Internal Hard Drive disappeared. Shows Unallocated in Computer Management

Shadow

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I've switched on my pc this morning and noticed that my Internal Hard Drive used for my Photos was missing. I've looked in Computer Management and it is showing as completely unallocated.

It isn't a major issue as 95% of all my photo's have already been backed up in several places. The only ones missing are the ones taken in the last few weeks as I hadn't had a chance to run a backup due to Christmas Chaos.

My question is simple...Is it easy to re-allocate the drive and get everything back? I don't want to risk trying anything yet on the off chance I make it worse.

Thanks for any advice given in advance. :-)
 
Have there been any recent updates to the machine? It may be worth rolling back to a restore point if so?
 
Shadow said:
I hadn't had a chance to run a backup due to Christmas Chaos.
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Manual backups have the danger that people lose stuff because they didn't do a backup. It's well worth using an "automatic" backup. Some do it at set intervals. Some detect when files are changed and backup immediately. These have the additional benefit that you relax and don't even have to think about it.


Anyway there are ways to fix disks that have lost the indexing. chkdsk for example. The Windows users can perhaps help with that.
 
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You should be able to assign it, a drive letter, in disk management. Just ensure that it matches, the drive letter expected by Lightroom, etc,. otherwise you'll have to update your catalog accordingly.
 
johnnypanic said:
You should be able to assign it, a drive letter, in disk management. Just ensure that it matches, the drive letter expected by Lightroom, etc,. otherwise you'll have to update your catalog accordingly.
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Unfortunately it doesn't give me the option to assign a drive letter as this was the first place I looked as I sometimes get this for USB drives. thanks anyway
 
ianp5a said:
Manual backups have the danger that people lose stuff because they didn't do a backup. It's well worth using an "automatic" backup. Some do it at set intervals. Some detect when files are changed and backup immediately. These have the additional benefit that you relax and don't even have to think about it.


Anyway there are ways to fix disks that have lost the indexing. chkdsk for example. The Windows users can perhaps help with that.
Click to expand...

My backups are done on 2 external hard drives which I unplug when backed up and one taken off site.
 
Shadow said:
My backups are done on 2 external hard drives which I unplug when backed up and one taken off site.
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Yes. A NAS drive saves plugging. And thus enables automated backups. They are normally always connected. And wake for backups. The NAS, in turn, can be connected to a USB drive for periodic offsite transfer. Leaving no gaps.
 
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Shadow said:
I've switched on my pc this morning and noticed that my Internal Hard Drive used for my Photos was missing. I've looked in Computer Management and it is showing as completely unallocated.

It isn't a major issue as 95% of all my photo's have already been backed up in several places. The only ones missing are the ones taken in the last few weeks as I hadn't had a chance to run a backup due to Christmas Chaos.

My question is simple...Is it easy to re-allocate the drive and get everything back? I don't want to risk trying anything yet on the off chance I make it worse.

Thanks for any advice given in advance. :)
Click to expand...

If the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the disk is corrupt, the disk will show as unallocated, assuming the disk was using a format that support the MBR (FAT, FAT32, NTFS etc). You can usually repair that using software and take it from there - but take extreme care not to run any utility on your working disks by accident. Follow any guides, instructions very very carefully.
 
ianp5a said:
Yes. A NAS drive saves plugging. And thus enables automated backups. They are normally always connected. And wake for backups. The NAS, in turn, can be connected to a USB drive for periodic offsite transfer. Leaving no gaps.
Click to expand...

Please explain this setup to me like I'm a two year old :)
 
admirable said:
Please explain this setup to me like I'm a two year old :)
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I'll try.

Some NAS drives are just like USB disks. But have a network connector instead of a USB connector. Instead of plugging it directly in to a PC, you plug it into a WiFi router. Then any PC or mobile device on your home network can use it.

Many NAS disks will go to sleep and be silent and cold when not being used. But as soon as you try to access them, they immediately wake up and are ready to use. So you will see the NAS on your computer file manager as a network device. Click on it there, and it will wake up.

If you have a backup or Sync program, they have options to back chosen folders up, hourly, daily or interval of your choice. This software will wake up the NAS too. Even if you aren't at your PC.

It may be preferable to leave the NAS always connected, and do your off site backup on a USB disk. This would then be a manual process whenever it suits you. Where you copy data either from a PC, or from the NAS, to the USB disk. If multiple devices are all backing up to the same NAS, copying from the NAS may be better. A sync program can be set up to make this step a one-click operation.
 
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sounds like the disk is corrupt in some way, there are a few utilites out on the web that can look at repairing and recovering usually for a small fee.
 
Furtim said:
If the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the disk is corrupt, the disk will show as unallocated, assuming the disk was using a format that support the MBR (FAT, FAT32, NTFS etc). You can usually repair that using software and take it from there - but take extreme care not to run any utility on your working disks by accident. Follow any guides, instructions very very carefully.
Click to expand...

I hope for Shadow's sake it isn't the MBR, i have had that happen a few times over the years and while the software has improved it isn't always a guarantee of success :(. I have had successful recoveries from it but failures too where the only option was a complete reformat of the disk. I always lose faith in a drive when it happens too, just feels risky to keep using it knowing something has gone wrong like that even though in theory once it is repaired it should be fine
 
even if the MBR or the FAT tables are corrupted data recovery is always possible simply by the software reading the entire disk.
depends on how much you want to spend and as people say me included, use an automatic hands free backup preferably a cloud solution.
 
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