a bit afraid to do anything more, since I'm not 100% comfortable with CMD Prompt stuff. Ideally, I could recover the partition and just mount it back as a normal drive. Is that possible?”

Yes, the lost partition is recoverable in some situations. When a partition gets lost or deleted, the operating system just removes its information (eg: partition type, size, file system, and location) from the partition table. But it does not wipe the areas occupied by the lost partition completely.

You may say it does not show in File Explorer or Disk Manager. That's because the allocation data is deleted. Your computer recognizes a partition by its partition table and boot sector.

In Disk Management, it may be marked as "Unallocated", or seemingly healthy without a drive letter. Sometimes, partitions are displayed as “RAW”. Fortunately, they are recoverable and there are 3 effective partition recovery methods below.

Why is the partition deleted or lost in Windows 10?

Deleted or inaccessible partitions are not limited only to internal hard disks but all storage devices, HDD, SSD, USB, memory cards, etc. The following are the common causes of partition loss:

User error: mistaken partition deletion or incorrect Diskpart clean commands.
Corruption: the partition table may be damaged or corrupted due to users’ errors or a virus. Check more about recovering partition table.
Loss of the volume label, drive letter, or partition name.
Bad sectors. Your computer may not recognize it and then show the partition as unallocated space due to bad sectors.
Unexpectable Power failure.
Repartition hard drive.
Incompatible file system.

Top 2 ways for partition recovery Windows 10

If your partition is lost or deleted in Windows 10, all the data and folders in the partition will be inaccessible and eventually deleted. You can try three methods to recover the lost or deleted partitions. AOMEI Partition Recovery Wizard is certainly the easiest way among them.

Before you start recovering your partition, there are some tips you need to notice to get good results.

Do hard drive partition recovery as soon as possible after the partition has been deleted or lost. Because it is unrecoverable once new data overwrite your lost data.
Do not make any new operations on the hard drive.
Do not reformat the hard disk.
Do not recreate a new partition on the unallocated space.
Do not rebuild the partition table.

Method 1. Recover deleted or lost partition via reliable partition recovery software

With stunning features, AOMEI Partition Assistant becomes one of the market-leading partition recovery products. If the partition is deleted and lost, you can use its Partition Recovery wizard to recover lost or deleted partitions in Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7 with 5 steps.

Thanks to its advanced methods, the partition recovery process becomes easier. It is able to locate and display the entries on the partition to ensure data recovery with high success. You can use it on disk formatted with any file system, such as FAT, NTFS, Ext2, Ext3, or Ext4. 

✀Fast Search: It's the recommended method. It will scan your disk and find out deleted or lost partition quickly. If it is not working, you still can try Full Search. ✀Full Search: This method will scan every sector of the selected disk. Thus, it will be more time-consuming.

Step 1. Install and open AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. To recover lost or deleted partitions in Windows 10, you can download the demo version below.

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

Step 2. Choose Partition Recovery under the Recover option and select the disk including the lost partition. Click Next.

Step 3. Choose a search mode. There are two kinds of search modes. It is recommended to select Fast Search the first time because it saves more time than Full Search. Then, click on Next.

Step 4. The software will show the list of all lost or deleted partitions. You can select the one you want to recover.

Step 5. After the partition recovery process completes, a message “congratulations” shows, and click “Finish” to exit. Then you can go to File Explorer to check the lost or deleted partitions. Your files in the partition will be restored as well if then haven't been covered or overwritten by new data.

Note: If you get the alert "Invalid Partition Table" when booting computers, this indicates a corrupted partition table that is impeding proper booting. You need to make a bootable media by AOMEI Partition Assistant and then get into BIOS to change the boot order. Then right-click the corrupted partition and select "Rebuild MBR" to fix this issue.

Method 2. Recover deleted partition in Windows 10 via CMD

If your partition is lost due to missing or lacking of drive letter, try to assign a drive letter for this partition in Windows 10 using CMD to regain access to your data.

Step 1. Press Win + R and type diskmgmt.msc in the Run window to open Disk Management to find the lost partition in Disk Management. (If a partition is deleted, the volume will be marked as Unallocated. Remember the partition size.)

Step 2. Press Win + R and type CMD to Run CMD as administrator.

Step 3.Type diskpart in the CMD window and press Enter.

Step 4. Type list disk and press Enter. You will see all disks in the computer on the list.

Step 5. Type select disk #  and press Enter (Replace # with the number of the hard disk that contains the lost partition).

Step 6. Type list volume and press Enter. You will see all volumes on the disk.

Step 7. Type select volume # and press Enter (replace # with the number of the lost partition).

Step 8. Type assign letter=# and press Enter (Replace # with an available drive letter, from C to Z).

If you are not familiar with Command Prompt, the following method would be another good choice to recover deleted partition in Windows 10. It's using the built-indisk partition manager - Disk Management.

Step 1. Right-click the Windows Key on the Desktop, and select Disk Management.

Step 2. Locate the storage device with the lost partition.

Step 3. Right-click on the lost partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Step 4. Click Assign the following drive letter.

Step 5: Click OK to proceed.

How do I fix a corrupted partition in Windows 10?

Sometimes your disk partitions may become corrupted instead of being deleted or lost due to MBR corruption and then the data becomes inaccessible. The problem is any operation on a corrupted partition will cause a serious problem or data loss.

So it's suggested to access your partition and recover data using a powerful data recovery software like MyRecover. 

MyRecover
Powerful Data Recovery Software for Windows
  • All-inclusive: Recover data from different data loss scenarios, such as accidental deletion, disk formatting, lost partition, etc.
  • Over 200 recoverable file types: Recover word documents, Excel files, PPT, PNG image, MOV videos, ZIP files, etc.
  • Advanced scanning method: It supports Quick Scan & Deep Scan methods for thorough disk scan and find all the recoverable files as much as possible.
  • Crashed PC Recovery: It allows you to create a bootable USB, CD/DVD, or ISO and boot a crashed PC for data recovery.
Download Software Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7& servers
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Phrase 1: Recover data from corrupted partition

Before fixing a corrupted partition, it's wise to recover data from corrupted partition using data recovery software. Here we will take MyRecover as an example to show you the steps:

Step 1. Launch Windows data recovery software- MyRecover. Hover the mouse over the drive containing files in Windows 10 and click Scan.

Step 2. The software will run Quick Scan & Deep Scan automatically and find all the recoverable data on Windows 10. Once any of the files are found, it will display in the following window. You can then preview or select them to recover immediately.

You can also use the Filter feature to search the desired files faster. It has 3 options in the following:

  • Type: It will contain all the file types in the local drive, such as, images, videos, documents, mails, webpage, compressed files, etc. 
  • Data Modified: It supports today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, and custom. To recover deleted files at a specific time period, try the last option.
  • Size: It allows you to filter file size from less than 128KB to 128KB ~1MB to 1MB ~ 512MB and above, or custom.

Step 3. Select all the deleted or lost data on Windows 10 and click Recover XX files.

Notes: ● MyRecover will display the number of files to be recovered and their entire size. You can free recover files up to 500MB. To recover unlimited files, please upgrade MyRecover. ● Select a new location to store the recovered files. Retrieving files to their original location may overwrite the space of deleted or lost data, resulting in data recovery failure. ● Except for Windows 10 or 11, it is still able to recover deleted files from Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022, etc.

Phrase 2: fix a corrupted partition quickly

Method 1: Rebuild MBR using Bootrec CMD 

If your disk is corrupted due to MBR corruption, try to rebuild MBR using the Bootrec commands. In this situation, your computer is unbootable. Please prepare an installation disc or a bootable media to boot your computer.

Step 1. Insert your installation disc or bootable USB or CD/DVD. Restart your computer and press a prompted key (eg: F2, F10, ESC) to access BIOS. Then, set it as boot drive and save the change.

Step 2. Click Next in the first Windows Setup screen. Then, click Repair your computer.

Step 3. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options >Command Prompt to open the command line interface. Then, type the repair commands as follow:

  • Bootrec.exe/fixmbr
  • Bootrec.exe/fixboot
  • Bootrec.exe/rebuildcd

Method 2:  Fix corrupted file system using CHKDSK

The corrupted file system will be another cause of  partition corruption. Try the chkdsk command, which is specifically designed to fix file system errors.

Step 1. Type cmd in the search box and run as administrator.

Step 2. Type chkdsk D: /f /r /x and press Enter. Replace D: with the drive letter of your corrupted partition.

If your computer is now unbootable, try to boot from the Windows installation disc or bootable media and type the chkdsk command above.

Conclusion

Partition deletion accidentally occurs often when using computers. There are two best ways to recover lost or deleted partitions in Windows 10. Select the way you want for partition recovery. It’s recommended to try AOMEI Partition Recovery Wizard to recover partitions in Windows 10.

If you take action as soon as possible, it can recover your partitions and data together. However, regular backups are always the best way to keep your data safe, and the freeware - AOMEI Backupper can help you back up partitions and files easily.