When talking about computer storage, the talk turns to hard drives. A hard drive is a primary component in a computer; it is the hardware piece responsible for storing user’s data on all computing devices. Without it, a user cannot load the operating system, save files downloaded from the internet, or save any files created using other computer programs.

With the increased usage of digital data, users and organizations have become heavily reliant on hard drives to store their precious data. A hard drive can be either internal or external, solid-state (SSD), or electro-mechanical (also widely known as Hard Disk Drive).

Windows is the most popular operating system for desktop and laptop computers worldwide1; Windows stores its data using either the following two file systems: NTFS or FAT Partition. Sometimes, a file is accidentally deleted, the system does not show data, and files are lost while performing any process. Most users have faced this type of situation in their day-to-day life. However, if proper care is not done while using the hard drive, there may be chances of corruption. It may also corrupt NTFS and FAT partitions on the hard drive. This article will provide depth details about how to recover corrupted files from the NTFS Partition and the FAT Partition.

User’s Query for missing Data Recovery from NTFS Partition

“I was using Windows 7 on my laptop with three partitions formatted using the NTFS file system. Now I want to use Windows 10 instead. When I install Windows 10 on my system, I no longer have folders and files on the (D:),(E:),(F:) partitions, and only 138 GB is shown by the system, although my storage is 320 GB on hard drive space. I am unable to access my lost data of 182 GB. Is there any method to recover the NTFS Partition files? If anyone knows any solution, then please let me know.”

Method to Recover corrupted Files from NTFS and FAT Partition

With the help of a command prompt, users can recover lost files from the NTFS partition and FAT partition. This manual method can be used to perform some specific kinds of recovery, including:

  1. Recovery of files from virus-infected partitions.
  2. Recovery of files from corrupted partitions.
  3. Recovery of inaccessible files from a RAW hard drive.

Recover Data from virus-infected NTFS, FAT partition Via Command prompt

In this method, we use a command prompt to recover corrupted data from the hard drive NTFS or FAT partition. We outline the method in the following steps:

  • Connect the hard drive containing corrupted data to the laptop/Computer system.
  • Click on the Start menu, write ‘cmd’ in the search bar, and then press the Enter key.
  • The CMD command line prompt window should appear.
  • Type “attrib-h-r-s/s/drive letter;.” and press Enter key (see Figure 1).
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  • Your lost files should appear.

Here we mention a description of each command switch that we already used:

  • The “+” and “–“signs indicate whether you want to activate or deactivate the specified attribute.
  • The “S –“indicate you want to change the selected files “System” attribute.
  • The “/S” specifies you want to search the entire path, including any subfolders.
  • D:\ is the pend drive letter in the experiment computer.

Recover file from corrupted partitions Via Command Prompt

  • Connect your Hard drive containing corrupted data to your Windows device.
  • Click on the Start menu, type “cmd” in the search bar, and press the Enter key.
  • Then, type: (“chkdsk drive letter:/r/f”) in the Command Window (see Figures 2 & 3).
  • After this step, your files should get recovered.
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Recover data from RAW drive Via Command Prompt

Data corrupted in the raw drive can also be recovered by using the command prompt. This method applies to FAT and NTFS hard drive partitions.

  • Connect the hard drive containing the lost data in a computer with Windows OS
  • To begin, click on the Start menu and type “cmd” >> Enter key
  • Then, type “diskpart” and hit the Enter key
  • After that, type “Rescan” and press the Enter key
  • Finally, your files should get recovered

A Trouble-free Solution to Recover Deleted Files from NTFS and FAT Partition

Command-line data recovery does not apply to the following type of data recovery:

  1. Deleted file recovery.
  2. Not deleted files (means the files that are not shown by the system) recovery.
  3. Image recovery from the formatted hard drive.
  4. Permanently deleted files.

To solve these kinds of recoveries, a user needs an all-in-one file recovery tool that can help them recover all types of deleted data from NTFS & FAT Partition. The most popular solution is SysTools Partition Data Recovery Software that lets users solve all problems related to deleted files from the hard drive. Also, the software offers various prominent features:

  1. Recover and save permanently deleted files from the hard drive.
  2. It is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Windows.
  3. Recover data from internal as well as external hard drives.
  4. Recover deleted files from NTFS, FAT, GPT, and MBR partition.
  5. Recover all the multimedia data, also like images, audio, video, etc.

Conclusion

It is important to take data backup regularly to restore your precious data if a disaster took place. However, if you accidentally lose your data and do not have a backup, you can use any method mentioned in this article to recover your lost data.

References

  1. Statista, “Global market share held by operating systems for desktop PCs, from January 2013 to July 2020” December 7, 2020 https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-share-of-windows-7/#:~:text=Operating%20systems%20market%20share%20of%20desktop%20PCs%202013-2020%2C%20by%20month&text=Microsoft%20Windows%20is%20the%20dominating,a%20share%20of%2077.74%20percent.

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