How to Rebuild and Repair Partition Table
What Is a Partition Table
A partition table is described as a table maintained on disk by the OS, describing the partitions on that disk. The terms partition table and partition map are most commonly associated with the MBR partition table of a Master Boot Record. It also usually refers to other formats that divide a disk into partitions, including GPT (GUID Partition Table), APM (Apple partition map), and BSD disklabel. - From Wikipedia
Corrupted Partition Table
With the partition table, the computer can detect the existing hard drive, and users can create, resize, and delete partitions on the disk. The partition table is usually created while installing an operating system on Windows, and Mac computers.
However, when the table on a disk is corrupted, you can't use or access the saved data in the partition anymore. However, most ordinary users don't know how to identify whether the table is corrupted or damaged on a disk. The process is also very complicated. So how to determine whether the partition table is corrupted or not?
Mostly, when the partition table gets corrupted or damaged, the disk will show as Unallocated or Not Initialized in the Disk Management as shown below:
The solutions towards two disk issues are different and you can follow solutions on this page to repair or rebuild the corrupted partition table without losing data.
Solution 1. Recover Partition Table - Restore Partition from Unallocated Space
When the disk becomes unallocated, you can recover the corrupted partition table by using professional partition recovery software. Qiling Partition Recovery can assist you in effectively restoring the missing partitions with saved data. The corrupted partition table will be recovered together with partitions. This robust partition recovery is good at restoring NTFS and FAT partitions on Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista.
NOTE: When the scanning process completes, you can double-click the found partitions to preview saved data on your disk. You don't have to pay before making sure this software indeed finds your lost partition and data.
Step 1. Run Qiling Partition Recovery on your PC.
Select the disk or device where you lost partition(s), click "Proceed" to continue.
Step 2. Wait for the scanning process to complete.
Let the program scan the selected disk and find the lost partition(s).
Step 3. Preview and restore the lost partition(s).
Double-click on the partition which is marked as "Lost" with "Good" recoverability.
Preview the content of the lost partition. Click "OK" and click "Proceed" to start restoring the lost partition.
Step 4. Click "Recover" to finish the partition recovery process.
Note: If the program warns you that there is a conflict, back up the listed partition with essential data to an external hard drive first. Then execute the final operation to restore your lost partition.
Reboot the computer when the process is finished and you will find everything is just what it was. If this software fails, stay calm. You can follow Phrase 2 and Phrase 3 in Solution 2 provided in the next part for help.
Solution 2. Restore Partition Table - Initialize Disk, Restore Data and Recreate Partitions
If the whole disk shows as "Not Initialized" in disk management, the partition table is corrupted. To repair the corrupted partition table and restore all saved data on the disk, you'll need to go through the 3 phrases listed below:
Phrase 1 - Initialize Disk in Disk Management
Step 1. Right-click on "This PC/My Computer", select "Manage" and enter Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the disk which is showing as "Not Initialized" and select "Initialize Disk".
Step 3. Choose the desired partition style for the selected disk - MBR or GPT, click "OK" to confirm.
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Phrase 2 - Recover Restore Data from Unallocated Space
If you have saved important data on the disk, don't rush to create new partitions on the disk. Your current job is to perform hard disk data recovery and restore all saved data from the unallocated disk.
ALL-IN-ONE data recovery software - Deep Data Recovery to supports to recover files from those lost partitions on unallocated disk under Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, etc. in only three steps:
Step 1. Select file types and click "Next" to start
Launch Deep Data Recovery software. Select file types and click "Next" to start.
Step 2. Select and scan the lost partition
Select "Lost Partition" and click "Scan" to search for all the lost data. If there are many lost partitions, you can identify them through its partition size.
Note: Since the Windows system doesn't support the Linux file system, the Ext2 or Ext3 partition will be recognized as lost partition with no drive letter in the software. If you want to recover data from Ext2/Ext3 partition, you can follow these steps.
Step 3. Filter the scanned results
Because there will be a lot of scanned files, you can choose a file category for quick filtering, such as Pictures, Videos, Documents, Audio, and Others. Or if you remember the file name, you can just look it up in the search box in the upper right corner.
Step 4. Preview and recover data from the lost partition
Before recovery, you can preview the file to make sure it is the data you need. Choose all the files you need and click "Recover" to restore them.
Save the recovered data to another secure disk or external hard drive before making the disk work again.
Phrase 3 - Create or Recreate Partitions on the Unallocated Disk
Now, you've come to the last phrase - creating partitions on the unallocated disk. By doing so, the partition table will be repaired by the created new tables.
Step 1. Open Disk Management, and locate the unallocated space on your disk.
Step 2. Select "New Simple Volume".
Step 3. Enter the New Simple Volume Wizard interface, and click "Next" to continue. Assign Drive Letter or Path, then set the file system as NTFS. Click "Finish" to complete the process.
Repeat the process if you want to create more than one partition on the disk. Restart the PC if necessary.
After this, you can save data back to the disk partition and make use of the disk again.
How to Recover Partition Table When Computer Can't Boot
If the partition table on the boot disk is damaged, you should not be able to boot the computer with a blue or black screen. How do you repair partition table in this case? Actually, you can repair partition table in Command Prompt with a Windows installation DVD/CD. Here's how to fix partition table in Windows 10 with a bootable device.
Step 1. Boot your computer from the original installation DVD (or the recovery USB).
Step 2. On the start screen, click "Repair your computer" in the lower-left corner.
Step 3. Choose "Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt".
Step 4. When the Command Prompt loads, type the following commands and press Enter after each:
- Bootrec.exe/fixmbr
- Bootrec.exe/fixboot
- Bootrec.exe/rebuildbcd
Step 5. When the process finishes, exit the Command Prompt, eject the DVD, and restart the computer to see if the partition table is recovered.
Bonus Tip: Protect Hard Disk Data with Regular Backup
To sum up, on this page, we've collected three reliable solutions to help you repair or recover partition table with partition recovery software and manual methods when the disk shows unallocated, initialized, or even unbootable.
In order to protect your hard disk data, we would recommend you create regular backups of valuable data saved on your disk. If you don't want to create backup files by yourself, you can take the free backup software - Qiling Backup will be able to help you back up hard disk data automatically.
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