Hard Drive Suddenly Became “Unallocated”…
Hard drive/external hard drive/USB drive becomes unallocated? Have you ever encountered this issue? What should you do if the unallocated partition contains some important data? Don’t worry. This post will show you how to effectively recover unallocated partition with data on it.
What Does It Mean When a Hard Drive Is Unallocated?
First, let’s see a true example:
I accidentally deleted a partition that was not to be deleted when re-installing Windows and as soon as realized it, I canceled the setup but the partitions are gone, now the disk is unallocated and I need to recover the lost partition. Can someone please help me to recover it? All of my data is in that partition. Please, I need help.
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Unallocated space, sometimes called free space, is a logical space on a hard drive that the operating system, like Windows, can write to. You cannot use this space without allocation. This means that no programs can be written in unallocated space.
To make use of unallocated space, you need to either create a new partition using this space or expand an existing partition. However, what if this unallocated space contains massive important files? In this case, you should try other ways to fix unallocated hard drive space.
Why Does Hard Drive/External Hard Drive/USB Flash Drive Become Unallocated?
What makes your drive becomes unallocated? Many reasons can cause unallocated hard drives.
- Virus attack.
- Improper operations such as mistaken deletion of the recovery partition, and improper unplugging of the drive.
- Hardware failure.
- File system error.
- Outdated hard drive drivers.
- ..
Tip: If your hard drive becomes unallocated, you should stop writing new data to the drive. Meanwhile, please use a professional recovery tool to start the hard drive data recovery immediately. Otherwise, the original data on the unallocated space will be overwritten.
Now, it’s time to learn how to fix unallocated hard drives without losing data in Windows 11/10/8/7. In the following part, there are 2 excellent ways for you to get unallocated hard disk space back.
Way 1: Fix Unallocated Hard Drive With MiniTool Power Data Recovery
To fix unallocated hard drive space without losing data, you should recover data from unallocated space first of all. Then you can create a new partition on this unallocated space or add the unallocated space to an existing partition.
Move 1: Recover Data From Unallocated Hard Drive Space in Windows 11/10/8/7
When it comes to unallocated hard drive data recovery, MiniTool Power Data Recovery, green and professional data recovery software, proves to be an excellent choice.
With this all-in-one software, you can easily and quickly recover lost data from unallocated hard drive space without damaging the original data because of its high recovery rate, easy-of-use, and high security.
And, it has good compatibility. Various common file systems (like FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, HFS+, and NTFS) and operating systems (like Windows Server, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, and so on) are fully compatible with MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
And this professional data recovery software allows you to recover files from not only hard disks but also flash drives, memory cards, etc.
To recover unallocated partition data, you can get this software. Here you can try the Free Edition (Free to scan and show the scanning result, 1GB data recovery allowed) to check whether it can help to find the files you need after scanning the unallocated hard disk space. If yes, to complete the recovery operation, just upgrade to the Personal Edition.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Now, how do you perform unallocated hard drive data recovery with MiniTool Power Data Recovery?
Step 1: Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery to get its main interface, and then you can see 2 different modules.
- Logical Drives: Show all partitions on this PC, including all partitions on the local disk, external hard disk, and removable disk drive. Lost partitions and unallocated space are also included.
- Devices: In this section, you can select the whole device to scan if you want.
Before scanning your drives, if you only want to recover some specified file types, you can click Settings to select specific file types, like documents and pictures. Then click OK to save your settings.
Now you can go to the Devices section and click Scan to scan the whole disk. Or you can select the unallocated partition under the Logical Drives section to scan.
Tip: If the device is not found on the list, please click the Refresh button to make the device visible in the list. Here, I guess you might be interested in this post: Solved - External Hard Drive Not Recognized.
Step 2: This data recovery software will start to scan the target disk. To ensure the best recovery result, please wait patiently until the scan completes.
After scanning, you can click the Filter icon to filter out unnecessary files by file size, file category, file name, or date modified, which is good for promoting file recovery efficiency.
Step 3: Finally, check all needed files and click the Save button to select a place to save checked files. Then click the OK button.
Note: Never save the needed files to the drive where you lost your data. Otherwise, the lost/deleted files will be overwritten.
See, by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery, you can quickly and safely recover data from unallocated hard drive space in Windows 11/10/8/7. Now, get this software to have a try.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
After recovering data, let’s see how to make use of this unallocated hard drive space.
Move 2: Fix Unallocated Hard Drive Space in Windows 10/8/7
To allocate unallocated space on a hard drive, you have 2 options: add the unallocated space to an existing partition or create a new partition on the unallocated space.
Option 1: How do I add unallocated space to an existing partition?
Step 1. Download and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 2. Select any existing partition, and then click Extend Partition from the left action panel.
Step 3. Choose the unallocated space from the drop-down list of “Take Free Space from“, and drag the sliding handle rightwards or leftwards to decide how much free space to take. Then click OK to continue.
Step 4. Finally, click Apply to perform changes.
Option 2: How do I create a new partition on the unallocated space?
Step 1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Step 2. Select the unallocated space, and then click Create Partition from the left menu.
Step 3. Then, confirm Partition Label, Partition Type, Drive Letter, File System, Cluster Size, Partition Size, and Partition Location. Then click OK to go back to the main interface of the software.
Step 4. Finally, click Apply to perform all changes.
Way 2: Recover Unallocated Partition Win 11/10/8/7 With MiniTool Partition Wizard
In addition to recovering data and creating a new partition in your hard drive that contains unallocated space, you can also directly restore the entire partition and partition data using professional software.
MiniTool Partition Wizard is a good option for recovering unallocated partitions in Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and so on.
This professional tool offers the Partition Recovery feature to help you easily and quickly recover unallocated partitions and data as long as a new partition has not been created on this unallocated space.
Besides, this professional partition magic offers wizard-based interfaces as well as simple operations which can help users effectively recover unallocated hard disk space without any difficulty.
Here you can see a video tutorial to know how to recover unallocated space.
Step-by-Step Guide to Fixing Unallocated Hard Drive Space in Win 11/10/8/7 Without Losing Data
MiniTool Partition Wizard has a Free Edition for you to use but it can only scan the lost partitions instead of recovering them. Here, you can download it on your computer to try whether it can find the files you want to recover and then you can decide whether to get a full version or not.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
LOOK! The following is how to recover unallocated partition with data on it.
Step 1: Connect the unallocated drive to your PC, and then launch MiniTool Partition Wizard to get its main interface.
Step 2: Click Partition Recovery from the top action panel. Then click Next.
Step 3: Select the target disk you want to recover and click Next.
Step 4: Choose a scanning range from Full Disk, Unallocated Space, and Specified Range, and then click the Next button. You can click Full Disk to scan the whole hard drive.
Step 5: Set a scanning method like Quick Scan to scan the specified range and click Next to continue.
Step 6: Wait for the scan process to complete. Then double-click each found partition to check if it contains the lost files you want.
Step 7: Select all needed partitions including existing partitions and deleted/lost partitions, and then click the Finish button.
Warning: You Must Check All Partitions You Want. Otherwise, the unchecked ones will be deleted after partition recovery.
If you are using the Free Edition to recover partitions, you will get a window to ask you to upgrade to the advanced edition to recover unallocated hard drive spaces without losing data.
Step 8: Right-click the recovered partition and click Change Drive Letter to assign it Drive Letter, thus you can see it and view its files in File Explorer.
Step 9: Click the Apply button in the lower left corner to perform all changes.
See! It is very easy to recover unallocated partition with data on it, isn’t it?
Related post: Can You Recover Data from an Unallocated Hard Disk Space?
Bottom Line
Are you still worrying about how to recover unallocated partitions in Windows 10/8/7 without losing the original data? Now, you can try the above-mentioned two methods to recover unallocated partition with data in it.
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If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us via [email protected] or leave a message below.
Unallocated Partition FAQ
Unallocated space is a logical space on your hard drive, but you cannot write any data to this partition. To make use of the unallocated space, you can create a new partition on it or add this space to another existing partition.
- Right-click the Windows logo key and click Disk Management.
- Right-click the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume.
- Enter the size and click Next and you are done.
- Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.
- Right-click the C drive and choose Extend Partition.
- Choose the unallocated space.
- Drag the sliding handle leftwards or rightwards to decide how much space to take.
- Click OK and Apply to perform all changes.
- Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard.
- Select the source partition and click Merge Partition from the left action panel.
- Click Next to continue.
- Select the partition that will be included in the target one, and click Finish.
- Click the Apply button in the upper left corner to confirm.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Shirley graduated from English major and is currently an editor of MiniTool Team. She likes browsing and writing IT-related articles, and is committed to becoming a professional IT problem solver. The topic of her articles are generally about data recovery, data backup, and computer disk management, as well as other IT issues. In spare time, she likes watching movies, hiking and fishing.