 Hello everybody! Watch this video to see the list of most common causes of partition loss from hard disk drives and learn how to bring back your files from the missing partitions. In our channel and blog you will find solutions to any problem, from installing an operating system or configuring it to fixing possible bugs and errors or optimizing mobile gadgets. Our specialists will answer any questions you ask in your comments under the videos or articles. Reinstalling your favorite operating system or changing to another one, accidentally removing a partition from the hard disk, taking the wrong step while working in a partition manager utility, hardware issues, bed blocks – these are only a few things that may cause partitions to disappear from your drive. The main cause behind partition loss is damaged partition tables. A partition table is a kind of a system file and a data structure that contains critically important information about the hard disk drives partitions, including the beginning and the end of the disk, the file system, the name, size and many other things. In most cases, though, losing partitions from the disk doesn't mean you are losing all your files. Typically, when anything is removed from the hard disk, it is actually still there on the disk, but such file or folder is no longer displayed by the operating system. This is why, even in the most complicated cases, you still have a chance to restore the files that you think are gone beyond recovery. Within a few minutes, we'll explore all possible causes that make partitions disappear and what should be done to finally recover the data, without the risk of losing it for good. If one or several partitions in your drive have been removed, for whatever reason, you shouldn't try to create a new partition in the unallocated disk space that appears after the removal, or write any new data there. Don't do that. The first thing that you should really do is to stop using the operating system and the damaged drive in order to avoid causing more damage. If you don't, it may result not only in losing the partition, but also in overwriting the data this partition still holds. In fact, recovering data after a partition loss is much more complicated and difficult than doing it after a commonplace case of data removal. If you want to avoid a partition loss, and I'm sure you do, you should know exactly why it happens. So, let's analyze causes behind a partition loss. First, damaged partition table. To start working with the hard disk, you need to partition it so that the operating system understands where disk areas are good for writing data. As most hard disks have large capacities, they are usually divided into several partitions, and each of these is assigned a drive letter. When the disk is partitioned, it receives a partition table which helps the operating system to recognize the disk properly. If this table is somehow damaged and lost, the partition will be lost as well, and you won't be able to read or write data to this hard disk. There are several partition styles out there. MBR, which has been around since first hard disks were introduced, and GPT, a more up-to-date way to organize the disk space. Some operating systems have their own specific structure. For example, macOS may use the APM scheme, which is the abbreviation for Apple Partition Map. Therefore, if you have a drive with a partition table used by one operating system, and then try using this drive with a computer having a completely different operating system, the information on this drive will remain inaccessible for you. You'll need to use a third-party software tool to extract the data from the drive. And Hetman Partition Recovery is just the right tool for the job. It will identify the drive's file system automatically, and after scanning it, you'll be able to view the drive contents and save the required data to another disk. However, changing the partition scheme without formatting the drive is impossible, and naturally it erases all the data it contains. But even in that case, our product can recover your files even after the formatting. The second cause – the file's sim is not supported. At the moment, there is a number of various file systems, and all of them differ more or less from each other in terms of their internal structure. Some of them are pretty versatile and recognized by most file systems, but others are only available for use with a specific operating system. For example, if you format a drive with EXT4 file system in Linux, write some data there, and then connect this drive to a Windows computer. The drive will not be recognized, the operating system will suggest initializing, and oops, this information is gone. If you accidentally agreed to initialize the drive and then connected it to the Linux computer again, you're not going to see anything – the drive will be empty. However, if you open this storage device with Hetman Partition Recovery and scan it, you'll be able to extract all the information it can find. Cause number 3 is accidentally removed partitions. The human factor is something we should consider in every situation. All humans make mistakes, and to a certain degree, this is inevitable. When addressing a drive, the operating system suggests formatting it so that it can be used with this computer, you agree to that, but then all the data from the drive disappeared. In a situation like this, anyone may accidentally remove a partition, use the disk part command to clean the wrong drive, or do other things which cause loss of data. If this is what happened, your only option is to find a reliable recovery tool. Choosing the wrong disk when working with partitions or accidentally removing a partition may cause other partitions to disappear. And result in a massive data loss. When working with programs like How May Partition Manager, you may sometimes choose the wrong disk and remove all of its data. If there is a power cut or a software error while you are extending emerging partitions, they may disappear as well. When partitioning a drive, the operating system writes the critically important information – the size, the offset, the volumes, the file system type, etc. in the beginning of the hard disk. If a few sectors in that disk array are damaged, the operating system will not be able to read this information and display all the partitions that exist on this drive. In the end, all the files are still there, but the operating system cannot access them because the portion of extremely important information has been erased. Also, some partition managers may not support a specific file system that your drive is currently using. If you continue working with such drive in this Manager app, it may erase the drive's partition table. And after that, recovering your data becomes quite a challenge. Again, Hetman Partition Recovery will deal with any of these problems easily. Read the drive contents, find the remote partitions and restore all the information, which is still there. The fifth cause is partition loss as a result of formatting or changing the file system. Another thing causing partition loss is formatting. There are two ways to format a drive – quick format and full format. For quick format, only boot sector and an empty table of the selected file system are written to the drive. The disk space is marked as unused, but the actual data is not removed. In other words, all the information is intact, but it is no longer displayed by the operating system. In case of a full format operation, the drive is overwritten with zeros, and this is when all the data is actually erased. After such formatting, most recovery tools are used. In a drive's partition, the first logical disk may contain important information about the partitions created on this drive. When you run a full format operation on the first disk, this data can be overwritten with zeros, and other partitions containing more information will be lost as well. Another scenario is converting the file system, for example, from FAT to NTFS. The service data can be damaged in the process, and the operating system will never find another partition. Even when you choose to convert the file system with the command prompt and without losing data, you can never be sure that one of the partitions doesn't disappear. The sixth cause is removing or creating partitions. When an HDD is partitioned or its partitions are removed, created or merged, some of them may be lost in the process. If you accidentally removed the wrong partition in the disk management tool or a partition disappeared after certain operations and no longer shows up in the Explorer window, only a data recovery tool can help you restore the operation from the hard disk. The seventh cause is bad sectors and physical problems with the hard disk drive. The platter inside the hard disk drive is divided into concentric rings called tracks, and these in turn are divided into sectors. If a sector cannot be read or written normally, such sector is referred to as damaged or bad. If there is a number of bad sectors, the drive may break down completely, and reading or writing operations will be impossible. However, if only a few sectors are damaged, the information from the drive can be read. Except for cases when they contain critically important information about the drive partitions, then the operating system may not display the hard disk in the Explorer window. If that's your case, you have to find some specialized software to help you. The eighth cause is drive failure or shutdown during a write operation. Talking of external drives, if there is an error or an emergency power cut while your drive is busy writing data or formatting the disk space, this can easily leave it damaged and you won't be able to use it again until you format it again. It happens because the information may be written only partially and, as some data is missing, it may be difficult or even impossible to reach such files from the drive. To put things right, you'll have to restore the data structure and is the process which is literally bound to cause a loss of some data, or even all the data, from your hard disk or USB stick, and often beyond recovery. So, to avoid damage to removable drives, always use the safely remove hardware and eject media option. It is especially important for external hard disks, because before shutting down, they need power to have their read-write heads parked in a safe area where they can't damage the platter surface. If these heads park in the wrong place, there is always a risk that they may land right onto the rotating platter, damage the surface and cause physical damage, which results in data loss. And the last cause we're going to cover is when the drive letter is not assigned. Sometimes Windows fails to assign a corresponding letter to external drives and USB sticks. If a partition has not been assigned a drive letter, it remains hidden from the operating system. Moreover, if the drive letter has changed, then trying to access the hard disk by addressing the previously used drive letter causes an error. So, if the operating system can't assign a drive letter automatically, help your computer by doing it manually. Open this management, find your drive, right-click on it, change drive letter and pass, add, select a letter which is not in use and hit OK. If this trick doesn't help and there is nothing to show, then it's time to use a data recovery tool. Headman Partition Recovery will help you get your data back in most cases of partition loss. The program analyzes all data in the hard disk, even if the tables are raised or missing, and recovers the lost data with a signature search. Deep analysis of the hard disk allows it to recover information after system errors or hardware failures, and even when the disk is unreadable. It will scan the hard disk automatically and display all the information still remaining on the disk, so the only step left to take will be to recover it. But if the files can't find the information, you can always go for full analysis. The next step is to select the files you want to recover, click Recovery, select where you want to save them and click Recovery again. When the entire process is over, you will find the recovered files in the folder you have chosen. When the file system table is damaged and the program failed to find the lost partitions automatically, use the Partitions search option. Start the program, open the Drive Manager tab, right-click on the drive where the lost partition used to exist, and select the option Find Partitions. This is where you need to specify the file system type for the lost partition. If the disk has several partitions with different file systems, choose all of them and then click Find. When the search is complete, the program will display all removed partitions in this window and they will appear in the Drive Manager. Now the final step is to scan it and recover your data. Summing up Partitioning a disk helps you to store and manage your files in a more convenient way. However, before you do anything to your hard disk, make sure to backup all important information so that you can be secured against possible data loss. And remember, even if this situation seems absolutely hopeless, there is always a solution to fix the problem. The trick is to know exactly what you're doing and select a proper tool for the job. And that is all for now. Hopefully, this video was useful. Remember to click the Like button and subscribe to our channel. Push the bell button to receive notifications and never miss new videos. Leave comments to ask questions. Thank you for watching. Good luck.