D Drive Data Recovery: Get the Missing Files and Folders Back

What is D drive used for?

D drive is a partition of a physical hard drive that assign with the drive letter: D on the computer. It can be a recovery partition offered by PC manufacturers and is used to restore the system to factory status if the OS is corrupted. It also can be a partition created by users to hold kinds of files and apps.

How to perform D drive data recovery

In either case, D drive data are important for us. However, sometimes, you can’t find the data on the D drive in Windows 10/11. To fix D drive data not showing issue quickly, it’s recommended to take corresponding solutions under different cases.

• How to recover D drive data if files exist but aren't showing
• How to recover deleted files from D drive
• How to Recover data from D drive after formatting

How to recover D drive data in Windows 10/11 if files exist but aren't showing

If you didn’t format partition D and remove files from it but D drive data are disappearing, it means that the files and folders on D drive are hidden or the file system of it is corrupted. If D drive is on the second hard drive rather than the primary hard drive, an unstable power supply also can be the cause. To retrieve data from D drive, check out the following fixes.

✌ Fix 1. Show hidden files and folders on D drive using ATTRIB

ATTRIB, a command in Windows, can be used to adjust the characteristics of a file or directory. You can use it to make hidden files on D drive shows up.

Step 1. In the Windows Search box, input “cmd” and run Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2. Input the command “attrib -h -r -s  D:\*.* /s /d” and hit Enter.

Note: If you want to recover data on another drive using CMD, you just need to replace D with the drive letter of the drive.

✌ Fix 2. Check and fix file system errors for D drive

If you still can’t see D drive data, you can run CHKDSK to check and fix errors on partition D.

Step 1. Open Windows Explorer, find out D drive, right-click it and choose “Properties”.

Step 2. Click “Tools” , click “Check” and follow the pop-up prompts to scan and fix errors on partition D.  

After that, you are supposed to restore D drive data that are missing out of file system errors.

✌ Fix 3. Reconnect the external drive that contains D drive

When D drive is not in the primary hard drive but in the external hard drive, you can restart your computer and reconnect the external hard drive to it. Then see whether the missing D drive data appears.

How to recover deleted files from D drive

If you have deleted data from D drive accidentally, you can retrieve the deleted files and folder from Recycle Bin. If you have permanently deleted files from D drive, you can recover files with backup or restore them to D drive data recovery software directly.

✌ Fix 1. Restore D drive deleted files from Recycle Bin

If you just remove files from D drive via Ctrl + D, usually, the deleted files go to Recycle Bin. Double-click Recycle Bin icon on the desktop and choose the data that you want to recover and choose “Restore”. Then, you can open D drive and see the deleted files come back.

✌ Fix 2. Recover permanently deleted data from D drive via File History

File History, a backup solution offered in Windows 10 and its later version, is a backup solution for personal files safety. When Recycle Bin isn’t working for recovering D drive data, you can use it to restore your removed data. Here is the detailed process.

Step 1. In the Search box, type “Restore your files with File History” and open File History.

Step 2. Here you can all contents of the latest snapshot. Select the files and folder that you want to restore and click the green icon to start data recovery.

Note: If you haven’t enabled File History, you won’t be able to recover D drive data with File History. To enable it, you should connect an external storage device to your computer>  open File History window > click “Configure File History Settings”> Choose the external device as the place to store backups > Click on “Run Now”.

How to Recover data from D drive after formatting

It is well-known that formatting will erase all data. To recover data from formatted D drive, you can switch to Windows File Recovery, a command-line utility that is released by Microsoft in 2020. Now let’s see how to use it.

Step 1. Download Windows File Recovery from Microsoft Store and install it on your laptop or desktop.

Step 2. Type “windows file recovery” in the search box, and run it as administrator.

Step 3. To recover the “music” folder from the formatted D: drive to H: drive, input the command:

winfr D: H: /extensive /n \music\

Tips:

• music should be replaced with the name of the folder that you want to restore from D drive.
• D is the source drive from which you want to retrieve data; H is the drive to which you restore data.

A great D drive data recovery software: Recover D drive data effortlessly

It’s not tough to restore D drive data, as long as you apply appropriate fixes. But if you want to perform D drive data recovery easier and quicker, it’s highly recommended to try the professional data recovery software, MyRecover. With strong technical support and an intuitive GUI, it enables you to recover lost/ deleted files and folders from D drive or restore data from formatted D drive just within a few clicks. Have a look at how it works.

Step 1. Click the button to get the D drive format data recovery software free download, install and run it.

Step 2. Choose D drive and click “Start Scan”.

Step 3. Then you can see the deleted files and other missing files on D drive.

Step 4. Choose the data that you want to restore and click “Recover xx files. Then, specify a destination place to save these recovered data.

Final words

To perform D drive recovery effectively and easily, the professional data recovery software, AOMEI Data Recovery is recommended. If you are familiar with File History or CMD, it’s also OK to use other ways to recover data from D drive. If your D drive is deleted, you can use professional partition recovery software to recover partition D and the data on it.