Why Can’t Change or Add a Drive Letter as Wanted

Surprised, why can’t you change or add a drive letter as wanted? The blog provides the nuances of drive letter; how and when can it be modified. Read on to know the practical details.

Every computer has attached secondary storage device that is partitioned and assigned unique drive letters. The system partition that contains Windows operating system is assigned the exclusive letter C by default (you can also install Linux or Mac operating system in a different dedicated partition).

Apart from the OS partition, there are other two hidden partitions—OEM partition and Recovery partition. Hidden partitions do not have any assigned drive letters. While CD/DVD RW drive or other connected device are automatically assigned subsequent drive letters in alphabetical order.

Using the Windows 10 built-in system utility—Disk Management, you can add, change, or remove a drive letter. But the alteration in drive letter requires some basic understanding of how and when can you do the same.

To add, change, or remove a drive letter of your storage medium according to your own preference, you need to login to your PC with an administrator account and follow the succeeding steps:

• Right-click the Start button or press Windows + X to open Power User Menu
• Click Disk Management from the menu to open the Disk Management window
• Right-click the drive that you want to change to open the context menu
• Click “Change Drive Letter and Paths…” to open its dialogue box
• To add a new drive letter, click Add
• Click Browse to mount the drive in an empty NTFS folder, then click OK
• To assign a new drive letter, click Change
• Opt for the available letter from the drop-down list, then click OK
• To remove a drive letter, click Remove and then click Yes to confirm

To your surprise, you might not be able to add, change, or remove a drive letter as wanted. Situations that do not allow you to perform these operations and the corresponding resolution if any are listed below:

Situation 1: The drive letter is a boot drive or hidden drive 

Resolution: None. Drive letter cannot be changed or removed for an operating system drive or hidden drive

Situation 2: The drive letter might be in use

Resolution: Close all the windows or programs that use the drive and try again

Situation 3: The drive letter is assigned to a connected device

Resolution: Unplug the device and try again

The task of changing or adding a drive letter does not cause any data loss. This is because the change operation just assigns a new name to the partition, while add operation mirrors a simple volume. The remove operation needs a little insight before you can perform it. When you remove the drive its file system is removed and partition table is updated, thereby making the drive letter completely disappear from the system. As a result, you lose all the drive content. 

Disk Management utility also has the functionality to extend volume, shrink volume, delete volume, and format. These crucial operations need to be performed after taking backup to avoid data loss. 

Whenever you lose your valuable data due to any reason from your storage drive be it internal or external, you can rely on Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Home. The data recovery software for Windows is one of the most used, trusted, and safe utility available in the international market. The three-step process of the software—select, scan, and recover—is quite intuitive and easy to perform. 

Conclusion

Disk Management utility present in Windows permits you to add, change, or remove drive letter through its “Change Drive Letter and Paths…” option. The blog points out situations that restrict you to change or add a letter as you wanted. Using the method described for drive letter alteration, you could successfully perform the task. The Add and Change option does not have the risk of losing data, but Remove operation can cause data loss due to inaccessibility. Use Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Home, to recover your lost data in any kind of data loss situation and from any type of storage media. The DIY software is easy to use due to its intuitive interface and instruction based wizard, which guides you to select, scan, and recover.

Is It Possible to Recover Data from Corrupted Windows?

Did your Windows 10 OS was corrupt lately and does not boot? Wanted to recover data from its internal hard drive. The blog provides an efficient data recovery method for your perusal.

Ice Breaker

Windows operating system can get corrupt at times due to software conflict, registry error, bad sectors in hard disk, or other erratic reason. You ought to be prepared for all adverse situations that can occur to your personal computer. The best way to safeguard against data loss is to keep a copy of all your important data to an external hard disk drive.

Data Recovery Challenge

Corrupt Windows OS has made your computer unbootable. You cannot use Windows 10 installation DVD, as it will format system drive and render all its data inaccessible. Unfortunately, you did not backup your system drive and its content including documents, downloads, music, pictures, and videos are all crucial. Even your desktop holds few business-critical data, which you need it desperately.

An Efficient Data Recovery Method

Surmount your predicament through Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional. The software is provided with system startup disk that can salvage your crucial data even when your PC fails to boot. In such times of crisis, you can regain access to your crashed system using the bootable disc and run the software to recover your important data.

How-tos of Data Recovery via Software

In order to recover data from corrupted windows, you need to follow the succeeding steps:

1. Insert Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional boot DVD
2. Restart PC and press setup key to enter BIOS settings
3. The software will run directly and display the main screen

4. Select what to recover, then click on the Next button
5. Select location to recover data, then click on the Scan button
6. Preview the scanned files to verify its precision
7. Select the needed files, then click on the Recover button
8. Browse the desired location, then click on the Start Saving button

To Wind Up

The blog presents the best method to recover data from corrupted windows. Use, Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Professional that is shipped with the bootable disk to recover your lost data. The powerful software can cater to any kind of logical failure of the hard disk drive.

Download Free Recovery software to Restore Windows Logical Drive

While Windows are the most commonly used operating system around the globe, they can often tend to become unpredictable. Sudden data loss is not uncommon to anybody, and that is why you need to be equipped with the right tools to protect and recover your data in worst cases.

Recover deleted or lost files can be done through various manual ways, but things get trickier when you lose a Windows logical drives.

Why Create Logical Drives in the First Place 

Disk partitioning means dividing your physical hard drive into multiple logical drives. Most of the laptops and PCs only have one hard drive when they come directly from the factory, which is in most cases, C drive. Users opt to divide their drive into several smaller drives. The first advantage to disk partitioning is that if anything happens to the partition file of one disk partition, it will not affect the other drive. Whereas if you only had one drive and its partition file was corrupted, your system won’t be able to boot.

By partitioning your drive, your system knows to treat each drive separately and it, of course, helps in disk management too. Users can keep their system data and personal data on separate drives, which makes it easier to backup. With this, you can also create an emergency partition, which could come in handy when Windows suddenly stops working and you do not have a boot disc with you.

Reasons for Logical Drive Loss

When you lose a logical drive, you lose all the data that was in it and there can be several reasons behind it. The most common of them is of course knowingly deleting a drive from the disk management tool. Apart from that, the disks drive can also be lost because of corruption in the system. 

Here are Some Reasons behind Logical Drive Loss. 

1. Unintentional Deletion

We all make mistakes sometimes; maybe you were checking something else in the disk management tool and accidently hit the delete button. After deletion, the disk space that was taken by that drive gets converted into unallocated space.

2. Virus attack

A virus attack could corrupt the essential system files and partitions tables, lead to a disks logical drive loss. 

3. Damaged or Corrupt Partition Table

A partition table contains all the essential information about a particular drive, and its corruption could lead to a drive loss. 

Partition tables can get corrupt or damaged due to hot swap failure, power outage or virus attack.

4. Bad track or sector

A bad track or a sector in hard drive could lead to the drive not being recognized. In most cases, this happens because of a physical failure.

What to do After Losing a Logical Drive

If you suspect a particular drive loss, then the first thing that you need to do is go to Disk Management and check if that drive is listed there. You will find Disk Management tool inside Control Panel -> go to Administrative tools -> choose Computer Management. 

If the drive is listed as RAW then, it's definitely lost and you need to use a Windows drive recovery software to get it back. However, between the time of your logical drive loss and when you start the recovery process, you need to make sure that you take care of the following things

• Do not perform any more operations on the hard drive. Every operation that you do could put your data at risk

• Do not perform unreliable hit-and-trial methods when you are not even sure it would help. This could make data recovery even more difficult

• Do not format the disk. Even if you might think that disk formatting makes the hard disk go back to normal, it does not. Formatting your disk will make it all the more difficult for a data recovery software to work on it

• If the drive loss occurred because of partition table corruption, then you might try to fix it by rebuilding the partition table. But again, remember that it is a very powerful tool 

Stellar Phoenix Free Data Recovery Software

The Stellar Phoenix Free Data Recovery Software is a completely free tool which can recover formatted, deleted or lost drive or volume from any hard disk in the a quick and efficient manner. The software can detect any external media and recover data from it too. 

Here are Some Features

• Recover deleted or lost files including photos, videos and documents 

• Recover deleted or lost logical drive

• Recover data from inaccessible storage devices

• Recovers lost emails and other data from Email Clients

• Automatically detects drives file system

• Allows to save recovered data at free of cost

The software quickly scans the hard disk for drive and any data loss. This software is the best option to choose if you have accidently deleted your data. 

Conclusion

Logical drive loss can definitely be a headache, and while we can do everything in our power to avoid them, sometimes they just become inevitable. However, with tools like Stellar Phoenix Free Data Recovery Software, you never have to worry about losing a drive abruptly no matter how damaged your system is. All you have to do is download this software and let it handle the data recovery process. 

How Do I Recover Data from CD with Stellar Phoenix?

With time as CDs became available at cheaper rates, its demand increased substantially in the market. CDs used for various purposes in different fields with primary motto being storage of data of the various forms like videos, tons of photos, etc. Being delicate, they are susceptible to damage and data loss problem, which in return affects the performance.

Reasons Why CDs Data Become Unavailable

Here are Some Reasons and Situations Where User Lose His CD Data

Dust and External Environment: Many users tend to leave their CDs open after use. This is a very common scene in busy offices as well as at home. When CD has kept open for long, dust can accumulate on it. In fact, dust can actually collect on CDs in minutes, which risks its functionality and data loss. That is why, it is important to store CDs properly. There are various types of folders with soft covers are available in the market, which could be used for this purpose.

The plastic material used to make CDs is easily get affected by moisture. Hence, a cooler and less    humid environment is preferable for the storage of CDs.

Mishandling: While using a CD , you must be very careful with the way you handle it. Ideally, it should not insert in anything except the CD player or CD cover. Mishandling, carelessly keeping it on any space could cause scratches and result into scratches, which leads to data loss issue. Since the rear side of the CD is very polished, it is prone to scratches, even with the slightest contact. However, it is not just the rear side; scratches on either side of the CD can damage it. In fact, scratches on the label side could do more damage than the ones on the laser-reading side. There are software, which make are capable of making corrections while reading the CD but it is important to choose the right software for that.

Breaking: CDs are made of plastic; they are very thin and brittle. A CD can be damaged and result into loss of data if it is broken or there are substantial cracks in it.

Overuse: Good quality CDs won’t wear out even if you use it for a long time. Although the same cannot be said about low quality ones. The foil layer on them can wear out over time if the quality is poor.

As you can see from the points above, CDs are prone to lose of data. The data can be affected partially or completely depending upon the damage done. They are two way to tackle this problem - either by following the manual steps given below or through a third party software.

Manual Steps to Recover Data from CDs

Cleaning:  If the CD has some small scratches on it and you are facing issues while playing it, you can try cleaning the backside. Keep the CD in proper light and examine the damaged area. If the scratches are minor, you can recover data by simply cleaning it, which can be done by using a very soft cloth with water or electronic cleanser. If there are stains of some greasy substance, you can clean it with small amount of detergent or soap. You can also clean the CD with toothpaste or brass. Always make sure there are no fingerprints or marks left on the surface after cleaning.

Burning software: Few burning software, can continue reading the CD even after getting an error. This feature can definitely help in retrieving back your data, if the damage is only partial. Click Here to know more.

Using third party software

There are many tools available in market, which can help in data recovery from CDs. The most reliable tool for CD data recovery is Stellar Phoenix CD Data Recovery. It helps in recovering any form of inaccessible data from the CDs or even Blu-ray discs.

This software helps in data recovery of CDs burnt in Windows platform.  It also helps in recovering files, which were deleted accidentally. Sometimes, CD is not completely or properly burnt, Stellar Phoenix CD DVD Data Recovery can help recovering data in such cases too.

How to Recover Data from Virus Affected Hard Drives?

With increased use of Internet and advancement in technology, there has been a growing threat of virus software programs that disrupt the normal functioning of the system. The major threat from these virus programs to the data or information stored in the system. These viruses may affect user’s data or annoy them to steal and misuse their data or information from the storage device for wrong intentions. Sometimes it happens when bad bugs make the storage device in completely inaccessible and which may directly lead data loss. To secure your electronic devices from such viruses,’ it is always recommended having professional anti-virus software. However, if the bugs already affect the system, then a data recovery method is the best option to get your lost data back. Before starting the recovery process to get back the lost data from an bug affected Windows hard drives let’s know the main reasons for virus attack on electronic devices:

Not Using Anti-Virus: - Not using anti-virus software to protect the system online and offline becomes a serious mistake in the case of a virus attack. The user should always use trustworthy anti-virus Software. It is always suggested to go for the paid antivirus software rather than a free one. 

Aware While Accessing Spam Mails: - Opening spam emails and attachments are most common mistakes a computer usually makes which leads to malicious software being released into the system. It is strictly advised to take precautions while accessing spam mails or download such attachments at all. Turn on the scanning feature in the anti-virus software that scans any program before it runs on the system.

Virus Attack from Unsecured Websites: - Surfing unsecured website that exploits the vulnerabilities of the browser to download automatically and install an unwanted program. It may decoy the website surfer to install such software on a pretext of being a useful application. These malicious programs then cause havoc on the system and may steal the data as well before destroying it. However, most modern browsers warn users before loading such a website.

Lost data recovery using CHKDSK or TESTDSK utilities

CHKDSK utility is provided as a built-in feature of the Windows operating system. It can be used to check for bad sectors on the disk, repair the disk and recover lost data, which was not overwritten. 

How to use?

• Open the command prompt on the system.
• Enter chkdsk [/drive] [/r]

Here, the drive is the disk on which data recovery needs to be done, and r instructs the system to check for the bad sectors and recover any readable information available from them.

TESTDSK offers a graphical user interface to select quickly the corrupt drive and attempt data recovery. It provides an undelete option to recover the deleted or lost data from a different file system such as NTFS, FAT formatted drives. 

How to use?

• Downloading the Test Disk tool, install it.
• Open the software as an administrator.
• Select Advanced option.
• Select the drive that needs data recovery and choose Undelete. This starts the recovery process and lists all the available files that can be recovered.
• Select the files and press “c” to copy. Recover the data in another partition or external media if possible.
• Once recovery is complete, quit the application.

Note: Use of above utilities requires basic technical knowledge about the command line tools.

Try Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery

Use of command line utilities may not recover the data completely and requires a good understanding of working with command line tools. In addition, if a wrong command is executed or a right command is executed wrongly, it may cause unexpected damage to the system. If you don’t want to take any risks or you are not so technical to execute these commands then I will recommend you to use Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Home. It is very handy tool. Anyone can use it without any technical expertise.   

How to Fix Missing or Invalid Hard Disk Drive Error?

User can divide a physical drive into a number of partitions to store data in structured manner. Dividing the disk into specific size drive helps to avoid confusion and keeps the data organized. Disk drives are of three types- primary, extended and logical. It is not possible to have more than four primary drives. At one point, only one primary drive is active. Primary and extended drives cannot intersect each other. Extended drives are fourth, which subdivided into logical drives.

A partition table indicates how many drives a hard disk has; it holds all the information about the divided drives like their sizes, location, etc. It is 64 bytes long. Each partition table is limited to a maximum of four primary partitions. However, sometimes it happens when this partition table gets affected, and user faces an error message like invalid or missing drive.

Reasons for a missing or invalid Drive:

Virus Attack

This is one of the most common reason for hard drive data loss. There are some viruses, which damaged the partition table of hard disk drive. Virus issues can be avoided by keeping your anti-virus software updated.

Incorrect Shutdown

Abrupt shutdowns, due to power outages, could lead to loss of logical drives or damage to them.

Human Error

Accidental logical drive loss may happen if the user does not have accurate computer knowledge.

Hardware/Software troubles

A defective software installed on your system may leads to drive data loss.

Hardware issues like bad RAM or problems with the hard drive could cause drive errors.

How to Fix this?

You can fix error manually by using the following method:

• Remove all connected external devices.
• Restart your computer, and wait for the BIOS screen to be displayed
• Click on the F8 key, which will take you to the Advanced Boot Options.
• In the advanced options, choose ‘Repair your computer’. You will get Systems Recovery options.
• Click on command prompt and type bootrec/fixmbr
• Wait for process to complete
• If it does not work, you can try to type bootrec/fixboot in the command prompt

If the above steps do not work, then there is a major problem with the disk.

In this situation, you can try any software for recovery. Use a trusted software like Stellar Phoenix Free Data recovery, as a defective software could worsen the problem.

Short Description about Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery – Free Edition

You can retrieve your valuable data like images, files or documents using the Stellar Phoenix Free Data Recovery software. This software is easy to use and available at free of cost, it is a must have product if you are suffering from any kind data loss issue. 

This software has a user-friendly interface and is simple to use. Connect the hard drive to your computer. Install and run Stellar Phoenix Free Data Recovery. It will automatically detect the drive, just select the drive and start the scanning process. After the scan is completed, the recoverable files will be shown in software interface. Select the files that you want to recover and click on the ‘Save’ button to save the files at your desired location.

Note: Stellar Phoenix can help recover upto 1 GB data.

Top 5 Windows Free Data Recovery Software

This article brings you the best data recovery software for Windows which helps to recover your data from the failure hard drives at free of cost. Hard drives may fail due to any reason but getting your data back from that failed hard disk requires high technical skills and efforts, and these can be found in a data recovery software. Data recovery software now becomes the need of the users for easy and smooth recovery.

Below I Have Explained the Most Recommended Software for Windows Data Recovery.  

Recuva: 

I believe you are not surprised when you see the Recuva on the top in the software recommendation list. This software has a number of amazing features which influence to keep this tool on the top. Let me tell you its features to know the highlights of this software and these are:

• Fast Scanning Process
• Can Scan Highly Loaded hard drives
• It has two versions such as normal and portable version. The normal version can be installed on the computer and system whereas the portable version only can install on the external or USB drive.

Stellar Phoenix Free Data Recovery Software:

This software is launched by Stellar with the advance technology which helps to recover data from the extremely damaged hard drive at free of cost. It has a well versed and easy to use user interface which can be easily navigated by non-technical users. This software runs on all Windows versions and can easily extract data from the internal as well as external hard drives. Its scanning process is quite slow, but it can read the bad sectors of the hard drives and retrieve data from them. This tool provides many features for recovering data from different sources such as hard drives, CD/DVD’s, Email Clients. It has a bunch of outstanding features which allows the user to get their lost data back.

TestDisk: 

TestDisk is an another free software, which works through the command prompt. It also works well to recover data from the hard drives, but it is little technical too. To run this data recovery software one should have the expertise. Though the software is not recommended for the non-technical users, this is the only limitation of this software. Otherwise, the tool gives 100% recovery result.

PhotoRec: 

PhtoRec software recover lost files so quickly. Firstly, it tries to find the data cluster size and check the file system whether it is corrupted or not. When it determines that the file system is not damaged, then the value can be read from the superblock or volume boot record. If the PhotoRec finds the file system corrupted then it reads the media, sector by sector for searching the first ten files and take huge time for scanning the drive. This software wok to recover only media files successfully and not for the other data type recovery.

Undelete 360: 

Undeleted 360 is another best data recovery software which helps to recover deleted data from the hard drive. It provides an outstanding way to retrieve data from the inaccessible hard disk. This software recovers data from formatted, logical failure and other factors affected hard drive. This file recovery software scans the hard disk for recovering lost files and shows them for preview in the software interface with the overwritten file status. The return percentage of this data recovery is not so good, and that’s why it is in the number five position.

Conclusion: These all free data recovery tools are useful for recovering lost data from the hard drives. The user can choose any of them for recovering their lost data, but if they are looking for a feature-rich tool which can work to recover their data from multiple drives and email clients, then Stellar Phoenix is the best choice for them.