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Recover Your Unallocated Partition With These 3 Simple Steps

The Command Prompt can help you recover unallocated space

4 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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Key notes

An unallocated partition is a type of partition in Windows that has not been assigned to any drive letter or volume label. Unallocated partitions are usually created when you install a new operating system on your computer.

They are also created when youformat an existing hard drive. You may wonder why unallocated space is a problem. This is because you cannot store any data on it, therefore, rendering it useless. In this guide, we show you how to recover the unallocated partition and make put it into use.

How does one end up with an unallocated partition?

How does one end up with an unallocated partition?

You can end up with an unallocated partition using the wrong partitioning scheme. Also, if you don’t dedicate all space in a hard drive to partitions, any remaining space not taken up by the OS will be unallocated. Other reasons include:

What can I do to recover an unallocated partition?

What can I do to recover an unallocated partition?

Before jumping into the slightly technical solutions, we recommend you first try these preliminary steps:

1. Use Disk Management

2. Use Command Prompt

3. Use third-party software

You can use partition software to recover unallocated partitions. There are many partition recovery tools available for free on the internet. But AOMEI Partition Assistant is our top recommendation.

It gives users powerful features to recover deleted or damaged partitions and files. This works especially for those with no knowledge of how partitions work.AOMEI Partition Assistantis a powerful, easy-to-use, and reliable partition recovery software.

What makes it a winner for this task is that not only is it comprehensive in partition management but can also help you recover data from the unallocated drive.

⇒Get AOMEI Partition Assistant

Is it possible to recover data from unallocated space?

Yes, it is possible to recover data from unallocated space. If you had created a backup of the partition before it became corrupted, you can easily restore it from theWindows backupfeature. That’s how to recover an unallocated partition with data for free.

However, if you didn’t, you will need the help of specialized software that can search through every bit of data on the disk looking for certain types of information. There is a lot ofdata recovery softwareavailable, both free and paid.

Although it’s not always a guarantee that you will recover your data, it is good practice to regularlyback up your files. This way, you won’t need third-party apps to recover files if such issues arise.

In case you’re havingproblems creating new partitions, we have an answer in our detailed article, so be sure to check that out.

You may also be interested inhiding partitions, especially when using shared computers. If so, make a quick detour to our article, and let us show you how to go about it.

That’s all we had for this article regarding recovering unallocated partitions. For any additional comments, leave us a comment down below.

Claire Moraa

Windows Software Expert

Claire has a knack for solving problems and improving the quality of life for those around her. She’s driven by rationality, curiosity, and simplicity, and always eager to learn more about Microsoft’s products. With a background in teaching and reviewing, she breaks down complex topics into easily understandable articles, focusing mostly on Windows 11, errors, and software.

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Claire Moraa

Windows Software Expert

With a background in teaching and reviewing, she breaks down complex topics into easily understandable articles, focusing mostly on Windows 11 errors.