The D disk and E disk of the computer suddenly disappeared? Don't panic!
Data is the lifeblood of modern people, and once lost, it can cause irreparable damage. Many users report that sometimes when they turn on the computer, the D or E drive disappears inexplicably, which makes people very anxious and troubled. As long as you stay calm and grasp the correct way to deal with it, you can recover your lost data smoothly in most cases.
Typical case: There is no trace of the data of disk D
"A few days ago, I also stored some important work documents and family photos and videos in the D drive, and today I found that the drive letter of the D drive was missing, and the data in it could not be accessed. My heart is half cold!" Xiao Zhang is a designer, and the D drive stores the fruits of his hard work, and he feels extremely anxious when he loses them all at once.
Expert advice: Don't worry about it yet, there is a high probability that it can be recovered
For the sudden disappearance of the D disk/E disk, industry experts said that the high probability is caused by temporary system errors or hardware failures, and the data is not really lost, as long as the correct repair method is taken, it is completely recoverable. They advise users not to be overly anxious, stay calm, and try the following common solutions.
Common reasons for the disappearance of the D/E drive
Disks D and E are non-system disks that are usually used to store important content such as personal files and work data. Their sudden disappearance can cause great anxiety and distress to users. According to experts, the main reasons for the disappearance of disk D/E are as follows:
No drive letter is assigned
Sometimes, after reinstalling the system or purchasing a new computer, the D and E drives are not visible in the explorer because they are not properly assigned a drive letter. In this case, simply assign them a drive letter through the Disk Management tool.
Drive failure
Hardware failure is also one of the common causes. Due to a problem with the disk drive, the system cannot recognize the D or E drive properly. At this point, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the appropriate driver in Device Manager.
The disk is not initialized
A brand new hard drive can also be "missing" if it is not initialized. You need to initialize it by right-clicking on the new hard drive and selecting "Online" via the Disk Management tool.
Viruses are hidden
It is not excluded that some malicious viruses or software will actively hide the D/E drive to prevent users from accessing the data inside. In this case, it is necessary to use a reliable antivirus software to completely remove the hidden danger of the virus.
Partition loss
More rarely, the partition data of the partition where the D or E drive is located is accidentally deleted or corrupted, resulting in the entire partition "disappearing". In this case, one can only hope for data recovery software.
Five quick ways to fix the disappearance of D-drive/E-drive
In the face of the problem that the D drive or E drive suddenly disappears, users can try the following five common solutions to quickly recover the lost data with a high probability:
Method 1: Assign a drive letter
If the D/E drive is not visible due to an unassigned drive letter, the solution is simple. Open the Disk Management tool, find the unallocated disk area, right-click and select New Simple Volume, and follow the wizard to assign a drive letter to it.
Method 2: Reinstall the driver
When your hard drive fails, you can try uninstalling it in Device Manager and then restarting your computer, and the system will automatically reinstall the latest version of the driver. After this step, the D/E drive will usually be able to reappear.
Method 3: Unhide
Sometimes the D/E drive is just temporarily hidden, we can tick the option of "Show hidden items" in the explorer to see if they reappear in the disk list. If it is hidden by a virus, you need to completely remove the virus before you do so.
Method 4: Make use of the Recycle Bin
If the files in drive D/E are deleted by mistake and the deletion is not long ago, you can right-click the corresponding drive letter and select the "Restore Deleted Files" function to restore the files back from the recycle bin.
Method 5: Data Recovery Software
When none of the above methods can be solved, we can only resort to professional data recovery software. A good data recovery tool can deeply scan the disk to get back deleted or corrupted file data, but only if the disk has not been reformat or overwritten with new data.