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12 March 2024  Amanda J. Brook  Senior Product Manager
 

Summary
Discover the techniques to salvage data from your hard disk drive and efficiently restore unallocated space with expert data recovery software. Protect your precious data from being irreversibly lost.



Table of contents

table iconI. What is hard disk unallocated space? What is the reason why HDD becomes unallocated?
table iconII. How to recover data from HDD?
table iconIII. How to recreate partitions on unallocated hard drives?
recover data from unallocated drive

I. What is hard disk unallocated space? What is the reason why HDD becomes unallocated?

Unallocated space on a hard drive refers to areas not assigned to any partition, preventing data storage or program access until it is included in a partition.
unallocated disk
Unallocated space is not shown in Windows Explorer, resulting in your hard drive appearing to have less storage than its full capacity. For example, a 1TB hard drive may display only 700GB available. This discrepancy is due to a variety of factors:
● virus attack
● File system errors
● Internal hard disk error
● Hard drive failure
● System files are missing
● Hard disk failure, sector damage
After examining the nature of hard disk unallocated space and the common reasons behind it, we shall proceed with instructions on how to recover data from such spaces.

II. How to recover data from HDD?

To retrieve data from an Unallocate HDD, it’s essential to utilize specialized data recovery software. We suggest using Renee Undeleter for its effectiveness and ease of use.

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is a comprehensive data recovery software designed to recover system data files in various data loss scenarios. Whether you’ve accidentally deleted files, emptied the recycle bin, or formatted a disk or storage device, Renee Undeleter can help you retrieve your lost data. The software includes four key features: file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery, and image creation, offering a versatile solution to a wide range of data loss challenges.
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Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition scan, whole partition scan and whole disk scan;

Supported file types Image, video, audio, text, email and so on;

Image creation Create a partition image to read and back up data;

Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition/whole partition/whole disk scan;

Supported devices SD card/USB/hard disk.

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2. How to use Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is a professional data recovery software that is both feature-rich and user-friendly. Here are the straightforward steps for operation:
Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Undeleter, select the (Whole Disk Scan) option on the main interface.
Note: Do not install the program on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
Data Recovery Function Overview:

  • Fast Partition Scan: Rapidly recovers files deleted unintentionally or from emptied recycle bins.
  • Whole Partition Scan: Restores files from inaccessible or formatted partitions efficiently.
  • Whole Disk Scan: Conducts comprehensive scans for partition data across the entire disk.
  • Create Mirror: Allows creation of a partition mirror image for backup purposes.
select whole disk scan to scan disk in renee undeleter
Step 2: Next, select the HDD device to be scanned, and click (Next). Select (default setting) on the advanced setting interface.
select a disk to recover in renee undeleter
Step 3: The software will commence a scan of the HDD to identify the missing partition. Should a prompt appear asking, “Select the partition you need to scan,” opt for the pertinent partition. Neglecting to select a partition initiates a comprehensive scan of all partitions, thereby extending the overall scan time.
scanning the whole disk in renee undeleter
recover partition on SD card with Renee Undeleter
After scanning, preview the files in the right-hand window, select the ones you wish to restore, and click the 'Recover' button at the bottom right to initiate the restoration process.
preview before recovery
undeleter preview ppt
Step 4: Select the target folder and click Browse to choose the storage path. Then, press the Restore button to initiate file recovery. Please wait until the process completes.
Note: Do not save the recovered files on the original disk to avoid data overwriting. It is recommended to choose another disk to save these recovered files.
recover the whole disk data
After recovering the data, we can re-use the unallocated hard disk space by creating a new partition, let’s continue to learn more.

III. How to recreate partitions on unallocated hard drives?

To effectively utilize unallocated hard drive space, you can create partitions via Disk Management. Follow these steps to allocate partitions for unallocated hard drives:
Step 1: Press the (Windows+X) keys on the keyboard at the same time. Then in the pop-up list, select the (Disk Management) option.
windows disk management right click start
Step 2: Then right-click on the unallocated space on the HDD and select the (New Simple Volume) option.
add new simple volume to initialize disk in disk management
Step 3: Customize the partition size, drive letter, and file system (NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, etc.), then click Finish to create the partition. Reuse the unallocated space as needed. For multiple partitions, repeat this process.

Also see: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32 features and differences.

format the volume with the settings