Recover Unallocated Partitions on Windows 10 or 11 (2024)

Have you ever run into a situation where a hard drive suddenly becomes unallocated? You may be at a loss for words, especially with important data on it. Take a deep breath and calm down! It's possible to recover unallocated partition within data on it in Windows 10 or 11 using the following methods.

Recover unallocated partition with data on it using AOMEI Partition Assistant (Easiest)

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a professional partition recovery software for Windows 10 or 11, which is able to scan your disk for deleted or lost partition and recover them quickly. You will use the Partition Recovery wizard embedded two recovery modes, namely Fast Search and Full Search.

Fast Search: It's the recommended search mode and able to recover unallocated partition quickly. 

 Full Search: It will search every sector of your disk and therefore take much more time. Select it if you don't find the unallocated partition using Fast Search.

You could download AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to recover unallocated partitions in Windows 10 or 11.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant. Choose Partition Recovery under the Recover tab and select the disk containing unallocated partition. Click Next.

Step 2. Select Fast Scan as your search method and click “Next”. It is able to locate unallocated partition quickly.  

Step 3. All the lost or deleted partitions will be listed in the following window. Select the unallocated partition and click “Proceed” to recover unallocated partition with data on it.

Recover unallocated partition in Windows 10 or 11 using MyRecover

Except for using partition recovery software, you can also recover data from unallocated drive using reliable Windows data recovery software like MyRecover and then fix unallocated space in Windows 10 or 11.

Part 1: Recover data from unallocated drive using MyRecover

MyRecover is a comprehensive Windows data recovery software that specializes in different data loss scenarios, such as virus infection, partition loss, formatted or damaged disk, system crashes, etc.

MyRecover

Powerful Data Recovery Software

• Run Quick Scan & Deep Scan automatically to search for all the deleted or lost data.
• Have a high success rate and fas speed.
• 200+ file formats: recover deleted Word documents, PPT, Excel, 3FR, MP3, MP4, JPG, PNG, etc.
• Filter the desired files from unallocated space quickly and preview them before recovering. 
• Support Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc and servers.

Download Software
Win 11/10/8.1/8/7 & server

100% Secure

Step 1. Open Windows data recovery software - MyRecover. Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. It will run two crucial scanning technologies - Quick Scan & Deep Scan automatically and find all the recoverable files below.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Recycle Bin/Other Missing Files folder and select the data on the unallocated partition. Then click “Recover x files” to begin the unallocated partition data recovery process.

Or you can also filter the needed data (e.g. excel files) during the scanning process and locate them quickly through Name, Type, Date modified, or Path.

• Name:Type the file name or file extension(.xlsx) of your desired files in the search box.
• Type: Select the file types among images, videos, documents, mails, webpage, compressed files, etc.
• Date modified:Set the date (today, yesterday, last 7/30 days, and so on) according to your situation.
• Size:Filter the file size (<128KB, 128KB~1MB, 1MB~ 512MB, etc) based on your needs.

Part 2: fix unallocated partition on Windows 10 or 11

After recovering data from unallocated drive, you can fix this issue with confidence. There are several methods below.

Way 1: Deleted unallocated partition manually

Sometimes, if your disk suddenly becomes unallocated, you need to manually delete the partition. One of the common ways is to use cmd.

Step 1. Type “cmd” in the search bar and select “Run as administrator”. Then, in the command prompt window, input"diskpart" and press Enter to open it.

Step 2. Input the following commands and press Enter after each one.

• list disk
• select disk 1
• list partition
• select partition 1
• delete partition override

You can then create a new partition in Disk Management to make full use of the unallocated space.

Way 2: Create a new partition in Disk Management

Creating a new partition is the easiest way to fix unallocated partition on Windows 10 or 11. Be sure your data is recovered and follow the steps below.

Step 1. Right-click the Start menu and select "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click the unallocated partition and select “New Simple Volume”.

Step 3. Follow the New Simple Volume Wizard to specify volume size, drive letter, and format options, and click Finish to confirm you want to create a new partition with unallocated space.

Way 3: Repair disk using chkdsk command 

File system errors or the damaged disk can also cause unallocated partition on Windows 10 or 11. You can try chkdsk command to scan its file system and metadata for logical or physical error and fix them.

Step 1. Run cmd as administrator.

Step 2. In the command prompt window, type chkdsk #: /r or chkdsk D: /f /r and press Enter. Replace # with the drive letter of your unallocated space.

What does unallocated partition mean?

In general, a hard drive is divided into several partitions and has their own file system, drive letter, etc. You can then use it to store any data you want, such as the operating system, personal data, etc.

Instead, the unallocated space, sometimes called free space, does not partition and has any attribute. So you cannot write data to it. Also,it may beon a currently used disk. In this case, the data on it may become inaccessible.

In view of this, if your disksuddenly becomes unallocated, please stop using this disk and don't create a new partition on it before recovering data from unallocated drive. Otherwise, your data may be deleted forever.

Why is the disk suddenly unallocated?

You may want to recover unallocated partition with data on it right now. But only if youknowthe precise reasons, you can fix this issue and get your data back quickly. Also, it's meaningful toavoid the same scenario in the future.

Lost or deleted partition. If a partition is deleted, lost, or corrupted due to kinds of reasons, the space of the partition will become unallocated in Disk Management.

Unexpected power error. If your computer has some unexpected power issues when writing data to the hard drive, some data will be corrupted and partitions become unallocated space.

Hardware failure. If there are some problems with the hard drive, the partitions could be lost and become unallocated.

Virus attack. Some viruses can target the partitions of your hard drive and result in unallocatedpartitions.

File system errors. If your disk has file system, such as incompatible issue, Windows will not recognize it and show up as unallocated partition.

Wrap it up

Directly fixing unallocated partition may cause irreversible data loss, so we recommend you recover data from it first. Here are two feasible ways to make it, namely using partition recovery software like AOMEI Partition Assistant and data recovery software - MyRecover. You can then fix unallocated partition with confidence. 

Of course, the most important to avoid partitions and data loss is to make regular backups. Windows backup freeware-AOMEI Backupper is a rare excellent tool to back up, restore, and clone your disks and partitions.