By Michael / Last Updated September 19, 2023

Find the c drive is missing

Sometimes, users may find that C drive and the desktop disappear after the computer is turned on. Even the shortcut on the desktop are gone. What’s going on? In general, if there is an abnormality in the virus or disk partition table on the computer, the system may not be used properly. So we need to detect and repair the disk. What should we do?

How to fix c drive is missing from my computer?

Don’t know how to fix the problem about c drive missing? Here provides you two methods to do this operation.

Method 1. Restore C drive with Windows 11/10 built-in tool

If you can enter the system desktop and the system is running normally, it may be that the C drive is hidden. At this point, you can recover it as follows:

1. Press “Windows” + “R” to open the Run box, type “gpedit.msc” and press “Enter”.

2. In the pop-up window, find “User Configuration” >“Administrative Templates” > “Windows Components”. Double click “Windows Explorer” to open it.

3. Then find “Hide these specified drives in My Computer” in the right window. Open it, make sure it is “Not Configured”, and click “OK”.

After that, back to the desktop, and you can find your C drive. If it doesn’t work, try the method below:

1. Click “Start” and type “cmd” in the Search Box.

2. Find Command Prompt, right click it and select “Run as administrator”.

3. Input “sfc/scannow” and press “Enter”. The scan results will detail the problem file and the repair record.

4. Then, input “chkdsk c: /f” and press “Enter”. The system will self-detect and repair the C drive.

If the desktop cannot be accessed normally, there may be a problem with the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the C drive. At this point, you can use the following method to perform a test and repair.

1. Restart the computer and press “F8” before the Windows 11/10 logo appears. And then select “Safe Mode”.

2. After that, input the following commands and press “Enter” after each.

  • bootrec/ fixmbr

  • bootrec/ fixboot

  • bootrec/ scanos

  • bootrec/ rebuildbcd

3. Restart your computer after that.

Method 2. Restore C drive with third party software

If there is a problem with the MBR of the C drive, and the command line has not been successfully repaired. Then you can turn to third party software to fix this problem. Here I highly recommend you AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional- a magical third party partition manager which provides you many powerful functions like rebuild MBR and partition recovery wizard. And it can help you to fix the problem C drive missing easily and effectively in Windows 11/10/8/7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. You need to create a bootable media in advance and boot the computer from the bootable media. Then, follow the specific guide below:

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Right click the disk you need to repair and select “Rebuild MBR”. 

Rebuild System Disk Mbr

Step 2.In the next window, set the type of MBR for the current OS. (Choose a proper MBR type according to your operating system.) Then, click “OK”.

Choose Mbr Type Os

Step 3.Then, it will back to the main interface. Click “Apply” to commit this operation.

Apply

After the operation is complete, restart the computer to commit the repair.

In addition to this, it is possible that you cannot find C drive as it is lost. At this point, you can also use the AOMEI Partition Assistant to search for the lost partitions and recover them. The specific steps are below:

Step 1.Run AOMEI Partition Assistant, click "Recover"> “Partition Recovery” and select the disk you want to recover. Click “Next” to continue

Partition Recovery Wizard

Step 2.In the next window, select a search method you need, and click “Next”.

Search Method

* Fast Search: It will scan the first sector of each partition on the selected disk in order to find out the deleted or lost partition quickly.

Full Search:More in-depth search every sector of each partition on the selected disk. And, consequently, it needs more time. You could choose this method when Fast Search fails.

Step 3. Wait for the search to complete, and select the lost partition that was searched, click “Proceed” to continue.

Tips:

  • The partitions been found are listed in detail. You can see their special information. You can also double click the partition to see whether the partition is the one you want to recover.

  • You can select more than one partition by ticking the box which lies in front of each partition information and recover them all in one time.

  • The final status after restoring can be seen in graphic bar. The partition with blue cross is the partition you are going to recover.

  • If any data loss happens during your operation, you can use the "Recover Data" function to retrieve lost data.

Conclusion

If you encounter the problem of “C drive is missing from my computer”, it probably has something wrong with the MBR or the C drive is lost. To solve this problem, you can turn to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional which can help you to do the repair operation easily and effectively. Besides create bootable media, rebuild MBR and recover partition, it also has many other powerful features like resize/move/format/delete partition, migrate OS to SSD and so on.