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.

How to Recover Data Lost During Cut and Paste?

While transferring my 2GB worth of data from my 2TB external hard drive to my computer system via cut and paste method, somehow, the external hard disk got crashed, and the transferring process has been stopped. I tried to reconnect my external hard drive into the system but found no data in it. The system recognizes the drive; only the data is invisible. Don’t know how to deal with this situation?

Losing your valuable data during cut and paste method is very common situation faced by users every day. And of course, this is not easy for ordinary users to deal with this data loss issue. When users come across such situation, then they should take some precautions to prevent permanent data loss.

Firstly, the user needs to aware of the data overwriting issue. To avoid such problem, a user should be mindful of the fact that if he put anything on the drive from which he wanted to recover his lost data, it may overwrite empty space and the probability of data recovery becomes zero.

How to Safely Recover Lost Data from the External Hard Drive?

Firstly, you can check the recycle bin of Windows to see if the missing files are available there for restoration. However, in data loss case because of cut and paste method, there are very less chances of finding your files in recycle bin. If you don’t find your files in the recycle bin, then move to the next solution. 

You need to go for the professional data recovery software before the situation turns to worst. Data recovery software is the safest solution for the lost data recovery from external or internal hard drives. You only need to download the data recovery software on your system and connect the external hard disk for recovering your lost data. Don’t download the data recovery software when the external hard drive is connected to your system as it may cause data overwritten issue. First, remove your hard drive in which you want to perform the recovery process and then download the data recovery software.

To know the detailed recovery process of Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery software, please click on Get Deleted data back with Windows data recovery software. 

Conclusion: - The shortcut key like cut and paste is the most useable key which is used by all computer users. And this may sometimes cause data loss issue. But now, with the help of data recovery software of Stellar Phoenix, a user can quickly and easily deal with this problematic situation.  

How to Use Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery - Home is a secure and easy to use lost data recovery software. This software works efficiently to extract deleted or lost files from various types of storage devices such as USB drive, Flash Drive, SSD, HDD. etc. If you are trying this data recovery software for the first time and wondering how it works? What art the recovering steps? Then, just go through this tutorial to get your data back with just simple steps.

Step1 : Download the Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery – Home software on your computer system.  Remember, don’t download this data software on the hard drive from which you want to recover your data as it may overwrite that drive. For example, if you want to recover your data from the external hard drive, then install this software on your computer system hard disk instead of the same external hard drive or Vice a Versa.

Step2:  Assuming, you want to recover data from computer’s internal hard drive and have installed this data recovery software on another drive. Now, Open the software interface and select the drive listed in displayed screen.

Step3: Choose the Scan type option, the software gives two type of scanning options such as “Normal” and “Advanced”. You can choose any of them as per your desire.

Step4: Once you choose the scan type and clicked on “Scan Now” button, software will start the scanning process and gave you preview of your lost files available for recovery.

Step5: Check the unchecked boxes next to the files and folders which you want to recover and click on the recovery button available on the below right corner of the software.

Step6: After clicking on recovery button, you will receive a pop-up Window asking for the location to save those recovered files and folders. Just choose the desired location and save your records.

Once software completes the data saving process, you can check your files at same location you had chosen.

Conclusion: The data recovery steps of Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery software are so easy to execute. Even if you are not a technical user, still you can recover your lost data with this easy to use data recovery software.

How to Fix Damaged External Hard Drive without Formatting It

Today morning, I have received a very annoying message "Unallocated Drive, Do You Want to Format It?”. I didn’t format the external hard drive as there were many important files including thousands of pictures, the best collection of my favorite songs and movies. Is there any trustworthy damaged external hard drive recovery solution available, that I can use to fix the damaged hard drive error without format? I really want my data back.

When your external or internal hard drive is corrupted or damaged due to certain reasons such as unallocated file system, virus, etc., then, your data in that hard drive will usually become unreachable. And, when you tried to access it on your computer system, Windows will remind you that the hard disk is not accessible because the file system or directory is corrupted. At this point of time, you can try two hard drive recovery solutions, such as using chkdsk command or using a third-party Windows data recovery software to fix the drive and recover lost data. Before moving to recovery section, one thing you should note is to stop using the damaged hard drive, until you fully get your data back, otherwise, you will experience the permanent data recovery failure.

Use chkdsk to recognize and fix the hard drive issue without data loss.

"CHKDSK" command is users first choice for repairing the damaged hard drive and recover inaccessible data. It does not require hard drive formatting and allows you to fix a corrupted hard drive without data loss. Now let’s look how it works for repairing damaged hard drive (I'm using Windows 7 for this demonstration)

1. Plug in your External hard drive to your computer system.
2. Just go to the start menu, type in "cmd" in a search bar, hit enter and then you can see cmd

Window, which allows you to fix your corrupted external hard drive without formatting it.

3. Type in "chkdsk X (external hard drive letter): /F (F stands for Fix error)"

After, finishing all the hard drive fixing steps, Windows operating system will check and fix the file system of the hard drive It usually takes several minutes. After that, if you see the Windows successfully made corrections to the file system in the command window, then congratulations! The damaged hard drive is successfully fixed, and you can access your data with ease. If not, you should try a third-party data recovery software to repair the damaged drive and get back your data.

Use Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Tool to recover data from damaged External Hard Drive

Stellar data recovery software is a proficient data recovery tool which can be used to recover data from inaccessible or formatted hard drives. It supports to extract data from laptop’s or computers hard drives, recover formatted drives data and all storage media like CF cards, SD card, etc. With its powerful data recovery technique and user-friendly interface, it is the best option to recover your inaccessible data from damaged hard drive. After recovering all your important data, you can format your external hard drive to fix the damaged hard drive error.

Conclusion: Before going for the full version for a real damaged external hard drive data recovery, you can first use the free trial version to scan the hard disk and check what files format the software can recover. For a gradually tutorial, please follow this Get Deleted Data Back with Windows Data Recovery Software tutorial. If you don’t get a happy result, just don’t pay for it! You have nothing to lose. But if it works, you will recover your valuable data. So, try it without hesitation whenever you come in data loss situation or face damaged hard drive issue...

Get Deleted Data Back with Windows Data Recovery Software

Deletion of a data is very easy but, the recovery of same deleted data becomes expensive when we don’t know how to recover our crucial data from our storage media. Also, It’s a poor feeling when you comprehend what you've done. Luckily, now you can easily get them back without spending much time using the Windows data recovery software. Here's you will get to know how to recover deleted files or get deleted data back.

How to Get deleted data back from Windows?

Just Look in the Recycle Bin First

The very first place you should look in is the recycle bin. Check your deleted files at the obvious places where all the deleted files reside for restoration. When you delete your files from any drive then the first place where those deleted files appear is Windows' Recycle Bin. To search your deleted data in recycle bin you only need to do double click on the recycle bin icon and have a look.

If you find your files there, then you can easily drag and drop it on to the desktop to restore them. But there are times when you have emptied the recycle bin too quickly, or maybe you have permanently deleted your data by pressing the Shift-Delete shortcut key.

Check Your Shared Mails

It is still worth checking your data at other places. Just try to memorise that have you ever shared the deleted data or document via email? If yes, then open the email and search for your deleted documents, might be they are still present in inbox, outbox, draft, or in other folders.

It becomes the major concern of users that how to recover deleted data when they have permanently deleted their files from system. We help you to solve your problem and find your lost files.

Use Restore from Previous Version Option: 

To Get your data back you can use the Restore from previous version option. Just do right click on the drive from which you want to recover data and click on restore from previous version option. After the select the time in which the data were present and click on restore button.

Below Read the Steps to get lost data back from Windows operating system

Step 1. Download the Windows data recovery software and just install it. Also, don’t forget if have already accidentally deleted some data then don’t download Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery software to the sane disk containing your lost files location. As it will overwrite your deleted data and make it difficult to get them back.

Ideally, you should download the data recovery software on another disk and connect that drive as the external one from which you want to recover your data.

Step 2. Start Windows data recovery software. When you open the software, then it will show all the available drives. Now, select the one from which you want to extract your data and click on deleted file recovery option and click on ‘scan’ button. The software will now start the scanning process and list your deleted files

Step3: Now, select the files from software interface which you want to recover and click on recovery button. After clicking on recovery button, software will ask you to choose the desired location to save your deleted files. Just browse the location and enjoy your data again.

Conclusion: As, we all know, that the prevention is better than cure. Keeping the backup of your precious data always prevent the uncertain and pathetic data loss situation. Nevertheless, if you already have lost your data and don’t have backup of that data then don’t worry, as there is a data recovery solution present for you to solve your data loss problem.

How to Recover Data From Hard Disk Drive Which Is Not Detecting?

Summary: In this article, I have described how you can recover your data from the hard disk drive which is not detected with the help of a Professional Data Recovery tool of Stellar Phoenix.  By reading this article, you will get know how easy it is to identify an external or internal hard drive and recover data from them.

A common issue which most users face is that an electronic device is not getting detected in the system. This issue occurs due to the extended usage of devices, virus attack, or file system corruption, etc. The recovery of data from undetected hard drive is not an easy task and requires help from seasoned professionals. Here, Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home tool is a name to reckon with. It has the capability to detect invisible drives as well as recover data from it. Let’s look at how Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Home tool can help.

When you encounter the issue – ‘hard drive is not detected,’ then follow the below steps to detect your hard disk and retrieve your data:

1. Launch Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Home Tool on your system.

2. Next, click on Search Volumes Option and select the whole hard drive to detect the lost partition. After clicking on the hard disk, you will have two scanning options. Choose either as per your requirement.

3. Once, you select the option to search lost volume from the hard drive, the software will start the scanning process:

4. After completing the scanning process, you will be able to see all existing partition on your system whether deleted or not deleted:

5. When you get your deleted partition listed in software interface, simply execute recovery process as mentioned here.

Conclusion

When your hard drive becomes invisible in your system, it does not necessarily mean that you have lost your data permanently. You can avail varied professional third-party tools which offer the search lost volume option to detect your hard drive as well as recovers data from it seamlessly.

How to Repair and Recover Damaged Partition Data

As we all know, hard drives now become an essential part of our life, even we can not imagine our perfect business life without the hard drives. Today in this article I am going to explain hard drive, how it works and what to do when it gets damage. Most PC or Laptop comes with the hard drive from manufacturing factory without divided into several partitions. It comes as the local drive mostly names as c drive, but thanks to the disk management system tool we can easily divide one hard drive into number of the partition. It helps to allocate different and desired space in the hard drive for data storage.

To store data, a physical disk drive is divided into several partitions. They hold important data and files that are needed to boot the system. Every partition holds different data, which is stored without confusion.

To make partitions in the hard disk, you need to run the disk management utility. You can do this by typing diskmgmt.msc in the ‘Run’ tab. All the hard drives available would be displayed, along with the partitions and available space. You can then shrink the partitions and create new ones out of the extra space.

There are three types of partitions- primary, extended and logical partitions. A primary partition contains one file system. There can be only one active primary partition. It is not possible to have more than four primary partitions. A disk can have four primary partitions, or three primary and one extended partition. Logical partitions are created within the extended partitions.

There are several reasons to partition a hard drive. 

Helps Computer Run Faster

As the computer only has to scan a partition and not the entire disk, it can locate data faster. The overall speed of the system improves. It even makes the maintenance tasks quicker for the computer.

Limited Data Damage

If one partition is deleted- accidentally or due to some error, there will be limited data loss as the other partitions will still have their data intact. Most viruses attack the C: drive. When this happens, you will lose the data in the C: drive, but the data in other drives will remain secure.

Multiple Operating Software’s

You can boot and manage multiple operating software on your computer by creating partitions. A boot loader can be used to switch between the two operating software.

Organized Data

With partitions, you can easily keep your data organized. You can store your images in one partition, important documents in another.

Partition Loss

Often, these partitions get damaged, resulting in data loss. A particular partition could get damaged or deleted, or all partitions in the hard drive could go missing.

There are several reasons for loss or damage of partitions.

Computer Virus

This is the most common reason for damage of partitions. Often, a virus like Boot Sector Virus could damage or delete the partitions. Therefore, it is recommended to have a good anti-virus software and keep it updated.

Hardware or Software Problems

Problems with the hard drive or bad RAM could lead to partition loss. If the disk is damaged completely, the user will not be able to access the OS. In case of partial damage, there could be partition loss after restarting the computer.

Similarly, installation of defective software on the system could cause problems. One must always install software from trusted software.

Improper Shut Down

Instant Shutdown, due to a power cut, or a hard restart could lead to partition damage.

Accidental Partition Loss

A user who is not so well versed with computers may accidentally delete partitions due to incorrect operations.

You can detect partition loss when the drive or partition is not shown in Windows Explorer and Disk Management. When facing partition loss, it is recommended that you immediately turn the power off and connect the hard disk to another computer. But if you do not have the technical knowledge for that, then you need just to stop writing and saving any new data to the damaged disk.

Also, do not try to format the disk on your own. That would just cause the data to disappear and reduce chances of recovery.

There are several partition recovery software available online. However, an incorrect software could worsen the problem. Using a trusted software like the Stellar Phoenix Partition Data recovery, is recommended.

Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery

Repairing a damaged partition is simple with a tool like Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery. Whatever the reason for damage- a virus attack, hardware failure or a system problem, Stellar Phoenix can help recover deleted or damaged partitions, and retrieve lost data.

This software can help recover lost images, files, emails, and documents. It supports FAT, NTFS, and ExFAT files. It can retrieve data from lost or formatted partitions.

Additionally, this tool is used for data recovery from damaged optical media like CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-Ray discs.

For recovery from a hard drive, four types of scans are available

• Quick Recovery- This is the fastest and most recommended scan. It scans all files, including deleted files and retrieves them.

• Deleted Recovery- This is a scan exclusively for deleted files and folders. Once retrieved, you can save them

• Advanced Recovery- This is for formatted NTFS or FAT files.

• RAW Recovery- An advanced feature called RAW recovery helps search for data in drives based on file types. This can help in recovering data from extremely corrupt storage media

This tool has some advanced options like Cloning and Imaging. The Cloning tool helps make an exact clone or copy of the primary hard drive. In case your drive fails, this cloned drive can help recover data. Imaging creates a copy of the hard drive or removable media, which can be used in case the hard drive takes too long to get scanned.

 Lost Emails too can be Recovered in MS Outlook and Outlook Express.

Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery software is extremely simple to use. Once the hard drive or external storage device is attached to the computer, run the software, and it will automatically detect the drive. All the volumes in the drive will be listed after a scan. After scanning, you can choose the files you want to recover and save.

You can also download Free of cost and easy to use, Stellar Phoenix Free Data Recovery to solve to any trouble you may be facing due to loss or damage of partitions. It will help retrieve your important data and provide previews of the files before you save them. You can easily run and work the software on your own as it has a very user-friendly interface.

How to Migrate Raw Hard Drive to NTFS?

This article highlights how to Migrate RAW Format Hard Drive into NTFS File System without losing a single unit of your precious data from your Windows system. Hard drives are highly sensitive and can get damaged due to reasons such as dust particles on hard drive platters, drop down from a little height, virus infection, etc. Sometimes, these situations affect the hard drive’s file system and turn it to RAW i.e. the damaged file system becomes inaccessible to the user.

Your hard disk can turn into RAW any time without showing any particular reason, and suddenly, you are unable to access your hard drive data. But the silver lining is that you can now easily recover your hard drive data and can also migrate it into the different file system. Let’s look at how.

First, let’s look at the probable error messages you may receive when the hard drive turns into RAW:

• “The D Drive is not formatted; do you want to format it?”

• “The hard disk D drive is not formatted”

• “The drive is not accessible” 

• “Drive Appear as RAW in Disk Management” 

• “Check disk does not Support RAW drive”

If you see any of the above error messages with your hard drive, then it implies that drive has lost its file system and needs to be changed. But the question arises as to how it is possible to migrate RAW drive into NTFS format without losing our data from it. 

Follow the steps below to Recover your data from a RAW hard drive:

1. Launch Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery software on your system.

2. After launching it on your system, next, select the RAW drive for recovery and click on the RAW recovery option. 

After clicking on RAW recovery option, the software will scan each and every sector of your hard disk to detect the lost location of data. After completing the scanning process, the software will give you the preview of a RAW drive data, which was not accessible earlier. After previewing your recoverable data, you can save it to your desired location by purchasing its licensed version.

Now, you can easily execute migration process of RAW drive into NTFS. Follow the below steps:

1. Format the RAW drive 

2. Right-click on the RAW drive by going to my computer window

3. Select Format to change the drive file system 

4. Click on Start and then click OK

After executing the above steps, your drive will be available for reuse and can easily turn into another file system. To know more about hard drive file system migration, visit: http://harddrivefix.blogspot.in/2015/10/how-to-convert-fat-file-system-into-ntfs.html  blog. In this blog, you will get detailed information about the file system and how you can change it with ease.

The Way Forward: 

RAW hard drive implies a drive which has lost only its file system and not the data from it. Therefore, even if a hard drive turns into a RAW form, it can be easily recovered by leveraging Stellar’s RAW data recovery software - Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery.

Recover Data After a Quick Formatting of a Hard Drive

Windows operating system is found in almost 70% computers just because of its user-friendly interface and features. Microsoft always tries to make their users happy by providing them latest and advanced Windows versions. Whenever a new and latest version of Windows comes into existence, then user want to upgrade it as soon as possible. And to experience the new version of Windows, they used to format their earlier Windows version via quick or deep format. Most of the people use “quick format” for installing Windows latest version and lose their valuable or useless documents from the drive. But after realizing that, they have lost some precious documents from the drive; they look for the option to recover their critical data. But now, there is no need to take tension because Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery software is available now. This software always satisfies users need and give them their valuable data without creating any trouble.

How Quick Format Works for New Windows Version Installation?

Quick format of the hard drive means wipes it quickly. It wipes out the file system and deletes the information and files from the partition table. However, after executing the quick format process, the deleted files still there for recovery but only with the help of best data recovery software. Read below to know how data recovery is possible after using quick format option.

Why to Choose Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software

As, we all know, that after formatting the hard drive it is not so easy to recover your lost data. But, with the Stellar Phoenix, it becomes a very easy task as it gives deleted data recovery option. To Get your data back, you only have to launch this data recovery software on your system and after this, follow some of the quick recovery steps which are mentioned as below:

Step1: Open ‘Software Interface’ and Click on Data Recovery option and select the drive you have recently formatted. Then, click on deleted data recovery option from the right panel of the software.

Step2: Once you clicked on the deleted data recovery option, the software will start the scanning process and give you the preview of your all deleted files.

Step3: After viewing all your deleted files in the preview window, just select the files and the folders and click on Recover button to recover your precious data. After completing the recovery process, the software will allow you to save your recovered files to the desired location which you can choose it as per your convenience.

Conclusion: In the hurry, we don’t care about our precious data and quick format non-functional hard drive for reuse. But, after realizing the lost data importance, we search for the data recovery options Sometimes they work and sometimes they won’t work. To deal with such kind of situation, we all should have one of the best data recovery software like SPWDR Pro which can easily recover our data from the quick formatted hard drive.

How to Recover Data from An Uninitialized Hard Drive?

“I insert my hard drive into the system, and it shows as uninitialized in the Disk Management.”

Not initialized or uninitialized hard disk, we have heard this word many of the times in forums, articles and also found the number of different solutions to deal with this issue. The most annoying situation is when the hard drive has suddenly become disappeared from the Windows Explorer and is visible in the Disk Management as ‘Uninitialized’ or ’Unallocated’. Today, in this article, we are going to understand the Concept of the Uninitialized Hard Disk and how we can recover data from such kind of hard drive with the most efficient Stellar data recovery software.

Why Hard Disk Become Uninitialized?

Usually, the hard drive becomes inaccessible due to various reasons, such as damaged partition table, virus attack, outdated hard drive version, etc. and to troubleshoot this issue; you got the message to initialize it. But don’t initialize your hard drive as it will erase your hard drive data and leave it as blank. After formatting the hard disk, you might be able to use your hard drive again, but won’t be able to recover your data. So, before initializing your hard drive, it is always recommended to use the ‘Best Data Recovery Software’ first and then initialize the hard drive for reuse.

How does Stellar Data Recovery Software work to Recover Data from Uninitialized hard drive?

Once you find your hard drive uninitialized in Disk Management, the first question comes to your mind is - if I initialize the drive then, will it format the whole disk? Well, the answer to this question is ‘Yes’. If you initialize the drive for whatever reason, it will erase the entire hard drive data, and you won’t get your data back ever. To overcome from this problematic situation, some top Data Recovery Companies has developed Data Recovery Software from the uninitialized hard drive. From the vast range of data recovery tools, “Stellar Phoenix” is the most popular and recommended utility.

Stellar data recovery software is developed with the advance technology which scans hard drive’s each and every sector and deeply read the whole hard disk to successfully execute the recovery process. The tool is prepared to recover data from almost all types of the hard drive with any format such as NTFS, FAT, etc. It is not only capable to recover office documents or images; even this tool can recover 300 plus file formats.

Why Choose Stellar Data Recovery Software?

Stellar Phoenix provides the number of services at an affordable price which gives reasons to put your hands down on this brilliant data recovery tool. Read below to know them:

•    It allows recovering data from different companies external and internal hard drives.

•    Four in One Software gives the option to recover data from hard drives, Photos from hard drive stick, CD/DVD, Email Clients.

•    Recover Data from uninitialized, unallocated or formatted hard drives.

•    Provide an option for hard drive imaging and cloning.

•    Allows to preview your data which is available for recovery.

•    Virus Free tool and Gives assurance of 100% security.

Conclusion: To recover data from an uninitialized hard drive, ‘Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software’ is an ideal choice. This tool is prepared with the powerful technology which helps to recover data from not initialized or unallocated hard drive easily.

How to Recover Files from RAW Partition?

“A few Days back virus attack ruined my whole hard drive and left it as RAW. I was very much tensed and want my data back.”

Usually, the partition is something which is required while operating a computer and read or write data on it. Partition is like a database for storing and saving data on the computer. It helps to divide the hard drive memory into separate sections to maximize the storage capacity of the hard drive. Partitions can be damaged due to various reasons such as virus attack, lost file system, accidentally deletion of partition, etc.

Hard Drive Partitioning 

When you have the brand new hard drive, then creating partitions is the first thing one should do before creating any file or directories. The disk space where it stores the information about each partition size, location, name, etc. is called ’Partition Table’. Once we create the partition on the disk, then each partition created on the disk appears as a distinct logical disk. By creating partitions on the drive, data loss chances become very less as all the partition have their own space on the disk. For example, if one partition has ruined, then the rest of the partition on the disk will not affect by that particular partition.

How to Manage Partition After Creating It On Disk?

When you have the brand new hard drive, then creating partitions is the

Once you have created the partition on the disk, you can change their size, name and other things easily by going through ‘Disk Management System’. In disk management system, you will find all your partition with their size, name, and status.

Where Disk Management Located?

Do a right click on My Computer and click on Manage to go to Disk Management system

Or, open ’Run Window’ and type diskmgmt.msc, and then press OK to open disk management system.

Is It Possible to Get to Know About Our Partition Healthy Status Via Disk Management System? 

Might be this the next question comes in your mind. Yes, it is possible to check your hard drive partition status with the help of disk management window. It shows the exact and current status of your all partitions. For an instance, if your hard drive becomes inaccessible because of file system corruption, then you can confirm this thing by going through disk management system. If there is the issue with the file system of partition, then it will show the status of RAW format. 

However, sometimes it happens when the whole partition from hard drive got lost. The reason behind the deletion of partition could be anything such as virus attack, accidental deletion, etc. But, the recovery of that deleted partition can only be done through professional help or professional data recovery software. 

If you have gone through the same data loss situation, then professional data recovery software is the most recommended solution. But, before downloading any data recovery software, make sure that the software is free from virus and have the great ability to recover your data from a raw drive or partition. People have a great experience with the data recovery software of Stellar Phoenix, so you can go with this software without taking any risk.

Conclusion: - When the partition turned into RAW or Unallocated format, then there is no option left to access the data stored on that RAW drive, other than the professional raw data recovery software. With the help of professional data recovery software, you can recover your raw hard drive data by yourself.

Top 3 Methods to Recover Deleted Files from Windows 7 & 10

Sometimes, we have accidentally deleted our files or the files have been automatically removed from the system. This can happen with anyone at any time.

This article is for those who are looking for the solutions to get back their files after losing it from any storage media. But before moving to the solutions, I would recommend all of you to check your system again, might be your deleted files are still present on the computer. There are certain places where you can look for your lost files such as ‘Recycle Bin, Other Drives or Partitions, Online Drop Boxes’, etc. If you don’t find your files at these locations, then don’t get upset because there is still some hope left for deleted file recovery.

I know, this is the most pathetic situation anyone can face, but nowadays there are various simple solutions available that can help to recover your lost data. Let’s discuss them below to know what these solutions are. I am using Windows 7 and the Windows 10, so, I’ll discuss solution regarding the same Operating Systems.

Restore from Backup: Yes, this is the most recommended, easy and inexpensive way to recover your lost data from windows. But remember one thing, that this option can be used by those users who have already have activated backup settings in Windows. Backup and Restore option is not automatically set up by the Windows, even it requires some manual steps. If you haven’t setup the backup, then there is no possibility of data recovery with this option. Let’s move to another way of recovering data from Windows 7 & 10.

Recover Data from Previous Version: Both versions of Windows 7 and 10 give this fantastic option to restore your Windows drive or partition to the previous version. This option doesn’t require any manual configuration and can be easily used by the users easily. To restore the drive to an older version, you only need to do a right-click on the partition and select the Restore Previous Version option to restore your lost data. Sometimes, it happens, when this previous version option doesn’t show any data for recovery, but this happens very rarely. If it doesn’t help you, then move to the next option which is very easy and assures successful recovery.

Recover Deleted Files using Free Data Recovery Software: Data recovery software is the most favourable solution for data recovery. If you have lost your data from Windows, and also have tried a number of solutions for recovery, then, this is the last resort for you which gives you the assurance of successful recovery. But, before moving to the solution, remember one thing, that the software you are going to download for your precious data recovery is secure for use. There is some free data recovery software available which are full of viruses so beware of them. For Secure data recovery, you can download free data recovery software of Stellar Phoenix

.

This software is 100% safe for deleted data recovery from Windows. It provides four fantastic options for data recovery such as Quick Recovery, Deleted Recovery, Advanced Recovery, Raw Recovery. The user can choose any of them as per their requirement.

Features of Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software are:

• Easily Retrieve Deleted Partition from Internal and External Hard Drives

• Unallocated Hard Drive Recovery is Possible with this Astounding Software

• You can easily ‘Clone’ your hard drive.

• Recovers almost all types of File Formats.

Conclusion: - Windows 7 and 10 are the most popular Operating System in the World. They have amazing features to restore your deleted data. And, if they don’t work for you, then using a reliable data recovery software like Stellar Phoenix is the last resort for you to recover your deleted data.