The disk has disappeared, what should I do? Disk "D" has disappeared on the computer: what to do, how to get it back

When going to "My computer" By default, the user sees icons of local disks (Disk C, Disk D). However, in case of certain failures, these icons may disappear, which entails certain inconveniences when working on the computer.

Ways to return local disk icons

To return hard drive icons to "My computer", you need to use only standard methods. Some of them require certain skills and abilities from users, so without them, be sure to fully follow the instructions given in the article.

Option 1: Disk Management

If the system simply has lost the name of the disk/disk or it was installed incorrectly, it can be restored using the Disk Management tool. It is recommended to use it only to change the volume name. Formatting or making other changes to disk space allocation may result in loss of information on the media.

The instructions for this method are as follows:

Option 2: Making adjustments to the register

It is recommended to use if the first method did not help you. Here you need to be most careful, since some errors can lead to disruption of the entire operating system or any of its components.

The instructions for this option are as follows:

Option 3: Change the theme

Sometimes the cause is a problem with displaying disks in "My computer" Incorrect themes may serve, so it is not recommended to download and apply themes from third-party sources.

If you really recently changed the theme and after that your disk icons disappeared, then change it back. You can do this using the following instructions:

Option 4: Reboot

Very often, a simple reboot of the computer can help solve many problems. This case is no exception. It is possible that some kind of system failure occurred during the current session, which resulted in the inability to display certain graphic elements.

Option 5: Virus scan

There is some possibility that malware that previously entered the computer caused some damage to the system. Most often, it is enough to simply check your computer for viruses and remove them. This should solve the problem.

Let's look at how to scan the system using standard Defender in Windows 10:

Option 6: System Restore

If none of the above methods help, then you will need to resort to system recovery. To do this, you must have it on your computer. "Restore Points", which are usually created automatically by the system at a certain period of time.
Provided that there are no such “points”, you will have to download an image of your system, create an installation disk and try to restore through it.

Let's consider the recovery option from the Windows interface itself:

If "Restore Points" was not found on the computer, you will have to use installation media with a Windows image recorded on it. The instructions in this case will be different. On our website you can find detailed instructions on how to roll back different operating systems.

Using the methods discussed above, you can return the disk icons to their place in "My computer". But if you are faced with the problem of disk icons disappearing, it is recommended to reinstall Windows, especially if you have a “pirated” build.

There are situations when, after installing, updating, or simply crashing, the Windows OS on your computer may disappear D drive display. Physically, he is still in his place, but the system refuses to see him, and various ways to solve the problem do not help. What to do in such a situation? In this material, I will tell you what actions you need to take if the D drive is missing on Windows 7 and 10, I will list the reasons for this dysfunction, and also explain how to fix it.

When considering the causes of the problem, it is important, first of all, to decide what we are dealing with - the loss of logical partition D on the hard drive of your PC (when logical partitions C and D are located on the same hard drive), or the loss of hard drive D (when C and D in the system are separate hard drives).

Depending on the answer to the mentioned question, the reasons for the D drive display problem may be as follows:

How to fix the problem if “Disk D is missing”

There may be several methods for solving the problem of the missing D drive, which, again, depends on whether you have lost a logical partition on your hard drive or a separate physical drive. Let's consider the solution options in order.

Lost logical drive D

So, suppose you have a hard drive on which two logical partitions, C and D, quite traditionally coexist. One day, partition D simply disappeared. What needs to be done?

1. Assign a letter to the missing logical partition. A fairly common reason for section D to go missing is that it has lost its identifying letter (in this case, “D”).
2. To restore it, click on the “Start” button, enter in the search bar: diskmgmt.msc - and press enter.
3. The disk management menu will open in front of you. If your missing disk appears in the list of disks, but does not have an identifying letter (in the “Volume” column on the left), then you need to give it such a letter.
4. We click on the empty space in the “Volume” column to the left of our unidentified disk with the right mouse button, and in the menu that appears, select “Change drive letter or drive path.”

Select "Change drive letter..."

Then click on “Add”, then on “Assign a drive letter” (select, for example, “E”). After making these changes, click on “Ok”, the specified disk should become available for viewing in Explorer.

Use the program's functionality Acronis Disk Director (currently version 12 of the product is current). Download and install this tool, run it, and in the menu on the left, select to launch the Acronis Recovery Expert program, which is used to recover hard drives.

After launching this program, select manual recovery mode and click on the unallocated space of the hard drive.

Then we decide on the search method (choose the fast method). The program will look for the missing disk and, quite likely, will find it. Click on this disk with the mouse, and then click on “Next”. The program will restore this disk, and the problem of the missing D disk on the computer will be solved.

Hard drive D is missing

If your HDD (SDD) under the letter D is not displayed in the system, first of all I recommend checking the connection density of the cables going to this hard drive (check the connection density both to the connectors of the hard drive and the motherboard).

1. If everything is tightly connected, and, nevertheless, the disk is not displayed, then click on the “Start” button, enter diskmgmt.msc in the search bar and press enter.
2. In the Disk Management window that opens, see if the connected (but not visible in the system) disk is displayed here.
3. If it is not displayed, then the problem is with the hard drive itself (faulty), or one of the hard drive cables is not working normally (damaged, not tightly connected to the appropriate connector, and so on).

Disk D may be displayed, but have different statuses:

The disk will be initialized and will receive a status with the area “not allocated” (sometimes some area of ​​the disk may initially have this status). Right-click again on this unallocated area and select “Create simple volume”, then assign it a letter, size, and file system type (NTFS).

Select “Create a simple volume”

After completing these operations, drive D should appear in the Windows Explorer display on your PC.

Video solution

If you have lost drive D on Windows 7 or 10, it is important, first of all, to determine the essence of the missing drive D (logical or physical), and, depending on this, use the tools I listed above. After restoring access to the disk, I recommend checking the system for a virus (for example, Dr.Web CureIt will help!) It is quite possible that the cause of this dysfunction was the malignant activity of virus programs.

In contact with

Disk D has disappeared and is nowhere to be found, in this case there is never any need to rush, any wrong action will only worsen our situation. You have performed some actions with hard drive partitions, or played with Acronis or Partition Magic programs, maybe tried to install a second operating system, in any case, your situation is not an enviable one. I say this because the data that was on the missing disk is at risk, but don’t worry, we’ll try to fix everything. By the way, if we have many articles on a similar topic, you can read: How to create a D drive? or How to split a hard drive into two partitions.

Disk D disappeared on the computer

Let's first go to disk management - My Computer - Management - Disk Management, there we have unallocated space, unfortunately this is our missing disk (D:), this is where some attention is required from you

If we now create a partition on the unallocated space and format it for the file system, our data will most likely be lost, it will be very difficult to recover it, so we will do it differently, we will return our drive (D:) intact with all our files.
We need the Acronis Disk Director11 program, the package of this program includes the Acronis Recovery Expert utility, which includes functions for recovering hard drive partitions

Launch the Acronis Disk Director program, in the main program window in the lower left corner of Acronis Recovery Expert

We click on the button and turn on the program, we are greeted, click next

Selecting manual control

Select unallocated space with the mouse and move on

Select the fast search method

And here is our missing disk (D:), select it with the mouse and move on

The restoration process is underway

Result of work

Most users create partitions on their hard drive for their convenience. They are usually called C, D, etc., and their usefulness cannot be denied in any way. Let's say you have the operating system on one volume, and all other user files (music, photos, movies) on the second. When you reinstall the OS, the partition with your files will not even be touched, which will allow you to save your data and continue to use it in the new Windows.

One of the extremely common problems that users often encounter is that the computer does not see hard drive partitions and cannot find them. This problem occurs unexpectedly and can be caused by a number of reasons that affect the operation of the hard drive. Let's figure out what to do in this situation and how to solve the problem that has arisen.

Assigning a letter

If your PC or laptop does not see one of the hard drive partitions, then the first thing you need to do is go to the special control menu and check whether it is displayed in the corresponding list. If it is there, then it needs to be assigned a letter.

Let's look at the process in order:

The requested information will be instantly displayed on the screen. It is necessary to look through the local drives, and if there is one that has disappeared, then you need to set the letter.

To do this you need:

For the changes to be successfully applied, you need to restart your computer. As soon as the operating system boots, check whether the partition is visible, it should appear under the letter you specified.

Creating a new volume

It is likely that when you go to the management menu you will not find the missing area, instead there will be an unallocated part that cannot be assigned a letter; you can only create a new volume:

But at the same time, you will completely lose the files stored on it. Therefore, if you do not value them, then feel free to use this method; in other cases, I recommend using the method discussed below.

All processes are analyzed using Windows 7 as an example, but in other versions, Windows XP/8/10, they will be similar.

Creating a new partition

If the first method did not help and the computer still does not see the hard drive partitions, then the problem may be that the OS itself cannot see it due to the loss of the file system, as often happens, but the data on it will still be saved.

In this case, to correct the situation, we will use one very effective tool, namely the Acronis Disk Director program. With its help, we will recognize the disappeared local hard drive partition, separate a small part from it, from which we will make a new area with the NTFS file system, and then simply merge them.

This may seem very difficult to some, but if you follow the following instructions, which detail what to do in this situation, you will easily cope with this task:

After you create a partition, all that remains is to merge the problematic and new partitions using the “Merge” function.

Now you need to save the changes and reboot the system. To do this, you need to enter the BIOS again and return the boot to its original location - from the Hard Disk. After exiting the BIOS, the system will automatically boot into Windows OS. We check the disk partition again, now it should definitely be displayed correctly.

Partition recovery

In almost all cases when a logical partition of a hard drive disappears, it can be returned. For recovery we will use the same Acronis Disk Director.
So here's how to do it:

The procedure for restoring information from a partition that the PC has stopped seeing can take a significant amount of time. The duration of the process depends on the amount and volume of data available on the disk. Therefore, you should be prepared for the fact that the computer may work for quite a long time.

We hope that the methods we have listed for solving the problem are easy to implement, and you can use them to fix the problems that have arisen.

Video: how to solve the problem of unallocated space in Windows 10

Many users create partitions on their hard drive - these are drives C, D and further down the list. Unfortunately, one of the most annoying problems that a user may encounter is that a hard drive partition has disappeared and cannot be found.
There's no denying the usefulness of hard drive partitions. For example, in one partition you may have an operating system installed, and in the second there is a multi-gigabyte library of films and music. When reinstalling the operating system, the partition with user files may not be affected, which means that files even from the new Windows will remain with you.

Unfortunately, the problem when a hard drive partition suddenly disappears is quite common, and there are also plenty of reasons that can affect the occurrence of this problem.

What to do if a hard drive partition is missing?

The first thing you need to do is go to the Disk Management menu and see if the logical partition is displayed in it. If yes, then the partition must be assigned a letter.

To do this, call the menu "Control Panel", and then go to the section "Administration".

In the window that opens, double-click on the shortcut "Computer Management".

A new window will appear on the screen, in the left area of ​​which you will need to open the section "Disk Management".

After a moment, the requested information will be displayed on the screen. Carefully review the disk partitions. If you see your partition gone, it will need to be given a new drive letter. To do this, right-click on the section and in the context menu that appears, select the item "Change drive letter or drive path".

In the new window, click on the button "Change".

Select the appropriate letter from the list, and then save your changes.

The system will warn you that programs installed on this disk may stop working. If you agree to continue, click the button "Yes".

Tip 2: creating a new partition and then merging it

The essence of the problem may be that there are still files on the partition, but Windows does not see it, for example, because the file system was lost. In this case, we will try to use third-party tools that can see the partition, “split off” a piece from the partition, creating a new one with the NTFS file system, and then simply merge them.

1. To do this, we turn to the help of the program Acronis Disk Director Advanced(download link is at the end of the article). You will need to download this program to your computer, and then create a boot disk or Live-CD flash drive in it.

2. Login to BIOS. As a rule, to do this, at the very early stage of booting, you need to press the hotkey repeatedly - F2 or Del.

3. Set a bootable USB flash drive or disk as your primary boot device. To do this you will need to find the section "First Boot Device"(the name of the section may be slightly different), and then select your flash drive or CD-ROM first in the list.

4. Exit BIOS. The computer will start to boot and the Acronis Disk Director Advanced window will subsequently appear on the screen. The utility will display a list of existing partitions, among which, most likely, you will see the partition that Windows does not see.

5. Using the utility tools, you will need to separate a small piece from the partition (a few megabytes is enough), giving it the NTFS file system.

6. When the partition is created, merge this and the problematic partition. Save your changes and then reboot the system by entering the BIOS and set to boot from the hard drive. After exiting the BIOS, the system will boot into Windows. Check the status of the disk partition - it should be displayed correctly.

You might assume that you won't be able to get the partition back, but you can try your luck to recover the files contained in it. In our task, again, the Acronis Disk Director Advanced utility will help us.

1. Follow the steps described in the previous tip, from the first point to the fourth.

2. In the Acronis Disk Director Advanced menu, open the section "Partition recovery", then select the disk with which further work will be performed and follow the instructions of the program.

Please note that the procedure for recovering files from a partition can take quite a long time (it all depends on the number of files contained on the disk). Therefore, be prepared for the fact that the computer will have to work for a long time.

4. After completing the recovery procedure, exit the Live-CD and boot your computer to Windows.

We hope these easy-to-follow recommendations helped you solve the problem with the section display. In addition, if you have your own experience solving the problem, share it in the comments.