Most computer hard drives and other system storage drives are preconfigured with multiple partitions. In most new systems, there is a primary partition where the operating system and all your applications and documents are to be installed be default. There is usually an additional partition used for keeping a backup of the vendor's OEM software and configurations. This is often used for restoring your computer to factory defaults. While you can often get rid of this partition safely to increase the amount of available storage space on your device, doing so can be risky, especially if you ever want to roll back the device to factory settings later on.

Partitions are used for many other reasons too. Every hard disk or solid state drive has at least one partition and usually as many as three. For example, a default Windows installation typically creates three partitions during the setup process, all of which are needed for the operating system to function properly. These are hidden from the file manager, since they don't have drive letters assigned to them. However, they can be deleted or modified using the partition manager. Again, doing this can cause severe damage to your computer if you delete or change the wrong partition, and it may even make the machine unbootable.

Although it's not possible to delete your primary partition when you are actually using it, a malware infection or hardware failure might cause a problem with the file system. This could make your computer unbootable. In other cases, you might accidentally delete the partition when you're logged into another operating system. This is a common risk for those dual booting two or more operating systems at once. Another popular reason for using multiple partitions is to keep your files better organized. For example, you might have a partition for your operating system and applications and another for games and multimedia or backup.

When you delete or format a partition, it is often assumed that all files stored on it are gone for good. However, the only thing that changes is the master file table and file system, which tells the operating system where to find specific files and folders on the device. The actual files and their contents will remain intact until something overwrites them. This can take weeks or even months, but you have much higher chances of success if you act quickly, especially if the computer is in frequent use. Active@ Partition Recovery exploits this opportunity by giving you the chance to restore lost or damaged partitions and individual files. It also offers a unique last chance recovery method for severely damaged filesystems.

What's new in the latest version?

Active@ Partition Recovery 20 supports all major operating systems and digital recovery environments, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and DOS. The latest edition adds recovery for volumes formatted in Apple's new ApFS filesystem and improved recovery for ReFS filesystems. Sporting the latest recovery kernel, there are many minor improvements and support for new predefined file signatures like Ancestral Quest and documents created in LibreOffice and Microsoft Office (DOCX etc.). Recover your lost partitions and files today by visiting https://www.partition-recovery.com/index.html .