Solved D: Drive missing (it's there but not visible)

bigseb · Sep 17, 2025

cereberus said:
File recovery is not the same as partition recovery. File recovery recovers lots of files in an unstructured manner (no directories) and can take hours.

Partition Recovery is much better and usually restores partition to its state before being deleted. It typically only takes a few minutes. However, this premium solution is not normally free.

I agree.

But first things first i.e. save the data. After that I can try something else.

Not concerned if free or not, priority is saving the files.

cereberus · Sep 17, 2025

bigseb said:
I agree.

But first things first i.e. save the data. After that I can try something else.

Not concerned if free or not, priority is saving the files.

If you recover data to same drive as where it is lost, you can overwrite lost data sectors and data is lost for ever.

You should recover data to a separate drive e.g usb hard drive.

Partition Recovery is safer as the lost data is not overwritten.

If you use a free tool like Easeus Partition Manager it will tell you what partitions can be recovered but you need the paid version to do the actual recovery.

I would always try partition recovery first.

Scannerman · Sep 17, 2025

cereberus said:
File recovery is not the same as partition recovery. File recovery recovers lots of files in an unstructured manner (no directories) and can take hours.

Partition Recovery is much better and usually restores partition to its state before being deleted. It typically only takes a few minutes. However, this premium solution is not normally free.

I only use file recovery when all other options to the best of my knowledge are exhausted. Alas, partition recovery won't always work on drives that have been reformatted but at least it is worth a try as it is exponentially faster than recovery data one file at a time. Not only that, but things such as videos and sound files have to be pieced back together and it is a long and arduous process.

Winuser said:
I don't want to give bad advise so I deleted all of my replies.

That is your prerogative. I have learned so much from this forum that I didn't already know. I used to be some old outback rogue PC builder. Now I'm an educated rogue PC builder! There are some things that we, the wiser fools, might also wish to take into consideration here:

1) We know nothing. (Remember John Snow?)

2) We assume much.

3) In every case where we are giving advice we are working with a model. No matter how genuine and/or/nor fabricated we are still working with a model.

In this model our friend, the OP, is asking for help and states that the drive they need help with once had a considerable amount of data on it. We assume the OP is not in error concerning this. We would jump to the rescue (as many of us have faced similar predicaments) to assist the OP in the recovery of lost data. BUT what do we know?

In good faith we would assist the OP without knowing their reasons for attempting to retrieve data from a drive that appears to be empty and unformatted. I can think of many scenarios where this is something that could go sideways real fast from an ethical if not moral stand point. On the other hand, the OP could be a victim of error, or malware, and has suffered loss of data on their own hardware. Again. What do we know?

I recall a member of this forum stating to me that they thought I was merely "shooting in the dark". My reply: "My gun is still in my holster". In effect, we are all 'shooting in the dark' here because none of us knows everything. My mama once told me an expert is merely a drip under pressure. That always stuck with me.

Scannerman · Sep 17, 2025

bigseb said:
I agree.

But first things first i.e. save the data. After that I can try something else.

Not concerned if free or not, priority is saving the files.

If money is no object you could look into having the manufacturer of the drive recover your data professionally. I know that Seagate provides this service and I don't see why Western Digital wouldn't either. This is just an alternative. Of course, the cost is considerable. It really depends on how much the data is worth to you.

gunrunnerjohn · Sep 17, 2025

Remo Recovery isn't free, you will only be able to recover a small amount of data with the trial version.

I agree that partition recovery was the way to go, but I'm not sure if that's a possibility now that this has already been running for hours.

bigseb · Sep 17, 2025

Scannerman said:
I only use file recovery when all other options to the best of my knowledge are exhausted. Alas, partition recovery won't always work on drives that have been reformatted but at least it is worth a try as it is exponentially faster than recovery data one file at a time. Not only that, but things such as videos and sound files have to be pieced back together and it is a long and arduous process.

That is your prerogative. I have learned so much from this forum that I didn't already know. I used to be some old outback rogue PC builder. Now I'm an educated rogue PC builder! There are some things that we, the wiser fools, might also wish to take into consideration here:

1) We know nothing. (Remember John Snow?)

2) We assume much.

3) In every case where we are giving advice we are working with a model. No matter how genuine and/or/nor fabricated we are still working with a model.

In this model our friend, the OP, is asking for help and states that the drive they need help with once had a considerable amount of data on it. We assume the OP is not in error concerning this. We would jump to the rescue (as many of us have faced similar predicaments) to assist the OP in the recovery of lost data. BUT what do we know?

In good faith we would assist the OP without knowing their reasons for attempting to retrieve data from a drive that appears to be empty and unformatted. I can think of many scenarios where this is something that could go sideways real fast from an ethical if not moral stand point. On the other hand, the OP could be a victim of error, or malware, and has suffered loss of data on their own hardware. Again. What do we know?

I recall a member of this forum stating to me that they thought I was merely "shooting in the dark". My reply: "My gun is still in my holster". In effect, we are all 'shooting in the dark' here because none of us knows everything. My mama once told me an expert is merely a drip under pressure. That always stuck with me.

Fair enough... here's the full rundown:

C: drive is 500GB SSD for OS, etc, as per usual. Running Win11.
D: drive is 2TB HDD for day-to-day storage
External 5TB Lacie for backups, last back-up was about 6 months ago due to move, death in the family, mother moving with me, etc.

I reinstalled Win11 yesterday and in the process must have deleted one of the partitions for the D: drive (not the main one but one of the smaller ones created by the OS (mbr?, can't remember).

I have purchased Remo recovery and started the recovery process last night. It has found many many files and is currently busy saving them to the Lacie.

Files I need to recover include MCAD files and photos from my photography business.

I know with Remo I will lose all structure and associativity with the MCAD files, these I can reassociate. Even if it means spending time resorting it all, it's still better than not having the files at all.

Scannerman · Sep 17, 2025

bigseb said:
Fair enough... here's the full rundown:

C: drive is 500GB SSD for OS, etc, as per usual. Running Win11.
D: drive is 2TB HDD for day-to-day storage
External 5TB Lacie for backups, last back-up was about 6 months ago due to move, death in the family, mother moving with me, etc.

I reinstalled Win11 yesterday and in the process must have deleted one of the partitions for the D: drive (not the main one but one of the smaller ones created by the OS (mbr?, can't remember).

I have purchased Remo recovery and started the recovery process last night. It has found many many files and is currently busy saving them to the Lacie.

Files I need to recover include MCAD files and photos from my photography business.

I know with Remo I will lose all structure and associativity with the MCAD files, these I can reassociate. Even if it means spending time resorting it all, it's still better than not having the files at all.

Please understand that I mean no disrespect. I have been in your circumstances more times than I care to admit. Re-associating those videos could prove to be a larger task than you might anticipate. If you haven't tried to recover the partitions I would advise trying that after you're done rescuing your files.

Depending on your level of expertise you may wish to consider acquiring some more large hard drives for flipping your data before attempting a system restore with your backup (s). Just a thought. I managed to pull that trick once and restored all my thousands of pictures that way. Also, I'm not sure if you initiated this option, but if you used Windows File History sometimes this actually works. Once you have all the data you can possibly restore there is an app that I have found especially useful for organizing your files that you may wish to take a look at.

WinCatalog 2026 - Disk Catalog Software for Windows

WinCatalog 2026 disk and file catalog software. Catalog and organize all your disks, files, using tags and user defined fields, and find files in seconds!

www.wincatalog.com

Wishing you the best

pewa · Sep 17, 2025

A lot of us, myself included, have had a nasty experience one way or another.

I lost tons of videos and precious old software such as Drivecrypt 5.0 (I could no longer get this app despite my long search online) when my pc and portable hard disk were attacked by malware. I was then so naive that I thought only others were or would be victims of a ransomeware attack and not me.

Learning from that experience, I now store all my files in several different locations, including the clouds. I have an anti-malware app (Unhackme) and an anti-virus software (Avast One) monitoring my pc whenever I use it online or offline.

The lesson to be learned from a setback of this sort is to back up all your data to at least two or three external locations.

jumanji · Sep 17, 2025

Hi @bigseb

Deleted "Nicht Zugeordnet" means "Not initialised/not assigned" - am I correct?
That means you have lost the MBR in sector 0 alongwith the Partition Table/s in it.
When you have finished saving all data - since you have already purchased Remo and on it, just try this.
1. Right click on the left pane where it says "Disk 0 Basic 1863.00GB Online" and initialise the disk as an MBR. Just stop with initialising it as an MBR disk . Do not proceed further, (Do Not, Do Not create a Simple volume , Do Not, Do not Format . That will kill all data in the disk )
Initialising the disk only writes the MBR into sector 0.You have to recover the partition/s and write the Partition Table/s in Sector 0 Deleted

My bad! Yesterday night, I failed to notice that your faulty disk is online, signifying that the MBR in sector 0 is OK and the disk is already in the initialised state.

In your case you need not initialise the disk. Only the partition/s seem/s to have gotten deleted. You can straight away attempt Partition Recovery as indicated herein.

1. Download, and install MiniTool Partition Wizard v9.1. (In later versions of MiniTool Patition Wizard, Partition Recovery is not free) . Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9.1 for windows - Filepuma.com

Launch Partition Wizard. If it offers to download the newer version, say "No" and dismiss the popup. On the left Pane click on Partition Recovery Wizard > Next > Select your faulty Drive > Next > Full Disk > Next > QuickScan > Next. Allow the quick scan to complete. At the end of the quickscan you will get a window showing all the found partitions -existing as well as lost partitions. Select all the existing and lost partitions, by putting the check mark in the square. The preview map at the bottom of that window which was showing as "Unallocated" should now show your disk as it existed before. (If you have any doubt in dealing with it at this stage., post a screenshot for my perusal and click on "Cancel". You can rerun Partition Recovery Wizard later). Click on "Finish" and then click on APPLY in the main Menu bar. That will write the partition table/s into Sector 0. After that, reboot your PC and check whether your disk is restored. Good Luck

Screenshots of trial on my Trial disk simulating your drive condition - Basic Online

Scannerman · Sep 17, 2025

jumanji said:
Hi @bigseb

"Nicht Zugeordnet" means "Not initialised" - am I correct?

That means you have lost the MBR in sector 0 alongwith the Partition Table/s in it.

When you have finished saving all data - since you have already purchased Remo and on it, just do this.

1. Right click on the left pane where it says "Disk 0 Basic 1863.00GB Online" and initialise the disk as an MBR. Just stop with initialising it as an MBR disk . Do not proceed further, (Do Not, Do Not create a Simple volume , Do Not, Do not Format . That will kill all data in the disk )

Initialising the disk only writes the MBR into sector 0.You have to recover the partition/s and write the Partition Table/s in Sector 0

2. Now run Partition Recovery Wizard in MiniTool Partition Wizard version 9.1, to restore the lost partition/s. (In later versions of MiniTool Patition Wizard Partition Recovery is not free). It will write the partition table/s in Sector 0 and restore the disk.

You can download MiniTool Partition Wizard v9.1 here. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9.1 for windows - Filepuma.com

Launch Partition Wizard. If it offers to download the newer version, say "No"and dismiss the popup. On the left Pane click on Partition Recovery Wizard > Next > Select your faulty Drive > Next > Full Disk > Next > QuickScan > Next. Allow the quick scan to complete. At the end of the quickscan you will get a window showing all the found partitions existing as well as lost partitions Select all the existing and lost partitions, by putting the check mark in the square, . The preview map at the bottom of that window which was showing as "Unallocated" should now show your disk as it existed before. Click on "Finish" and that will write the partition table/s into Sector 0 (If you have any doubt in dealing with it., post a screenshot for my perusal and click on Cancel. You can rerun Partition Recovery Wizard later).

You can download MiniTool Partition Wizard v9.1 here. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9.1 for windows - Filepuma.com

I was wondering if this might come up. Although I agree that the drive needs to be initialized (see my first response) depending on whether the drive was in RAID prior to losing the MBR there is still a risk of loss of data. I recall losing all my data on a drive once simply by initializing it. Fortunately, the drive was in RAID 1 so I could mirror the data back to it. That was my reason for not recommending initialization until after an attempt at data recovery was made first.

Provided the OP follows your suggestions in the order you have listed them: "When you have finished saving all data - since you have already purchased Remo and on it, just do this." ← Especially this.

The OP evidently doesn't have a mirrored copy of the data so it is essential that they at least have some sort of copy of it before they attempt any alteration on the drive.

jumanji · Sep 18, 2025

@bigseb

Please note that I have edited my previous post after deeply looking into your Windows Disk Management Screenshot and realised that your disk is online signifying that your disk is already in initialised state . So you need not initialise the disk and can straight away go to Partition Recovery.

bigseb · Sep 18, 2025

Ecverything is sorted and running again. Many thanks to all that responded.

Bought Remo. Worked but took forever. Also bought Easeus partition manager. Worked great too.

Solved.

Scannerman · Sep 18, 2025

bigseb said:
Ecverything is sorted and running again. Many thanks to all that responded.

Bought Remo. Worked but took forever. Also bought Easeus partition manager. Worked great too.

Solved.

That's awesome! I was really hoping that it would be something simple like your MBR partition but better to err on the side of caution.

For future reference:

1) Cold storage. It's a good practice to keep data of considerable value in cold storage. That means on the shelf, in the dark, in a cool dry place somewhere.

2) Air gapping. You can also copy priceless data onto an external hard drive and keep disconnecting the drive only to connect it when you move data to it.

3) Archiving. Once a week I move and/or copy all my personal files over to a drive that I labeled "Archives". That way even if my OS crashes and burns and my backups fail (because backups often fail) I still keep at least 95% of my relevant personal data.

4) When installing any OS make certain that all other drives are disconnected. You might get away with not doing it (because I know I have) but it's that "one time" that something goes awry that can be so very costly.

5) When your disk manager is saying that your drive is "not initialized" and it still shows in disk manager this often means something is not quite right with the drive. A drive that was previously in RAID and later used as AHCI can generate this issue. Make sure the drive is in good health and in the correct format for which you intend to use it. Myself, I would do a thorough scan on the drive after having ensured that the data is tucked away in a safer place.

I have a feeling you likely already know all this but for the sake of those who don't I thought I'd share anyway. You already have the tools to do amazing things with your drives now. So glad to see it all worked out for you.

Alles Gute!

pewa · Sep 18, 2025

bigseb said:
Ecverything is sorted and running again.

That’s great news.
In the end, all that is well ends well!

Solved D: Drive missing (it's there but not visible)

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