Windows 10: external hard disk drives became unallocated

How can recover data without formatting and loss.

:)

 

external hard disk drives became unallocated (bitlocker encrypted)

Hello.

Recently I tried to access data on an old USB stick and IO tried to use Disk Management for it.

When I started Disk Management, it gave me an error message and asked to convert a disk to MBR (if I remember correctly).

I mistakenly assumed it was about the USB stick and I pressed yes.

The result is that one of my external hard disk drives became unallocated, and it shows 2 times in the disk management list.

I closed the Disk Management and checked the file explorer, but the disk was not there.

I reentered Disk Management and without doing anything, by itself unallocated the second external hard disk drive, split in two partitions, and the drive shows three times in the disk drive list!!!

Both drive encrypted with BitLocker, I have the password and the keys.

My PC is a Lenovo m93p.

I had lots of backups in those disks and I really don’t want to lose the data, please any advice is welcome.

Can I remove the BitLocker encryption and use a data recovery software to save my data?

I tried to upload a screenshot of my Disk Management, but it fails, so I created this cloud link to see it.

 

external hard drive

Hi Chrpee,

If you can't find external hard drive on Disk management than the next step is using the diskpart via command line, please follow the steps below:-

On the keyboard hit ((Windows logo key + R key)) than type ((CMD))

Now the windows command line will appear, the next steps is to type ((diskpart))

After that type ((list disk)) to show you the list of hard disks with partitions

If you found your external hard drive one of the list than you need to type ((select disk number)), note: the number is a disk number

Once you selected the hard disk or partitions than type ((clean))

than type ((create partition primary))

than type ((select partition 1))

than type ((active))

than type ((format fs=ntfs quick))

than type ((assign))

last type ((exit))

Check if the external hard drive appeared, if not please see the link below for more info and let me know if you need any assist

https://uk.pcmag.com/dvd-burners/120624/what-to...

 

problems with formating external hard drive. Drive shows as unallocated drive.

Hello,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you. We will assist you with this issue.

Let's try to format the external hard drive from disk management and check if it helps. Follow the steps below:

1. Right click on the Start menu and select Disk management.

2. Right-click on a rectangle that represents unallocated space on a hard drive, and select "New Simple Volume".

Note: that the color code that corresponds to the unallocated space vary in different Windows versions; consult the legend in the bottom of the Disk Management window.

3. Click "Next" and then "Next" again to accept the default size of the new partition.

4. Choose the option "Format the volume (partition) with the default settings" and click "Next."

5. Click "Finish" to create a new partition on the hard drive and format it.

Try the above steps and check if it helps. Let us know the status of the issue. We will be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.