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By default, Disk Drill’s Deep Scan only searches your drive’s free space for traces of lost data. But if your disk isn’t readable in the usual way—due to partial file system corruption, a missing partition, or uncertainty about which partition held your files—you can—and should—scan the entire disk to maximize recovery results.
To do this, open Disk Drill and go to “Preferences…“, then uncheck “Deep-scan free space only” option. Disk Drill will treat the whole drive as a raw volume, analyzing every sector (both occupied and unoccupied) as one continuous binary chunk. It will first look for lost partitions, then perform a full-disk Deep Scan.
A full-disk Deep Scan generally means:
- Extended scan duration — because Disk Drill’s Deep Scan analyzes every sector instead of only free space, the overall scan takes longer.
- More files to review — you’ll see both deleted and existing files in the results.
- Broader recovery scope — you can recover files from non-empty areas and detect files in lost or corrupted partitions.
- Higher chance of finding your data — exhaustive scanning ensures no sector is skipped.
💡 Tip: If you know exactly which partition contained your lost data, start by Deep Scanning that partition only. It’s much faster, and often just as effective. However, when you’re unsure or need the best possible recovery, scanning the entire drive gives you the most thorough results.
.updated: June 12, 2025 author: