Summary:
Formatted your NTFS hard drive? Lost data from the partitioned drive by accident? Here is a guide to help you recover your data back from the NTFS drive. The article explains how to recover NTFS partition irrespective of the situation you lost data. Information below also includes the circumstances where you could lose your data from NTFS partition or files from the drive.
What is NTFS Partition?
A New Technology File System (NTFS) is developed by Windows and used in all Windows OS machines. Any internal or external storage drives uses a format for organization of data called file system. NTFS is one such file system mostly preferred by the bigger storage devices to store data.
NTFS partitions are provided in Windows computer drive for better disk space management, sometimes this NTFS partition goes missing in the computer. Without the filesystem the OS cannot read/write the drive. Unlike other file systems, NTFS is also prone to corruption, formatting and any other physical damage. Let us see some of the scenarios where you end up formatting/re-formatting the NTFS drive.
What are the causes for losing NTFS partition?
Virus infection:
Viruses can cause problems to the storage by corrupting the NTFS partitions or even deleting them. It is always good to have the antivirus updated in the computer to avoid such scenarios.
Bad sectors:
If a hard disk is damaged, the partitions present in them could be missing, making it difficult to access the data. During such incidents you will need a NTFS partition recovery tool to recover deleted NTFS partitions.
Loss of partition during Windows reinstall:
During the reinstallation of the Windows there are chances that the user has not partitioned the drive, therefore the hard disk could have merged the partitions to a single NTFS partition resulting in data loss.
Scenarios Where NTFS Partition is Formatted/re-formatted or Deleted
You might have noticed few messages that pops up if you are drive is corrupted, damaged or affected by virus/malware. Here are a few indications that leads to data loss NTFS partition.
Operating System not found, Non-System Disks
The file system is displayed as RAW
Invalid partition table
Drive not formatted. Do you want to format now?
Accidental formatting of NTFS Partition
Be it accidental or intentional formatting due to corruption or virus, your vital data will be at risk. In such situation, you need to fix the corruption. your major concern would be recovering data from NTFS partitioned drive. If you have a backup of data, you can skip to the section how to repair the NTFS drive partition.
If you are more concerned towards the data, follow the next section to recover your data from the corrupt NTFS drive and then fix the drive.
What Happens When NTFS Partition Is Deleted?
Deleting Partition or volume erases all the information present on the drive and data becomes inaccessible to users. It is always good to keep a backup of the data to overcome situations like data loss.
How Can I recover Data from NTFS Partition?
With the help of the safe and most trusted tool, you can recover NTFS partition without any hassle. Widely known as NTFS Partition recovery tool, SFWare Partition Recovery tool is the most recommended tool to recover data from the NTFS drive.
After data is formatted or deleted from the drive, the information is scattered and stored in multiple clusters or sectors on the drive. The tool comes with the unique search algorithm that helps to find formatted, lost, deleted data in every sector of the drive.
Steps to Recover Data from NTFS Partition
To recover NTFS partition, download and install SFWare Partition Recovery Tool on your computer and follow the steps given. (For External storage Devices, Connect the device to your software installed PC).
You can easily retrieve deleted, lost, formatted data from NTFS partition and recover data from unreadable partition.
Step 1: From the main screen, click on Recover Drive/Partitions à Select Drive or Partition Recovery
Step 2: Select the storage drive from which you want to recover partition and click on next
Step 3: Scanning process is initialized. After the completion of scanning process, the tool displays the list of partitions available for recovery along with recoverable partition data in data view and file type view.
Step 4: You can Preview the recovered data from lost or deleted partition, if you are satisfied with the results activate the software and save the data on your computer.
After the completion of recovery process, you can go ahead with the steps to repair corrupt NTFS partition.
How to Fix Corrupt or Damaged NTFS Partition?
Once you recover NTFS Partition, you can try fixing the drive using CHKDSK command. CHKDSK is a Windows utility that can check the hard disk for any errors, this can be used to fix any errors present in the hard drive. Follow the below troubleshooting steps to fix the hard drive.
This method will help you fix the hard drive manually. If you fail to identify the partition, you will not be able to recover the partition. Hence, it is suggested to recover NTFS partition at first.
- Press Windows+R, now type cmdin the box to open the command prompt
- Type chkdsk E: /fto repair corrupt NTFS partition (where E is the drive letter)
- If you want to scan for any bad sector, enter chkdsk E: /r.
- After the scanning is complete, enter Y and exit the command prompt.
If your drive shows RAW, you might encounter an error that states your file system is RAW and operations can’t be performed on RAW drives. At such instances, try converting raw partition to NTFS file system and execute the above given steps.
Advantages of using SFWare partition recovery tool
- Easy to retrieve files from formatted, deleted, corrupt, RAW partitions/volumes
- Useful in recovering data from the hard drives after re-partitioning / re-formatting
- Missing partitions even after reinstallation of OS can be restored.
- Recovers files from unreadable partitions
- Restores data not only from NTFS, but any partitions including FAT, FAT32, HFS, HFS+, APFS
Conclusion:
A hard disk is split into partition to improve the computer’s performance. While trying format/reformat the drive make sure to follow the steps carefully to avoid loss of partition or data from the disk. If you have lost NTFS partition due to hard drive corruption, use a trusted SFWare partition recovery software to recover lost NTFS partition.
Additional Information
What are the causes for losing NTFS partition?
Virus infection:
Viruses can cause problems to the storage by corrupting the NTFS partitions or even deleting them. It is always good to have the antivirus updated in the computer to avoid such scenarios.
Bad sectors:
If a hard disk is damaged, the partitions present in them could be missing, making it difficult to access the data. During such incidents you will need a NTFS partition recovery tool to recover deleted NTFS partitions.
Loss of partition during Windows reinstall:
During the reinstallation of the Windows there are chances that the user has not partitioned the drive, therefore the hard disk could have merged the partitions to a single NTFS partition resulting in data loss.
How to Fix Corrupt or Damaged NTFS Partition?
Once you recover NTFS Partition, you can try fixing the drive using CHKDSK command. CHKDSK is a Windows utility that can check the hard disk for any errors, this can be used to fix any errors present in the hard drive. Follow the below troubleshooting steps to fix the hard drive.
This method will help you fix the hard drive manually. If you fail to identify the partition, you will not be able to recover the partition. Hence, it is suggested to recover NTFS partition at first.
- Press Windows+R, now type cmd in the box to open the command prompt
- Type chkdsk E: /f to repair corrupt NTFS partition (where E is the drive letter)
- If you want to scan for any bad sector, enter chkdsk E: /r.
- After the scanning is complete, enter Y and exit the command prompt.
If your drive or drive partition turns RAW, you might encounter an error that states your file system is RAW and operations can’t be performed on RAW drives. At such instances, try converting raw partition to NTFS file system and execute the above given steps.
What Happens When Partition Is Deleted?
Deleting Partition or volume erases all the information present on the drive partition and won’t be accessible to the user. It is always good to keep a backup of the data to overcome situations like data loss.
If you ever encounter any data loss situations, you can always rely on SFWare Data Recovery Tools.
