If you’re trying to recover a non-
system partition, in other words,
you’re able to boot into Windows
normally, then you may be able to
recover them without spending
a dime. Instead, download and
install Partition Find and Mount
(http://findandmount.com/), which
is free for personal use.
Once launched, select the drive
containing the missing partition
and start with the recommended
‘Intellectual Scan’ (if this fails,
you’ll have two more scans to try—
normal, followed by deep). If your
missing partition is found, you’ll be
able to mount it to a specific drive
or create a drive image from it.
If you’ve installed Lazesoft
Recovery Suite from last month’s
disaster recovery guide (if not, get
the free Home edition from http://www.
lazesoft.com/download.html),
then launch that inside Windows
and select ‘Disk Image & Clone’.
You’ll find the disk management
and repair tools in the left-hand
pane. Scroll down to the Repair
Tools section and find the ‘Lost
Partition Recovery’ option. Select
this and see if Lazesoft can find any
missing partitions. If it does, select
the partition from the list and click
‘Recover Lost Partition’ to restore.If you’re unable to restore your
partition using either tool and are
happy to dive into the command line,
then TestDisk (www.cgsecurity.
org/wiki/TestDisk) should be your
next port of call. Download the
latest Windows 64-bit version (7.1
at time of writing), and then, after
taking that fail-safe drive image,
follow the guide at http://www.cgsecurity.
org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
to recover missing partitions or
repair corrupt ones.DISASTER RECOVERY
The worst has happened: Windows
refuses to boot, and you’re
unable to get to your files. What
to do? Assuming the drive hasn’t
physically failed (see the box on
getting professional help), you’ll
want to recover what data you
can before wiping the drive and
reinstalling Windows from scratch.
If you’re a Macrium user, you
could boot from your rescue disc,
take a fresh image of the drive,
then try rolling your system back
to a working state. If the drive has
physically failed, but your backup is
recent, there’s little point trying to
recover data from it; instead, invest
in a new drive and restore your last
Macrium backup to that.If you haven’t got a drive image,
you may be able to restore the
partition or recover files from it.
You’ll need to create a Lazesoft
Recovery Suite rescue disc (or USB
flash drive) by downloading and
installing the free Home Edition of
the software from http://www.lazesoft.
com/download.html to a working
PC, preferably one running the
same OS as your damaged PC.
Once that’s done, boot from
the rescue disc. You could first try
Windows Recovery to see if it can
restore your PC to working order,
or use the rescue disc’s own File
Manager to recover files if the
partition is visible and otherwise
undamaged. Failing that, use the
‘Disk Image & Clone’ tool to search
for the missing partition following
the same procedure as above.
If all this fails, you should be able
to use the rescue disc to copy off any
files that are easily accessible—
say, with a corrupt Windows install
that hasn’t trashed the partition—
or use the ‘Data Recovery’ tool,
which offers a choice of four tools:
Fast Scan, Undelete, Unformat and
Deep Scan. With a bit of luck, one of
these will ensure any critical files
are recovered before you wipe the
drive clean to start again.Recover lost
non-system
partitions with
Lazesoft.MAR 2022 MAXIMU MPC 47
© LAZESOFT.COM