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How to Get Data from GPT Protective Partition in External Hard Disk in Windows?

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Published By Deepa Pandey
Ashwani Tiwari
Approved By Ashwani Tiwari
Published On March 20th, 2024
Reading Time 7 Minutes Reading
Category Data Recovery

If Disk Management shows a GPT-protected partition, you will not be able to open, read, or access GPT protective partition without losing data . Read the article to find out the cause of the problem and find a solution to get data from GPT protective partition in external hard disk.

On this page, you can learn what a GPT protective partition is, what causes this problem and how to remove GPT protective partitions in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, etc. operating systems. without data loss. Watch and learn how to make a GPT-protective partition accessible and restore data from the hard drive.

GPT Protective Partition Recover Data

There are many users around the world, who get the warning of a GPT protective partition when they connect a drive to their system. In such cases, users are unable to open or access the disk. In other words, users who face this situation want to recover data from GPT protective partition, but its solutions are not well-known.

As a result, users find it difficult to resolve the GPT-protected partition issue. This post will discuss the manual method to fix access GPT protective partition without losing data. Also, learn how to recover files from GPT protective partition . First, we will see why we face this problem in the first place.

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What is GPT Protective Partition?

GPT-protected partitions are essentially disk partitions protected by a GUID partition table. When a GPT-protective partition appears, the owner cannot open the specified partition or perform other operations with it through Disk Management.

Get Data from GPT Protective Partition in External Hard Disk: User’s Queries

User Query 1: “Please tell me how to recover data from GPT protective partition. This issue is driving me crazy,, as I can neither open nor view any files located on that drive. This very drive was running fine with my laptop, but as soon as I connected it to my office PC, the problem started. Even the tech guys from my office do not know why this is happening. I am asking for your help, as this is an urgent situation. Please help us check if partition is MBR or GPT .”

User Query 2: “I borrowed an external hard drive from my brother but was unable to use it. Whenever, I connect that HDD to my system, it is recognized as a GPT protective partition. There is no drive letter assigned to it and therefore, I cannot open or access GPT protective partition without losing data. I feel extremely disheartened and do not know what to do. My brother says he checked that drive before giving it to me and it was working absolutely fine. We are really perplexed about what is actually happening. If any of you have an explanation for how to retrieve data from deleted partition? please enlighten us.”

What Causes an HDD Partition to Become GPT Protective?

In simple terms, compatibility issues between the GPT partition and the Windows OS lead to a GPT-protected issue. GPT partitions are supported by only 64-bit Windows 10, 8, and 7 OS. When these drives are connected to any 32-bit Windows, the system fails to recognize this type of partition, and hence these drives become GPT protective partitions.

Note: Computer users should have Hard Disk Deleted File Recovery so that they can secure their important files. For that, you can download a free version of the application to preview your deleted data in the software panel.

  1. Download the Hard Drive Recovery Utility.
  2. Select a partition and click “Scan.”.
  3. Browse files and folders for data recovery.
  4. Save all data back to your chosen location.

Manual Way to Get Data from GPT Protective Partition in External Hard Disk

Using the disk management of your Windows system, you can recover shift deleted files from HDD. Before that, you have to determine the disk number of the affected drive, since it will not have any drive letters assigned to it. Let’s see how to fix the GPT protected partition issue.

a. Select the My Computer icon on the desktop and right-click on it to choose Manage.
b. Click on the Storage>> Disk Management option.
c. Make a note of the drive number (like drive 1) of the drive that has been referred to as the GPT protective drive.

Now Comes the Main Part of Resolving the Problem

  1. Initially, type CMD in the Search box of your system to open the Command Prompt window. In the Command window, type diskpart>> and press Enter.
  2. Now,  type list disk and press Enter. A full list of disks will appear in the window.
  3. After that, type select disk number (here, you have to add the disk number of the GPT Protective Partition) and press the Enter key. A message will appear confirming the disk selection.
  4. At this point, you have to type clean and then press Enter. This command will remove the partition and signature of the drive.
  5. Then, type exit>> hit Enter. Type exit again to shut down the Command Prompt window.
  6. Now, launch Disk Management and use the Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard. Or, you can open Disk Management and right-click on the problematic disk to choose the Initialize Disk option from the menu.
  7. Finally, when the initialization begins, use disk management to format the drive.

Limitations of Manual Technique

The method of disk management described here is often the first choice of users when it comes to fixing the GPT protective partition issue. However, the success rate of this method is not so high. Users have reported getting these error messages even after performing this technique:

  • “The disk you specified cannot be converted to MBR.”
  • “Please select an empty GPT disk to convert.”

Alternative Solution to Recover Data from GPT Protective Partition

If you do not want to go through this tedious method to fix disk-protected issues or face these errors after performing that method, we have an alternative technique for you. Users can recover GPT protective partition data using the above-suggested software to change read write permission on external hard drive.

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This application will open any kind of partition and recover deleted files from Seagate external hard disk drive. In other words, we can say this software retrieves the complete data stored in those drives, so do not run the risk of data loss of any kind. Moreover, this is the best solution to get data from GPT protective partition.

Read More: How to Recover Virus Infected Files from Hard Drive?

Detailed Process to Recover Files from GPT Protective Partition

  • Download hard drive recovery software and install it on your Windows system.

How to Get Data from GPT Protective Partition

  • This software supports multiple languages and you can change the language by clicking on the corresponding menu option. Once the language is selected, the user interface will change to the desired language. Selecting a language changes the user interface.

recover Data from GPT Protective Partition

  • Select the partition where data was deleted and view its contents in the various panels on the right.
  • Select the Scan Option to recover all deleted data files from your hard drive.

gpt protective partition without losing data

  • The software will start scanning and wait until it is 100% complete.

access gpt protective partition without losing data

  • When you browse a folder, this software will display all the folders in your browser window.

recover files from gpt protective partition

  • Select a folder in the left window of the program and view the complete files in the right window.

fix gpt protective partition

  • select the Save button to save the hard disk-recovered files.

gpt protective partition recover data

The Sum UP

In conclusion, from the above discussion, we have learned that it is possible to recover data from GPT protective partition. Users can take advantage of either manual or alternative solutions. However, whoever wants an accurate and hassle-free GPT protected partition data recovery process should use the application mentioned here. This tool will run smoothly and get data from GPT protective partition in external hard disk. After reading this complete article, I am sure it will be quite easy for you to recover files from GPT protective partition.