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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.
--Source from
http://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmanager/partition-recovery-in-windows.h
tml
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:
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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
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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):
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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:
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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.
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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
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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.
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5. Choose Clipboard Data Write command.
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6. Now we can see sector 0 has been copied to sector 1:
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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.
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Then, please select Master Boot Record and click Apply to get
the following window:
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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:
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After getting these data, we can restore the third party
entry:
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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:
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Now please check all needed partitions (unchecked partitions
will be lost no matter it is
lost or existing now) and click Finish.
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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
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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:
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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