Top 10 Solutions to Fix Inaccessible Partition | Stellar (2023)

According to a recent survey,the error message“Access denied” one of the most common error messages that many users, including you, have encountered at some point.

When that happens, the only question is how to fix it because the lost or missing partition contains your critical data no matter it is virus infection or malware, human error, power failure, etc.

Before we look at how to find missing partition, let's understand what exactly a partition is and what it means.

What is partitioning?

Simply put, a partition is an area on a hard drive that allows the operating system to separately manage information.

What is the meaning of the division?

A division brings several advantages –

Reasons for partition loss

Below we have discussed the top 10 types of inaccessible partitions and their recovery solutions.But before we go in depth, we should understand that for an all-in-one recovery approach for all types of inaccessible partitions, a specialized data recovery software solution is a must as it is completely free from manual approaches thus preventing data loss.

Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windowsis one such award-winning software that is trusted by millions of customers worldwide. The best thing about this software is the trial version, which allows you to test its main functionalities. In addition, the software also offers 100% data integrity. No matter you are a beginner or an advanced user, you can operate the software easily thanks to the user-friendly GUI.

Now let's take a step forward and analyze and understand 10 different types of inaccessible partitions with their recovery solutions.

Partition Inaccessible Type 1: Partition has been turned into RAW status

RAW partitions are hard drive partitions that you have not formatted with a Windows NT file system such as NTFS and FAT. So when we open a raw partition, we will see two types of error messages.

Message 1: You must format the disk before use

Message 2: Disk is missing from recognized file system

It should be noted that the partition should not be formatted immediately, as it may result in permanent data loss.

Solution:

First, recover data from RAW partition and then reformat it.

You wonder how? TryStellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows. It has RAW recovery option to easily recover your data. After recovering the data, you can format it afterwards.

The formatting steps are as follows:

• Select the partition and right click on it.
• Formatchoose.
• Specify the size of the file system and allocation unit.
• click onStart.
• A popup will appear with a warning message: AtFormatting will erase all data on this disk.
• click onOK, to continue.

Partition Inaccessible Type 2: Partition becomes Unallocated space

Imagine a situation where everything worked smoothly. Then suddenly there is a power outage and you are forced to hibernate your system. The next moment power is restored, the hard drive is inaccessible. When you go to Disk Management to check the list of the drive, you find that Disk 1 is in an unallocated state.

Solution:

Recover lost partition. Again, you can trust Stellar Data Recovery Professional software to regain access to your lost, deleted or inaccessible partition with 100% data integrity.

Partition Inaccessible Type 3: Partition is inaccessible. The parameter is incorrect

Supposing you need to access the data stored on the external hard drive and when you try to do so, you get an error message saying: “The parameter is wrong“.

It is one of the most common errors that prevent access to partition on external hard drive, SD card or USB flash drive. The reason behind this error can be anything including bad sectors, power failure, virus attack or a broken file system.

Solution:

Format the drive

To do this, proceed as follows:

• Connect your drive to the system.
• Then right-click on the computer.
• Please make a choicheAdministerfollowed byDisk Management.
• Then right-click on itdamaged drive.
• click onFormat.
• Choose in the pop-up dialog boxOK.
• Then put thatfile systemand thevolume labelfest.
• SeekOneQuick format optioncarry out.
• click onOK.

A notice:Formatting will erase all data stored on it; therefore, first use a safe, efficient and powerful data recovery tool to recover all data stored on this inaccessible partition.

Partition Inaccessible Type 4: The partition is inaccessible. The file or directory is unreadable and corrupt.

Consider a scenario where you are trying to open the Windows partition and it is not possible due to the error message The file or directory is unreadable or corrupt.

When a situation like this happens, the result is data loss as you cannot access the files stored in the partition. The reason behind this error can be Master File Table (MFT), file, folder or FAT corruption.

Solution:

Check and repair file system errors with “chkdsk”.

The individual steps are as follows:

• start run
• Give the commandcmda
• inputpress
• Give "chkdsk /f drive letter:" a.
• inputpress

A notice:Chkdsk can over-repair items, making it difficult to recover files later. So it is ideal to recover the data first before using it. Rely on an efficient and powerful data recovery tool likePartition Recovery Software, i.e. safe, reliable and easy to use!

Partition inaccessible Type 5: Data error (cyclic redundancy check), partition is inaccessible

Typically, “Drive Inaccessible, Data Error (Cyclic Redundancy Check)” is defined as a data verification technique designed for error checking. With it, you can easily check the data you have stored on hard drive or optical media. The main reason behind this type of error is power outage or corrupt operating system.

Solution:

In this case, it is best to rely on dedicated data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows to recover the lost data.

Partition inaccessible Type 6: Device is not recognized

You might connect a device to the system and at one point it works fine and at another point you get a message that the device cannot be detected.

The reason for this error can be anything like BIOS setting issues, USB data line issues, USB interface voltage fluctuations, hidden drive issues or compatibility issues, etc. Whatever the reason, the end result is the inaccessibility of the data.

Solution:

• Connect another system to the USB data line to see if it is broken.
• Make sure the system and motherboard are compatible with each other.
• Check whether the voltage on the USB interface meets the requirements or not.
• Use Disk Management to unhide the drive.
• Make sure USB is enabled in both the operating system and the BIOS.

Partition inaccessible Type 7: The drive letter is missing

Symptom:My computer doesn't show any partition, but Disk Management shows the space usage for the same.

If a partition letter is not specified in Disk Management, it remains invisible in Windows Explorer and My Computer. The reason for the missing letter can be anything from accidental removal of the letter to virus infection to the system not assigning a letter to special partitions.

Solution:

Get the missing drive letter.

The individual steps are as follows:

• Right click on thePartition.
• Choose the optionChange drive letter and paths.
• Click on the optionAdd to.
• click onOk.

Partial area inaccessible Type 8: Partial area is not accessible. Access is denied

Let's look at it with an example. Imagine the following. You have large data on an F partition. Everything worked fine until yesterday; if you try to access this data today, you will not be able to access it and will receive an error message.

Solution

This error is related to partition corruption. To fix it, you need to consider ownership.

The individual steps are as follows:

• Right click on thePartition.
• Please make a choicheCharacteristics.
• Click on the tabSecurity.
• Please make a choicheadvanced.
• Select the tabOwner".
• In the Name list, select the user name, administrator, or administrators group.
• Then mark “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects“.
• click onOK.
• A dialog box appears with the message (You do not have permission to read the contents of the folder_name directory. Would you like to replace the directory permissions with permissions that give you full control?), click onAnd.
• click onOKto reapply the security settings and permissions for the drive and its contents.

Partition Inaccessible Type 9: Shared partitions are inaccessible from other PCs

Let's say you have two Windows in your home environment and you want to share the folders and partitions between them. You connect to the shared folders and try to open the shared partition; however, instead of opening the partition, an error message is displayed:\computername\partition is not accessible.

Solution

The individual steps are as follows:

• Open Windows Explorer.
• Right-click the shared partition.
• Then click onCharacteristics.
• Choose in the windowCharacteristicsdie OptionSecurity.

• Add a group called Everyone and set their permission to Read and Execute.
• click onOK. A window titled Windows Security will appear. Wait for it to go away.

Partition Inaccessible Type 10: Partition is in a hidden state

Hiding a partition to prevent access to files without permission is very common. But once this is done, Windows Explorer doesn't show the partition anymore, and also the “Change drive letters and paths” turns gray and does not help you solve the problem.

Solution

Hide the divider.

The bottom line

You now know the top 10 types of inaccessible partitions and their recovery solutions. However, if you are asking for an all-in-one recovery approach for all types of inaccessible partitions, then a specialized third party solution like Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows is a must as it is totally free from manual approaches thus preventing data loss; Even more! You don't need any technical knowledge and your data stays safe and secure!