The problem of losing units in the Microsoft operating system may arise, something that usually causes real distress to those who suffer from it. In such situations, it is essential to have the knowledge of how to recover a lost drive in Windows 11, we will tell you.
Nowadays, information and data are critical, so facing a drive loss on Windows 11 operating system can cause worry and anxiety. Recovering a lost drive in Windows 11 becomes a crucial task to preserve the integrity of your computerbecause if this continues, the problem could become enormous.
Fortunately, Windows 11 offers a series of methods that allow you to address this situation effectively, making it possible to recover all the information that at first seemed completely lost.
That is why it is important to find out what you can do so that this situation is resolved and you can once again have everything you had operational before this problem approached you.
Computer Today wants to help you in case you are affected by this problem, offering some possible solutions that will help you recover normality.
Recover a lost drive in Windows 11:
Scan your computer for a virus
It may be that the reason you can’t see Windows 11 drives is because some type of virus or malware is preventing it.
The simplest thing is to do a quick scan of your computer, either with a third-party antivirus or using Windows Defender, which comes with the operating system as standard. To use Windows Defender you must do the following:
- Open the Start menu and select Setting.
- Click Privacy & Security and then select Windows Security on the menu.
- Among the many protection areas, click Protection against viruses and threats to open the analysis window.
- Now click on Scan options to view all three options, including a quick scan, a full scan, and a custom scan.
- Select the desired option and tap Scan.
To recover a drive, try renaming it
There are times when the Windows 11 drive loss problem is caused by a technical issue that can be solved if you rename the drive in Windows.
This can activate the operating system to execute an update of its drives, making it recognize them again and thus make them appear again. The steps you must follow are these:
- Press Win+R to open the dialog Execute.
- Then you must write diskmgmt.msc in the field Open and press Get in.
- In the window Disk managementright-click the drive whose name you want to rename, and select Properties.
- In the tab Generalspecify a new label for the drive in the text box.
- Click Apply and then in Accept.
Rescan Windows 11 drives
If changing the name has not worked, there is another way to manually update the drive recognition system from Windows 11, such as scanning your disks.
You must perform the following steps to achieve it:
- Press Win+S to open the Windows Search.
- In the search box, type Team management and select it when it comes out.
- In the left navigation pane, expand Storage and select Disk management.
- Click Action in the top menu and select Rescan disks.
- Now, verify that you can see the drive again.
Update disk driver
Another reason for this problem with Windows 11 drives may be that the disk controller is obsolete or has suffered some type of conflict.
That’s why it’s best to try updating it to see if you can get it to work once and for all.
- Press Win+X and then choose Device administrator.
- Now click Disk Drives to expand it.
- You will then see all the drives on that computer. You must click on the one you want with the right mouse button and press Update driver.
- Then you must click on Search for drivers automatically and follow the instructions until you find something more modern, if there is one.
Software conflict on Windows 11 drives
There could be an app, program, or driver that is interfering and causing the problem with Windows 11 drives.
To remove it, you must perform a clean boot of Windows, to load the least amount of programs and drivers, and see if the drive appears.
If it appears, you have no choice but to discard each program or service until you find the cause. Clean boot of Windows 11 is achieved this way:
- Go to the Start menu search bar, type msconfig and select System configuration in the results.
- Switch to tab ServicesChoose Hide all services Microsoft and click Disable all.
- Go to the tab Windows Startup and select Open Task Manager.
- Now, one by one, disable each app.
- Go back to the tab Windows Startup in System configuration and click on Accept.
- On your next reboot, Windows will boot into a clean boot environment. If the problem persists, then it is not due to any application or service, but if it is solved you have to find out what is causing it by starting one by one until you find the culprit. It is a tedious system, but it will later be very effective.
The truth is that the problem of discovering that a drive is not showing can be something really scary and can cause quite a “headache”.
Luckily There are solutions to find Windows drives that have been lost and that they do not have any physical problems, everything being caused by some type of internal conflict. Some of the solutions you just read will surely work for you.