Fix a RAW DiskĪlso, the data recovery steps are basically the same as what I mentioned in “How to Recover Data from Unallocated Disk & Fix”. When your disk becomes not initialized suddenly, you should start to recover data from this disk firstly ( the steps to regain your precious data in this case are the same with what were mentioned in the previous unallocated disk case).Īnd then, you should initialize the disk with Disk Management or other reliable disk management tools. You can find detailed information on our license comparison webpage.Īfter that, you may create new partitions on the disk again and then transfer data back to it. The main functions of those editions are the same, but the usage limits of different licenses are different.
In addition to Trial Edition, MiniTool Power Data Recovery also provides 8 types of license ( 4 for home users and 4 for business users) to meet different needs. Next, please click on “ Hard Disk Drive” from the left pane.Īctually, you can see the “ Unallocated Space” area easily after clicking on both “ Hard Disk Drive” and “ This PC”.
Step 3: launch this data recovery software to enter its main window as shown below. Run the software at the end of installation.
Step 2: install the software to any of your disks ( except the one which is shown as unknown and has lost data waiting to be recovered).
Step 1: get MiniTool Power Data Recovery Trial Edition to experience the software first or purchase a license directly to get a full edition.
If you run into a power outage while the disk is still running or have been attacked by virus, it's easy that your disk won’t show up in Windows Explorer even if you restart computer successfully.Ĭlick to tweet Recover from the Unknown HDD & Fix Problem How to Recover Data from Unallocated Disk & Fix
Sometimes, your hard drive may become a bad disk suddenly. Or when you’re under the attack of malicious programs, it may set your HDD to be offline. This is basically caused by pressing “ Offline” by mistake. This phenomenon seems to be exactly the same with the situation where all your partitions on HDD are lost, but they are really not the same. When an HDD is set offline, it won't show up in “ Computer”, which is often called as “ Windows Explorer”. But please remember, you should not agree to format this disk as required unless all data saved there are of no use.
This kind of situation will happen when your file system of the HDD is corrupted due to certain reasons. And you will find the disk shows as RAW when you check it in the Disk Management afterward.Īs you can see, there is no file system on disk 1. Sometimes, you may see your HDD in the Windows Explorer but when you click to open it, you’ll find the access is denied.Īs a senior user who has used computer for a long time, this situation may be not strange to you. You often have two choices when initializing a disk. Then, initialize the disk with Windows built-in tool or third-party tools. So, my suggestion is, getting back data from the uninitialized disk at first. And I believe most of you will care more about how to initialize disk without losing data. However, when your disk is not initialized anymore due to sudden change, I don’t suggest you to initialize the disk to make it usable again. If you right-click on this disk, a pop-up menu will appear and the first option on it is “ Initialize Disk”. This is exactly the same to the disk which is bought lately and you have no time to initialize it yet. Likewise, all the space of this disk is marked as unallocated. You may see it appeared here and shown as “ Not Initialized”. When you find your external HDD is not showing up on the current computer, what are you expected to do? Actually, you may open the built-in Windows Disk Management tool and see whether it appears or not. So, when the entire disk is turned into unallocated all out of a sudden, the first thing you should do is always performing HDD recovery. Of course, you’re allowed to create a partition ( simple, spanned, striped, mirrored volume) on this disk and make it appear in Windows Explorer, but all of those actions could bring secondary damage to the original data. Indeed, an unallocated disk indicates that all of your previous partitions are lost. This is similar to an initialized disk which is brand new and includes no formatted partition. The disk type is Basic, but all the space on that disk has been turned into unallocated now. But if you go to the Windows Disk Management under such circumstances, you’ll find it is displayed here. When your hard disk drive suddenly becomes unallocated, you’re not able to see it in Windows Explorer. Read More Case 1 – HDD Shows as Unallocated