Recover drive letter from unallocated partition

I was experimenting with temporarily hiding a drive letter and tried "Change drive letter and paths... ", "remove" from disk manager which certainly made the drive invisible. Based on what I read on the site I was under the impression that I could then go back to disk manager and re-apply the drive letter at any time and be right back where I started. Unfortunately it shows as "unallocated" space and my only right-click choices are "properties" and "new simple volume ". I have been down that road before and lost all my data. In the past I had tried several partition recovery tools (paid and free) and still lost all my data.

The good news is that nothing has been written to this physical drive and I have done nothing yet with this partition. The partition does not show up in a DOS prompt listpart. Suggestions?

 

One problem with hiding drive letters via Disk Manager is drive letter assignments can shift and be reassigned to different drives and partitions if you connect and disconnect thumb drives and external drives, including phones and cameras that have storage space. So I agree with Pete and if you are going to do it, follow that guide. But note anyone with a little computer knowledge can still easily find hidden drives and access the data on it.

 

Makes sense. There are many reasons to hide a drive besides keeping others from seeing it.

 

"Thankfully you have not lost any data so just make a partition from the unallocated space and give it the drive letter required." - my only option is "New simple volume" and if memory serves this is what I had tried long ago when I faced a similar problem and I lost everything. So are you suggesting that I create a new simple volume or am I not seeing how to create a new partition?

 

Who is the manufacturer and what model and version machine is it. Which version of Windows 10 are you running. In you system specifications it shows Dell 9150 with Windows XP Professional 32-bit installed.

 

Just created a new volume without formatting, giving it the same drive letter it had before and it says the drive is not accessible, windows does not recognize the file system, you need to format the drive to make it useable. Shows as "Raw" in disk manager.

 

Dell T3610, Windows 10 Pro v 1511

 

"Thankfully you have not lost any data so just make a partition from the unallocated space and give it the drive letter required" I really need some help now - did as instructed and have nothing. I fear that I am going to lose everything again...

 

I just removed the drive letter and yes I can do this on other disks and then put them right back. The only difference I am aware of is that the one I am having trouble with is a dynamic disk, does that make a difference?

Recuva is unable to do anything because it also says that it is unable to determine the file system type.

 

Sorry I can't help you with this but for whatever reason you need to protect vital personal information an option you could choose is this Free Encryption Software

I haven't tried the software it doesn't run on the OS I use, all my drives apart from USB attached and the boot drive are invisible by default unless mounted, I run W7 in a VM.

The guys on here can advise you far better than I on matters pertaining to security, WOT shows the site as reputable, privacy badger shows no trackers and calomel has no SSL validation for this site, the Windows BBS site scores full marks across the board.

I personally would not mess with hiding drives but if you do want to hide one my preferred option is a media drive, it does not need to be attached to any device in the house to be accessed and mine has a ten digit code to use it's WiFi so maybe it's secure, formatting a drive to for example EXT4 is invisible to Windows unless running programs like Ext2explore, Diskinternals Linux Reader or Ext2Fsd.

Hiding a drive from the OS is an option but opening the case exposes it's existence and possible scrutiny, just my thoughts as there may be less risky ways to protect yourself.

Hope you get your files back and they're always saying back up before you mess with anything and they're right.

 

I note that "SafeHouse Explorer" encryption software has not been updated for W10.

If encryption in case this computer is stolen is what this is really all about, I recommend using Windows 10 own integrated encryption tool, BitLocker. It works and you may already have it. Unfortunately, it is only available on Windows 10 Pro and up versions.

Alternatively, there is still the venerable TrueCrypt that despite the controversy, Yes . . . TrueCrypt is still safe to use. If still unsure about TrueCrypt and you don't have Windows 10 Pro/BitLocker, I recommend checking out one of these 5 Best TrueCrypt Alternatives.

That said, even with the best encryption programs, there is always the risk something may go wrong. If the idea of hiding these drives is to minimize clutter in File Explorer, or simply to remove these drives from sight of other users, I would simply hide the drives and not use encryption. Then put a strong password on your account.

 

Ta for info and I would use Bitlocker myself if my BIOS would allow it, the machines just too old.

Symantec bought Truecrypt in 2010 I think but a US company HO based in California, so when reading articles on backdoors and the feds all wanting a way in I would although Symantec is I think an honest company would consider others first.

 

I am not worried about the feds wanting a way into my computers. I have nothing to hide from them. That said, I didn't spend 24+ years in the military defending our Rights only to have them trampled on by my own government. So while I don't want them in without a warrant, I am a firm believer of the second line in my sig!

Frankly, I trust the feds (and Microsoft) way more than I do Symantec. It was Norton/Symantec, McAfee, CA, Trend Micro and the other big name anti-virus makers who whined and cried to Congress and EU way back when Microsoft wanted to put AV code into XP, that it was their job to rid the world of malware. They cried that Microsoft was just trying to monopolize the world. Microsoft was, but not the point. Congress and the EU heard the word "monopoly" and tuned everything else out. They threatened to break up Microsoft if MS didn't remove that code. So Norton/Symantec, McAfee and the others had their way but look how well they did. Instead of ridding the world of malware, the bad guys and their malicious code flourished and thrived.

And that make sense! What incentive does Symantec and the others have to rid the world of malware? None at all!!! That will put them out of business! But Congress and EU were too dumb blind to see that would happen. And yet who got blamed for that security mess we got into? Symantec or McAfee? No! Users for failing to keep their computers updated and secured? No! The bad guys? No! Not even the bad guys! It was Microsoft who got blamed - relentlessly. And they are still getting blamed so they have a big incentive to rid the world of bad guys - so they stop getting blamed for something they are not responsible for.

The anti-malware industry depends on malware to thrive and propagate! And so do the big telecommunications carriers who would much rather sell consumers bigger pipes than stop the resource hogging spam and malware at the source.

Have you noticed now that Microsoft has decent anti-malware code in Windows in the form of Windows Defender and Windows Firewall that Symantec, McAfee, Congress and the EU are all mum about Microsoft trying to monopolize the world? Congress and the EU know they ******* up and the security software industry knows they got away with, and are still getting away abetting and profiting from the enemy.

The bottom line is Symantec and McAfee love the bad guys - though they sure will not admit it publically.

 

Totally agree sir!

With the first especially two lines of your post BTW.

Hoping W10 and It's rolling update feature helps with security and with flash being replaced with HTML5, we still have the javascript issue though.

So with the cost of storage today reasonably cheap I have a policy of using an external drive only connected when needed and a drive in a cupboard with everything I hold dear on it as well.

Handy having an old offline machine to do file transfers on and have stopped taking the platers out now and keep and old say 250 gigger for the families backups, you can make a nice mirror out of the platters if the drives aren’t worth anything BTW.

The ransomeware issue is the main worry in my mind cos the big corporations, hospitals, universities etc can afford the ransoms to get their data back and do even though we're told not to give in to cybercrime , in a week Nascar got hit and a uni in Canada, I think a lot of businesses keep it quiet and then sort out their who full security problems after the horse has bolted.

Ta very much for the reply, have fun.

 

Yeah and I think this is bad policy and motivated by greed, not concern for their customers. They keep it quiet for as long as they can so their customers won't bolt but IMO they should announce these breeches and lack of security incidents immediately and far and wide so their customers can immediately change their passwords and start watching their accounts for unauthorized activities.

But I think we are running Blueberry's thread off topic.

That's not good.

While Recuva is considered one of the best, there are other recovery tools you can try. DMDE is another good tool, but can be a bit difficult to use. How to recover lost or deleted files is a good guide that, starting on page 2, walks you through using the program. And MiniTool Partition Recovery is another nice tool often recommended that can often be used to recover lost or corrupt partitions and then allow you to recover files. I have never used this, however.

Other options include commercial (not free) programs. One of the higher rated is Data Rescue PC3 for $99. However, in my experience, if the free programs are not successful, the chances these programs will be are pretty slim.

The last alternative is to take the drive to a data recovery service. These facilities disassemble the drive and use forensic analysis technologies to analyze the platters in an attempt to recover any data. The equipment they use is very specialized and expensive. The process is very time consuming and the techs are highly trained. All that adds up to a very expensive procedure that can cost many $100s or even into the $1000s with no guarantee of success.

One of the problems with any tool is the more you use a corrupted drive, and the more you attempt to recover lost data and partitions with these tools, the greater the chance of more corruption and less chance of any recovery. And since you said you have tried several tools, I am sorry to say your chances are slim and a recovery service may be your last hope. Only you can decide if the value of the data is worth it.

Not to kick a man when he's down, and of course, hindsight is 20/20, but obviously this should be another reminder to always keep current backups of any and all of our data we don't want to lose - especially before making any drive configuration changes.

And multiple backups at that. I recently heard from a client who's neighbors house was robbed and the thieves took the computers and his external drive that was sitting on his desk. That external drive contained all his backups. So keep an off-site backup too. Besides bad guys, you never know when a fire, flood or tornado will take your home, and everything in it, away.