Full Guide to Recover Lost Partition in

Windows

After opening Windows Explorer we may find one of partitions disappeared and became

unallocated space in Disk Management, which we called partition loss. When we try

opening a certain partition, Windows asks us to format it or says it does not contain a

recognized file system. At this time, we say the partition has been logically damaged.

Partition loss and partition damage are 2 kinds of partition errors we often meet. In this

post we will make a brief introduction to these partition errors as well as show some

solutions.

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Partition Loss

1.Factors Which May Result in Partition Loss

There are lots of reasons which can cause a partition lost, including:

We delete the partition(s) by mistake when managing partitions in Disk

Management or Diskpart.

Virus like boot sector virus deletes the partition(s) maliciously.

Sudden power outage damages partition(s).

Mistakenly clone a partition to the entire hard disk or restore the image to entire

disk.

Poor partitioning software brings damage to partition(s).

2.The Essence of Partition Loss

Actually, though a partition is missing from both Windows Explorer and Disk Management,

it still exists before new partitions are created. At this time, we believe some users would

feel confused: why a missing partition exists. To get rid of this puzzle, lets see something

about partition table.

Currently, there are 2 kinds of partition table, namely MBR partition table and GUID

partition table:

MBR Partition Table

GUID PT Partition Table

On the screenshots above, areas boxed by red line are master partition table areas (the

first partition table). Master partition table on MBR disk is different from that on GPT disk:

Master partition table on MBR disk: MBR boot sector is the first sector (absolute 0

sector) of hard disk and consist of 3 parts, including 446 bytes bootstrap code area, 64

bytes master partition table, and 2 bytes boot signature. MBR master partition table

describes information of all primary partitions, including partition file system, partition type,

starting sector, ending sector, total sectors in a partition (partition size), and so on. If there

is an extended partition (a special primary partition which will be introduced later), there

will be an entry pointing to extended partition. However, since there are only 64 bytes for

master partition table and every entry of primary partition takes up 16 bytes, there are 4

entries in total. That is to say we are only allowed to create 4 primary partitions or 3

primary partition and one extended partition on MBR-formatted hard disks at most.

Actually, apart from master partition table, there are extended partition tables on MBR disk.

In order to create more than 4 partitions, Microsoft introduces extended partition.

Extended partition is a special primary partition where multiple logical partitions can be

created. Every logical partition has an extended boot record (EBR) which functions like

MBR and contains an extended partition table. And every partition table ends with 55AA

signature no matter it is master partition table or extended partition table.

Master partition table on GPT disk: a GUID partition table can range from LBA 2 to LBA

33 (logical block addressing) and contains up to 128 partition entries, which shows users

can create up to 128 partitions on a GPT formatted hard disk. And there is a master

partition table backup at the end of the disk, which functions when the source failed. Each

entry also records partition type, first LBA, last LAB, partition attributes, partition name, etc.

GPT master partition table records attributes of all partitions.

Actually, every partition has its own partition table, not limited to master partition table.

Partition table of the first partition records information of the first partition, and at the same

time gives information to figure out parameters of the second partition, which makes it

possible to recover lost partitions.

Commonly, what we or viruses operate is partition table rather than the real partition.

When information which can locate a partition is modified or cleaned in partition table,

Windows will be unable to find it so that we cannot see it. At this time, we say this partition

is missing. Under this situation, as long as we fix or restore partition table to its original

state with partition recovery tools, lost partitions can be recovered. In this post, we mainly

introduce 2 programs, namely Winhex and MiniTool Partition Wizard.

How to Recover Lost Partition with Winhex This is my current partitions (the disk is formatted with MBR):

And I decide to delete partition H and then use Winhex to recover it by fixing partition table

in MBR sector.

Firstly, we need to download or purchase Winhex tool, and then install it on computer in

accordance with prompts. After that, run it to get its main interface:

Next, choose a specified disk to open, and then the following window will appear:

From the left bottom of the window we know there are 503,316,480 sectors in this drive,

and we are in the absolute 0 sector (sector 1) now, which is the sector where master boot

record, and master partition table resides. In my demonstration, Im going to fix master

partition table to restore lost partitions. Since any minor damage to MBR may cause

Windows unbootable, we had better back it up.

Steps to Backup MBR sector

1. Right click the offset first byte of sector 0 and choose Beginning of block.

2. Go to the last byte of the 0 sector. Then, right click it and choose End of block.

Note: all sectors are separated by a line. AA is the last byte of sector 0, and the byte after

55 AA is the first byte of sector 1.

3. After these operations, all bytes in sector 0 will be selected. At this time, right click the

selected area and choose Copy Block Normally command.

4. Go to any sector which is empty, and here we choose sector 1. Right click the offset first

byte of sector 1 and choose Edit.

5. Choose Clipboard Data Write command.

6. Now we can see sector 0 has been copied to sector 1:

After that, we can go to MBR sector namely sector 0 to repair master partition table.

Steps to Fix Master Partition Table

Firstly, we need to click View icon on the top and choose Template Manager in the

MBR sector namely absolute 0 sector.

Then, please select Master Boot Record and click Apply to get the following window:

Now we can see all parameters in the third partition entry is modified to 0, which shows

this partition gets lost. At this time, as long as we restore these parameters, the lost

partition can be recovered. Well then, how can we know the original partition parameters?

Actually, we can figure them out via other partitions information.

From the first partition entry we know there are 2048 sectors before partition 1, and

partition 1 contains 42,430,464 sectors. That is to say the lost partition starts from

42,432,512 (42,430,464 + 2048) sector. From the second partition entry we know there

are 93,712,384 sectors before partition 2, so there are 51,279,872(93,712,384 -

42,432,512) sectors between partition 1 and partition 2, and these are sectors occupied

by partition 3, namely the lost partition. If you are confused, please see the following

chart:

After getting these data, we can restore the third party entry:

After that, close this window and confirm the changes to MBR.

At last, shut down Winhex and confirm operations. After these operations, we can see the

missing partition is recovered:

Note: If Windows fail to boot due to the loss of system partition or boot partition, users

have to take out the disk and do partition recovery in another computer or make a

bootable Winhex. For how to burn an image, please see Burn a CD or DVD from an iso

File.

However, though the lost partition can be recovered via repairing partition table,

operations are so complex that common users have big difficulties in mastering it. In

addition, if both master partition table and other partition tables are damaged, partition

recovery will be much more difficult, because they need to repair every damaged partition

table respectively. Moreover, Actually, the partition recovery software MiniTool Partition

Wizard can make it quite easy to fix partition table, and users only need to click mouse for

several times. Here are detailed steps.

How to Recover Lost Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard

Firstly, download and install the partition recovery software to computer. Then, run it to get

the starting interface and choose Launch Application module to launch it.

This is the main window of MiniTool Partition Wizard. To recover a missing partition,

please select the disk where partition loss appears and choose Partition Recovery

module from the left side.

Then, set scanning range for the selected disk and click Next>. If you havent created

any partition after the partition gets lost, choosing Unallocated Space is a good choice,

because it avoids scanning unnecessary area.

Next, choose a scanning method and click Next>. Then the partition recovery software

will scan the specified range automatically. After scan both existing partitions and lost

partitions will be listed:

Now please check all needed partitions (unchecked partitions will be lost no matter it is

lost or existing now) and click Finish.

Now we can see the lost partition is recovered but does not have a drive letter. Please

select the recovered partition and choose Change Drive Letter to appoint it with one. At

last, click Apply button on the top to make all changes performed.

After application we can see the lost partition is recovered. It is so easy, right? If we want

to recover missing partitions when Windows cannot boot, MiniTool Partition Wizard

Bootable CD (an iso file) is available. Detailed steps are as follows:

1. Download the iso file and then burn it to CD or DVD.

2. Put the bootable disc to CD driver to boot computer.

3. Fix partition table in accordance with operations shown in the above content.

Of course, you can also connect the target disk to the computer which is running normally,

and then do partition recovery by using MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Next, lets see another partition error logical partition damage.

Partition Damage

When we try opening a partition or external device, like USB flash drive, CF card, and SD

card, Windows may ask us to format it. Or a certain device is shown as RAW. Or we

cannot access a device though it exists. When your device is under such circumstances,

we say it is logically damaged. Actually, it is the damage of file system most of the time.

Factors Which May Cause Partition Logically Damaged

These kinds of errors may emerge after the following situations:

1. Plug external devices or hard disk when it is working.

2. Accidental shutdown.

3. Virus attack.

4. Mistaken operation.

The Best Way to Recover Logically Damaged Partition

To fix these issues, we only need to repair the file system, and formatting command can

solve the problem. However, formatting a device will make all files saved in the partition or

device lost. So is there a way to fix the damaged partition without losing any data? That is

to recover lost data before formatting. Both Winhex and professional data recovery

software can help do data recovery, but the former tool requires more complex operations

than those for partition recovery, so here we mainly recommend data recovery program.

How to Recover Lost Data from Damaged

Partition

As long as we restore data from the logically damaged partition at first, there is no need to

worry about data loss whenever we delete or format the drive. And data recovery software

can help complete the recovery very easily. Here, we take MiniTool Power Data Recovery

for example to show specific operations.

Firstly, launch the program to get its main interface:

Then choose Damaged Partition Recovery module since it aims at recovering data from

logically damaged partition.

Next, select the damaged partition to scan (both Open and Full Scan are available).

Then, check all needed files and save them to another device or partition.

When the logically damaged external device or partition is reformatted, transfer the

recovered files to the repaired device. And now we can say partition recovery in Windows

is done without data loss. For detailed information about this kind of recovery, please

see Damaged Partition Recovery.

Full Guide to Recover Lost Partition in Windows Partition Loss 1.Factors Which May Result in Partition Loss 2.The Essence of Partition Loss How to Recover Lost Partition with Winhex Steps to Backup MBR sector Steps to Fix Master Partition Table How to Recover Lost Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard Partition Damage Factors Which May Cause Partition Logically Damaged The Best Way to Recover Logically Damaged Partition How to Recover Lost Data from Damaged Partition