Repair/Recover Unallocated External Hard Drive Without Losing Data

When your external hard drive becomes unallocated, take it easy! Follow the solutions on this page to fix the unallocated error on the external hard drive without losing any data.

How to Access Data on an Unformatted External Hard Drive

"Hey, do you know how to fix the unallocated error on an external hard drive? My 1TB WD external hard drive suddenly showed up as unallocated in Disk Management on my computer. I don't want to format it since I have lots of important files saved on it."

"I'm unable to access saved data on an unallocated external hard drive. Can you help me?"

So, why does an external hard drive become unallocated? Here's a list of reasons that might cause an external hard drive or storage device to show as unallocated:

• File system and internal device errors
• Misoperation
• Virus infection
• Outdated disk drivers

If the same issue occurs on an external hard drive, USB drive, SD card, or any other such device, stop using it immediately. You'll then learn how to recover data from an unallocated external hard drive and fix and prevent unallocated issues.

Part 1: Recover Data from Unallocated External Hard Drive

Most users rely on external hard drives to store precious files and important data. When an external hard drive becomes unallocated, data recovery becomes the top priority.

By using a professional data recovery utility, such as Data Recovery Wizard, you still stand a chance of getting your data back from the drive. How?

This software can easily recover lost data from unallocated space on a hard drive or external hard drive. Download the Hard Drive Recovery software here and follow the guide below to retrieve your data:

Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to your computer using the correct USB cable. Run Disk Drill and you will see your external disk under “External Drives.” The software supports all popular external disk brands, including WD, Seagate, Toshiba, LaCie, SanDisk, Samsung, and more.

Select your external hard drive and click the “Scan” button.

Step 2: As the scan progresses, the software will find more and more of your lost and deleted data, displaying it in the scan results. The recovered data is well organized. You can quickly locate your target file/folder by file type, or search for it precisely by its name in the search box.

Step 3: You can preview the files found by the data recovery wizard. Then, select the files you want to restore and click on "Recover". To prevent data overwriting, we recommend saving the recovered data to a different drive from your original Seagate hard drive.

It needs to be activated when you attempt to recover all found files. Also, remember to save the recovered data on another secure device.

Part 2: Fix Unallocated External Hard Drive

Fixing an external hard drive unallocated issue is easy. You just need to create a new partition on the external hard drive and set its file system to NTFS or FAT32.

Here, you can try either of two free methods for getting help.

1. [Automation] Repairing an Unallocated External Hard Drive with Free Partition Manager Software

By creating a new, compatible file system on an unpartitioned external drive, users can store files on the device once again.

A free partition manager, such as tools Partition Master Free, can do this in three steps:

Step 1. Launch Partition Master. Right-click unallocated space on the hard drive or external storage device from the main interface, and then choose “Create”.

Step 2. Adjust the size of the new partition, the file system (select a file system as needed), label, and so on, then click OK to proceed.

Step 3. Click the Run 1 Task button and create a new partition by clicking Apply.

Watch the following video tutorial to learn how to create partitions on an NTFS, FAT, or EXT file system.

Later, you can save the recovered data back to the external drive, along with even more files.

2. [Manually] Create a new partition on the external hard drive using Disk Management

You can also try creating a partition on the unallocated drive using Disk Management. Be careful when performing the following steps to address the unallocated external hard drive issue:

Step 1: Connect the unformatted external hard drive to your computer and open Disk Management.

Right-click "This PC" or "My Computer," and select "Manage." Then, click "Disk Management."

Step 2: Right-click on the "Unallocated" space on your external hard drive and select "New Simple Volume".

Step 3: Specify the partition size, drive letter, and file system (NTFS), etc.

Step 4: Click Finish to conclude the process.

After going through these steps, you should be able to use your external hard drive again for saving and storing important data. You can also transfer the recovered data back onto the external hard drive if you wish.

"Prevent External Drive from Becoming Unallocated"

Here are some practical tips to help you prevent unallocated errors on external hard drives and other storage devices:

1. Update the external hard drive's drivers. 2. Use CHKDSK or a partition management software tool to recover the NTFS partition on the external hard drive. 3. Run an antivirus software to clean viruses from your computer and the external hard drive. 4. Handle storage devices carefully and safely eject them from your computer.

Frequently Asked Questions on Fixing an Unallocated External Hard Drive

We have four more questions prepared to help you learn more about how to fix an unallocated external hard drive:

How do I manually fix an unallocated external hard drive?

You can fix an unallocated external hard drive by creating new partitions on it:

1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer. 2. Open Disk Management on your computer. 3. Right-click on the unallocated space and select "New Simple Volume." 4. Set the size, letter, and format. Wait for the process to finish and then click "Finish."

How to fix the issue of WD external hard drive not showing up?

There are four ways to resolve the issue of WD external hard drive not showing up on computer:

1. Check the USB ports and cable. 2. Run an antivirus tool or remove the virus using CMD. 3. Enable the USB Root Hub in Power Management.

Why is my external hard drive unallocated?

An external hard drive might appear “uninitialized” or “unallocated” due to several common reasons, such as a sudden power outage, improper insertion or ejection, bad sectors, or physical damage.

How to recover data from an unallocated external hard drive?

You may be able to use a tool like Data Recovery Wizard to recover data from an unallocated external hard drive, or you could seek out data recovery services.

1. Scan the external hard drive for lost partitions.
2. Filter files to locate the needed ones more easily.
3. Preview the data and then click "Recover" to retrieve files from the external hard drive.