How to Restore D Drive in Windows 10 With The Lost Data?

We usually keep the operating system on the C drive and store important files and software on the D or E drive. Sometimes, the D drive might go missing in Windows 10/11 due to an OS update, accidental deletion, or a hard drive issue. This can be frustrating, but it doesn’t mean your files are lost forever. You can often recover the drive and your data by following the right steps.

Why does this happen, and how can you quickly get the drive and data back? Keep reading; this guide will answer your questions and show you what to do.

Why does D drive missing in Windows 10/11?

There are three most possible reasons accounting for the D drive suddenly missing problem in general. Find the reason so we can find the cure.

1. The drive letter D is used for the CD or DVD drive.

After a restart or a change of settings, the DVD drive can take up space in the drive. There is also a problem: we can't change the drive letter to D drive. We can use Windows Disc Management to look at it better. If it is, right-click it and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths" to give it a different letter.

2. D drive missing after Windows 10 update.

This could happen after an update or download, like when files missing after Windows 10 update. Some system settings are changed after the download because of wrong actions or reasons that aren't known.

3. The D drive is hidden, formatted, or wiped by accident.

The D drive won't show up in Windows File Explorer either if your system hides it. It's possible for linked drives to disappear when we do certain things to partitions or hard drives, like changing the size of a partition or formatting a hard drive or disk. Next, we'll talk about some different ways to solve this problem.

How to restore D drive in Windows 10 and  11?

How to restore local disk D drive? Here are 3 practical and easy methods. You can run a reliable tool, or using Windows tools based on your needs.

Method 1. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant

You can restart your computer first. Sometimes your D drive missing may due to wrong settings. Restarting your computer may solve the problem. If restarting doesn't work, you may need to run a professional partition recovery software like AOMEI Partition Assistant. You can recover the lost or removed drive if you haven't done anything that may lead to overwriting in Windows 11, 10, 8, or 7.  You can use it to recover NTFS partition, FAT partition, and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 partitions recovery are also valid.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant. Select "Recover" > "Partition Recovery" on the main interface.

Step 2. Select the disk we’d like to recover. Here we need to select the disk where the D drive original was.

Step 3. Select "Fast Search" (recommended, less time). If the drive is not found, try Full Search.

Step 4. Select the drive and click "Proceed" to start recovering. When it is completed, click "Finish".

Check if the D drive is back in the main interface, Disk Management or Windows File Explorer.

Notes: You may need to assign a drive letter to the recovered partition. 

Method 2. Restore D drive in Windows 10 by system restore

If we have created system restore points regularly on the computer, it would be much easier for us to return the PC to a normal status where the D drive is still there. Given that there are sufficient system restore points:

Step 1. Type system restore on the Search box in Windows 10. Click "Create a restore point" from the list.

Step 2. In the pop out window, click "System Restore" to start.

Step 3. Follow the wizard to select the correct system point for restoring. It will take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes.

Tip: Once started, System Restore cannot be interrupted. The computer will restart later, so be sure all programs are closed.

If the missing D drive cannot be found through those two ways, you may need to recover it with a professional partition recovery tool.

Method 3. Windows system image to restore lost D drive

A Windows system image is a part of Back Up and Restore in Windows. This tool, which is different from Windows Backup and Restore, enables you make a full backup of your PC. Of course, the steps for recovery will also depend on what was backed up, so please check it again.

Step 1. Press “Windows”, and type “Settings” in the search bar. Then open it.

Step 2. Click “Update & Security” > “Recovery” > “Restart now”. Your computer will shut down and boot to a blue screen.

Step 3. Click “Troubleshoot” > “Advanced options” > “System Image Recovery” > “Windows 10”.

Step 4. Choose the “Use the latest available system image” option on the Re-image your computer page, then click the “Next” button.

Step 5. Click “Format and repartition disks” > “Exclude disks” to exclude some partitions or other attached storage. Then click the “Next” button.

Step 6. Click “Finish”. After restoring system drives, click Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for Updates to check whether the D drive is recovered or not.

How to recover lost files caused by missing D drive?

If you lost data due to missing D drive, or formatting the drive to fix any issue, you can run a powerful data recovery tool like AOMEI FastRecovery. This tool can recover more than 1000 different types of data, like photos, movies, documents, email files, and more. It can also get back data that was lost because of cleaning, a system crash, a virus attack, and other things.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI FastRecovery. Choose the exact partition or disk where your data lost and click Scan. Here we take C drive as an example. If you want to recover D drive, please choose D:. 

Step 2. Then, the recovery tool start to scan and search. lt will execute the “Quickly Scan" first for finding your deleted data fast, and then execute the “Deep Scan" for searching other lost data.

Step 3. Once the scan is completed, all deleted files, recycle bins and other missing files will be displayed. Please select the file you would like to recover and then click "Recover".

Step 4. Then, select a folder path to save your recovered files.

Step 5. Wait patiently for this process of recovering ends.

Conclusion

With these methods, you can know how to restore D drive in Windows 10 now. The easiest way is to use AOMEI FastRecovery for recovering lost data. Because of its unique method, it is possible to find all recoverable files and successfully get them back without losing quality or corruption. Also, to keep data from getting lost again, it is suggested that three copies be made and two be kept on different storage devices, such as portable drives, USB drives, and the cloud.