If you are using Windows 11 and are trying to make some changes to drives and partitions on your system but can't because there are no volumes (drives) showing up in Disk Management. This article will show you a few different things you can do to solve the problem. There are a fair few different components to this fix, so make sure you don't skip ahead.
Takeaways:
- What's causing drives and partitions (volumes) not to show up in Disk Management on Windows 11?
- What's the best way to get drives and partitions to show up in Disk Management on Windows 11 if it's empty?
Table of Contents
How to Fix the There Are No Volumes DiskPart Error in Windows 11
If you aren't dealing with new drives and partitions, data recovery should be your first priority if the affected disk contains important files. Don't format, initialise, or create new partitions until you have recovered any data you need. Once you know the data is safe, you can start making some changes.
There are plenty of different tools you can use for this, so do a bit of research and pick one that you think best suits your needs. Then go ahead and make a backup.
Check the Disk Status in Disk Management
Windows Disk Management will show you more information about the condition and partition structure of the disk.
- To open it, right-click the Start button and select Disk Management.
- Find the affected disk and check its status.
- If the disk is listed as Unknown or Not Initialised, Windows may require you to initialise it before you can create a partition.
IMPORTANT: Do not initialise the disk if it contains important data that has not yet been recovered, as doing so can complicate data recovery.
- If the disk is already initialised and shows Unallocated space, you can continue creating a new volume.
Create a New Simple Volume
If the affected disk shows unallocated space and you don't need any data that might be on the drive, you can create a new volume.
- Open Disk Management.
- Right-click the Unallocated space.
- Select New Simple Volume.
- When the New Simple Volume Wizard opens, click Next.
- Specify the volume size. If you want to use the entire space for one partition, keep the default size.
- Assign a drive letter and click Next.
- Select Format this volume with the following settings.
- Choose the required file system, such as NTFS.
- Select Perform a quick format, then click Next.
- Click Finish.
After the process completes, the new volume should appear in File Explorer with the assigned drive letter.
IMPORTANT: Formatting removes existing data from that volume. Do not use this method if you still need to recover files from the affected partition.
Run a CHKDSK Scan
If the disk or its volume disappears after restarting Windows, the drive might have file system errors or other disk problems.
- First, make sure the affected volume has a drive letter.
- Then open Command Prompt as an administrator and run the following command:
chkdsk X: /f
- Replace X with the drive letter assigned to your volume.
CHKDSK checks the file system for errors and tries to fix the problems it finds. Depending on the size and condition of the drive, the scan will probably take a while.
If CHKDSK keeps showing errors, or the disk keeps disappearing after restarting Windows, the disk is probably about to die.
Check the Health of Your Disk
If the drive is starting to fail, it can cause partitions to disappear, become inaccessible, or repeatedly lose their drive letters. You can use a reputable disk health monitoring utility to check information such as the drive's SMART status and reported errors. If the software shows that the disk is failing, or its health is significantly degraded, make a backup as quickly as you can.
