A partition that drops out of sight — showing as unallocated or RAW, or asking to be formatted — has almost always lost its map, not its files. We rebuild the partition and recover your data off any hard drive, SSD, USB stick or memory card, here in-house.
$ bdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: Seagate HDD (2 TB) → Status: PARTITION LOST — drive reads as RAW → Client: confidential · Guildford GU2 8XH $ bdr engineer-working → Read-only image: taken · source untouched → Partition table: rebuilt + remounted → File system: structure intact · files visible $ bdr verify → ✓ documents — 14,210 files → ✓ photos — 21,540 files → ✓ partition recovered — files back
Should Windows or your Mac announce that a drive needs formatting — or a partition utility volunteer to ‘fix’ it — hold off. Write a fresh partition table across the disk, or format it, and that can land squarely on the data we’re trying to save. So: no chkdsk, no repair tools, no partitions created or resized, and nothing at all allowed to write to the drive — pull it out and get in touch. The less it’s touched, the better the recovery.
A partition dropping out of sight nearly always means its structure is damaged or gone — the data itself usually sits untouched on the drive. Below are the situations we meet most.
Lost and corrupted partitions get rebuilt here across every storage type and every major make. If it holds your files, the odds are good.
The drives inside laptops, PCs and Macs; hard drives and SSDs; external and portable units; and flash of all kinds — USB sticks, SD, microSD and CF.
A missing partition comes back by rebuilding the structure that points at your data — with the original drive never written to. The device is imaged first; the partition is rebuilt off that copy; then your files are recovered and returned.
Let us know what happened; we size up the damage — a RAW drive, a deleted partition, a corrupted table — and reply with a written quote, generally inside 48 hours.
A forensic, read-only image is made and the whole job runs on that copy — there’s simply no route for the original data to be overwritten.
The entire disk is swept for file-system signatures — ext superblocks, APFS and HFS+ headers, NTFS and FAT boot sectors — to fix exactly where each volume starts and ends, and a correct MBR or GPT table is rebuilt to point at them.
If the boot sector or file system is corrupt, the structures the volume needs to mount are mended — the boot sector restored from backup, the $MFT or FAT tables rebuilt — so it mounts and gives up its files.
Off the rebuilt partition your files return with the folder tree whole, and the unallocated space is swept for anything earlier deletes or overwrites left behind.
We check the recovered files open cleanly and the folder tree holds together, then hand them over on fresh media.
Your data goes onto an external drive we post back, or via a free download for up to 75GB.
On hard drives, SSDs, external units, USB sticks and memory cards, we rebuild lost and corrupted partitions — all off a read-only image, your files coming back intact.
Tell us what happened and we’ll get back to you, usually within a working day.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
No surprises, no pushiness — a free diagnostic and a written quote before a thing is done.
A few recent missing-partition jobs across different drives. Identifying details stripped, every result verified.
The file system was corrupt but the data beneath untouched. One read-only image, one rebuilt partition, and back it came.
With the partition gone, the space read unallocated. We located it, rebuilt it, and got every file back.
Power had cut out mid-write and the partition dropped off. From a forensic image we rebuilt the table and returned the files.
Send the device in for its free diagnostic and tell us briefly what happened; an engineer reviews it and confirms your exact quote in writing before anything starts.
Getting your data back begins with getting the device to us. Pack it up safely, pop your contact details inside, and send it over — once we’ve run the free diagnostic, we’ll confirm your exact price in writing before any work starts.
Posting it? A tracked, insured service is what we’d recommend. Rather drop it in? You’re welcome Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm — just package the device up as above first.
Want a bit more detail first? Fill in the form with more about your issue and an engineer will review it and send you a custom quote.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 01483 901310.
What people most often ask about recovering a lost or missing partition.
Usually. A partition that’s gone almost always means a damaged or deleted table entry, not lost data — the boot sector and the files behind it are still on the disk. We image the drive, scan it for file-system signatures to locate where the volume actually lies, and rebuild the MBR or GPT so it mounts once more.
Usually not. RAW, or a nudge to format, nearly always means the file system can’t be read — a corrupt boot sector, a damaged $MFT, a scrambled partition type — rather than missing contents. We repair or rebuild those structures on a read-only copy and the files come back.
Frequently. Removing a partition clears only its table entry and flags the space unallocated; the boot sector and data hold until something overwrites them. From those surviving structures we rebuild it — so stop using the disk before anything lands on top.
Better not. chkdsk and partition-repair tools write their changes directly to the affected drive — rewriting the $MFT, moving data, zeroing sectors — and can turn an easy rebuild into a hard recovery, or lose data for good. Stop, and let us work off a read-only image.
Possibly. A format, an initialise, or a new partition table written over the drive can each fall on your files. With a partition missing, the safe course is to stop and have us image the drive first.
It starts at £250 + VAT as a logical recovery, the diagnostic beforehand free and most jobs no fix, no fee. Where the drive proves to be physically failing as well, any higher figure is confirmed in writing before we start.
Laptop, PC and Mac internal disks; standalone hard drives and SSDs; external and portable units; and USB sticks alongside SD, microSD and CF cards. If your files live on it, we can usually help.
Very much so. Lost and corrupted partitions on external drives, USB sticks and memory cards are among the most common jobs we take — and tend to recover well.
Most missing-partition work is finished inside one to three working days, often less, with the diagnostic itself usually done within 48 hours. Something genuinely urgent can jump ahead — just say.
Either drop it at our Guildford unit on a weekday, 9am to 5:30pm, or post it fully insured. Seal it well and enclose your details — name, address, phone, email — for booking-in, and once it arrives the free diagnostic runs and a written quote follows before any work.
A free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and lost-partition recovery off any drive, stick or card — every file back intact. Begin your recovery today.