Solved: One of My Hard Drives Disappeared & How to Restore It
Did "one of my hard drives disappeared" from your PC? This article explains why drives vanish, focusing on the common "hard drive missing after restart" problem. We walk you through proven methods to make your drive visible again, covering BIOS checks, partition recovery, and Windows updates. Follow our expert advice to quickly regain access to your important files and secure your system.
Last Updated December 12, 2025
Help! One of My Hard Drive Disappeared!
The hard drive disappeared
Something is screwed up with my computer. My D drive is just gone, my computer continues to constantly crash, and it’s very slow. I have Norton installed, and whenever I do a scan, it says there are no viruses. I have restarted it multiple times, and nothing happened. And when I shut it off and then turn it back on, the hard drive says “local disk”. I also tried to use disk management, and the hard drive isn’t located there either. (This happened before the update)
- Question from learn.microsoft.com
If you encounter a hard drive that has disappeared in Windows 10 or 11, you can find reasons and solutions in this post to make things right. Just find out solutions now. And most importantly, recover your precious files from that drive.
Why Does One of My Hard Drives Keep Disappearing?
It's upsetting that one of your hard drives disappeared in Windows 10, 11. And we will show you the main reasons for that problem.
⭕ A failed USB cable can prevent the external hard drive from being detected.
⭕ Hard drive failure. If it’s an older mechanical hard disk drive (HDD), the delicate moving parts inside can fail. A sharp bump while the drive was spinning could have caused a head crash. Even with silent Solid State Drives (SSDs), the controller board can fail.
⭕ A worn-out USB port or a faulty SATA port on your motherboard can easily make it seem like one of my hard drives is missing Windows 10, even when the drive itself is perfectly fine.
⭕ A corrupted or outdated disk driver.
⭕ A Windows major update, as new system files can clash with old drivers. Similarly, a Windows update itself can sometimes introduce bugs that temporarily hide drives.
⭕ File system corruption. If the drive’s "table of contents" (like NTFS or exFAT) gets damaged, Windows can't read it anymore, so it doesn’t bother showing it.
⭕ A missing drive letter. If another device or a virtual drive swoops in and steals your drive’s assigned letter, Windows gets confused and hides the now-conflicted drive from view.
Fixes to One of My Hard Drives Disappeared in Windows 11/10
If your hard drive shows in Disk Management but not File Explorer, you have to check your disk status in Disk Management and troubleshoot the problem using the first 3 solutions. Or you can try other resolutions to fix.
Way 1. Change Drive Letter and Paths
Disk Management is Windows’ built-in control center for everything storage-related. It’s your first and most important stop. To get there, simply right-click the Start button and select "Disk Management".Now, scan the list. What you’re looking for is your missing drive. It might appear in one of three states: Online, Unallocated, and Offline, and each tells a different story.
If your hard drive shows Online in Disk Management and has a healthy blue bar with a drive letter (like D:), but it's just not in File Explorer. Or it lacks of drive letter. Please change the drive letter for your drive. Here is how to do:
1. Right-click on that blue bar and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths".
2. Click "Add", assign it a letter that’s not in use, and hit OK.
After assigning a drive letter to the hard drive, you can reboot your Windows 10 and navigate to this PC. The missing hard drive in Windows 10 might show up in the list.
Way 2. Create A New Partition
If the drive shows as "Unallocated" with a black bar in Disk Management, it means Windows sees the physical disk but thinks it’s blank, space with no file system.
Warning: This often means the partition table is damaged or deleted. You can create a new simple volume here, but that will erase all existing data. Do not do this if you need to recover files! And you need data recovery software to recover files now, before any fix.
You can create a new partition on that drive to use it normally after recovering files. Here is how:
1. Please go to Disk Management by right-clicking This PC, and choose Manage.
2. Click Disk Management.
3. Right-click the hard drive that has disappeared, and choose New Simple Volume.
4. Follow the guide to complete the process.
Way 3. Make It Online
If the drive shows as "Offline" in Disk Management or isn’t listed at all, the problem is deeper. An "Offline" drive can sometimes be brought back online by right-clicking it and choosing Online.
But if it’s not there, Windows isn’t detecting it at a hardware level. This points us back to physical connections or a more serious hardware fault.
Way 4. Try Another Cable
You can simply replug in my SATA cables and restart the computer, and the drive might be detected again. Some users reported that it’s working.
Way 5. Update Disk Drivers
If the above ways don’t work, the next step is to check the drivers.
1. Open Device Manager (search for it in the Start menu).
2. Expand the "Disk drives" section, and look for any entries with a yellow exclamation mark.
3. Right-click your drive (even if it’s listed generically) and choose "Update driver".
4. Let Windows search automatically.
If that doesn’t work, select "Uninstall device". Restart your computer, and let Windows reinstall the driver fresh upon reboot. This can clear out corrupted driver files that cause a hard drive to disappear in Windows 10.
Way 6. Run the hardware and device troubleshooter
1. Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard.
2. Type Control Panel into the Run box and press Enter.
3. In the Control Panel search box, type troubleshooting, then select Troubleshooting from the results.
4. In the left-hand menu, click View all.
5. Find and click on Hardware and Devices, then follow the on-screen prompts to run the diagnostic tool.
Once the troubleshooter completes, restart your PC and check if the issue has been resolved.
Way 7. Adjust Windows Power and USB Settings
Sometimes, Windows' power plans can tell disk drives to spin down or disconnect too quickly.
1. To tweak this, go to the old Control Panel (search for it), then Hardware and Sound > Power Options.
2. Click "Change plan settings" next to your active plan.
3. Then "Change advanced power settings".
3. Expand the "Hard disk" tree and look for "Turn off hard disk after".
4. Set this to a much longer time (like 180 minutes) or to 0 for "Never".
Way 8. Run DiskPart
1. Type cmd in the Windows search bar.
2. Right-click Command Prompt and select "Run as administrator".
3. Then type the following command one by one and followed by Enter after each.
diskpart
list disk
select disk X
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=ntfs quick
assign letter=G
Exit
Way 9. Run CHKDSK
For logical errors (file system corruption), Windows has its own doctor: CHKDSK.
1. Run Admin Command Prompt.
2. Type chkdsk G: /f /r
- G: where X is the physical disk number from Disk Management.
- The /f fixes errors, and /r locates bad sectors.
Recover Precious Files Before Any Operation
This is the critical moment when one of my hard drives disappeared turns into a data rescue mission. If the drive is detected in Disk Management or BIOS but shows as unallocated or raw, the partition structure is damaged. This is where specialized data recovery software shines.
It’s highly recommended to try a Windows data recovery software called MyRecover.
- It allows you to scan the raw disk, ignore the broken "map" and find your files based on their signatures (like JPEG headers, DOCX structures, etc.).
- It's built to handle exactly these situations where a drive has vanished from view, but the data might still be intact.
- You can recover files from any complex situation, like recovering files from a formatted SSD, corrupted SD card, uninitialized disk, etc.
Here is how to recover important files with MyRecover in Windows 11, 10:
1. Download and install MyRecover. Never install recovery software on the same drive you're trying to recover from, as you might overwrite the very data you're trying to save.
100% Secure2. Open MyRecover, choose Disk Data Recovery, carefully select the disk that represents your missing hard drive, and hit Scan.
3. Hit OK when it’s finished.
4. Preview and choose the files you need, and hit Recover.
5. Opt for a safe location to keep them.
- Tips:✎...
- It will perform a quick scan. If you need to find more missing files, try a deep scan. A deep scan will scan sector by sector, then find all possible files.
- Once the scan is complete, MyRecover presents the results in a clear, folder-tree view on the left and file details on the right. You can use filters like "Type", "Date modified", and the search box to pinpoint exactly what you're looking for.
- You can try MyRecover Technician if you need to recover files for unlimited computers.
- Recover Deleted Files Easily with Simple Clicks
- 1000+ File Formats Supported
- Support HDD, SSD, External Hard Drive, USB Drive, SD Card, etc.
- Quickly Find Files Using File Types, Name, Size, etc.
- Preview Files Before Recovering
- Recover Unlimited Data
100% SecureFAQs About Missing Drives
Q: Could a missing drive be caused by a virus?
A: It's possible, but more often it's due to driver issues, software conflicts, or loose connections. Run a full antivirus scan if you suspect malware.
Q: My external drive makes a clicking sound and isn't detected. Is my data lost?
A: Clicking often signals physical failure. Do not keep plugging it in. Consult a professional recovery service—DIY software won't help here.
Q: My drive disappeared after a Windows update. How can I restore it?
A: Try System Restore or roll back/uninstall the driver in Device Manager. You can also manually install the latest drivers from your motherboard manufacturer.
Q: The drive appears in BIOS but not in Windows. What's wrong?
A: This means the hardware is working, but Windows isn't recognizing it. Check Disk Management for driver, partition, or file system issues.
Q: Can a power surge make a drive disappear?
A: Yes—surges can damage the drive's electronics. Use a surge protector. If undetected everywhere, professional recovery may be needed.
Q: I accidentally initialized/formatted the missing drive. Can I recover my files?
A: Yes, if you act fast. Stop using the drive immediately and use recovery software like MyRecover to scan for your original files before they're overwritten.