How to Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive Without Losing Any Data
- Repair Corrupted Drive via Windows Tools... Full steps
- Update External Hard Drive Driver... Full steps
- Run CMD to Repair External Hard Drive... Full steps
- Scan Your Computer for Viruses.
- Use CHKDSK to Fix File System Errors.
- Replace Corrupted Files with SFC.
- Recover Your Files with Data Recovery Software.
How to fix your computer harddrive in under 5 min.?
Tidy up computer space with Disk Cleanup
- Choose Start→My Computer or Start→My Computer. ...
- Right-click the drive you want to check and choose Properties from the shortcut menu. ...
- Click the General tab, if it isn’t already open. ...
- 4. ...
- Clear the check boxes next to any files that you want to keep; check the check boxes next to any additional files that you want to clear off the disk. ...
- Click OK. ...
How to erase an external hard drive in Windows 10?
How to Erase an External Hard Drive in Windows 10?
- Method 1: Erase an external hard drive using DiskGenius Free Edition. Use DiskGenius Free Edition to completely clean the sector data for your external hard drive. ...
- Method 2: Erase an external hard drive via physically destroying it. ...
- FAQs on wiping an external hard drive. What's the meaning of erasing external hard drive? ...
- Sum Up. ...
How to fix a physically broken hard drive?
- Remove the drive and repeat the first step. ...
- If needed, reheat the device and, while holding the drive in one hand, sharply spin and hit the drive on a hard surface. ...
- Repeat the first step. ...
- If you can hear a rhythmic "click" in time with the movement, the chances are that the drive heads are free on their mounts and are not jammed. ...
How do you fix an external hard drive?
Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive with Manual Repair
- Fix HDD, SSD, external hard drive, USB flash drive errors, and restore data from all RAID levels
- Recover lost partition that cannot be restored by data recovery software
- Fix disks that cannot be read or accessed because of bad sectors
- Fix disks that become GPT protected partitions
Can a corrupted external hard drive be fixed?
Run CMD to Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive Without Formatting. The Diskpart command will erase all data on your corrupted device. Therefore, recover data from the corrupted external hard drive first and then you can run CMD to repair the drive.
How can I recover my corrupted external hard drive?
To recover deleted files from an external hard drive:Connect an external hard disk to your PC.Launch Disk Drill for Windows or Mac.Select your external drive from the list.Click Search for lost data.Preview files that Disk Drill can retrieve.Select the files for recovery and click Recover all button.
How can I recover files from an external hard drive without formatting?
How to Recover Files From an External Hard Drive Without FormattingDownload and install Disk Drill. ... Ensure your drive is plugged into the computer. ... When the scan has finished, click Review found items.Scan the recoverable data for any items you want to recover. ... Specify where you want to recover the files.More items...•
How do I fix a corrupted external hard drive with formatting?
Right-click on This PC (My Computer) and select Management -> Disk Management. Select an external hard disk, right-click on it and select the format and preferred file system (FAT, exFAT, FAT32, NTFS). This begins formatting the external hard drive into a new or updated file system.
Does formatting a corrupted drive fix it?
Using an external hard drive is a good way to back up your computer's information. But if the external hard drive has been corrupted, it can't be used with your computer. One way to try to fix this problem is to reformat the drive and wipe it of any information. This will reset it to its initial factory settings.
Can you recover data from external hard drive?
Yes, it is possible to recover files that have been lost due to deletion or the formatting of an external hard drive. This can be accomplished because of the way modern operating systems handle data deletion on hard drives.
What causes external hard drive corruption?
Common causes of hard drive data corruption include: Read/Write Head Tracking IssuesSudden Power Failures During File Processes. Software Failures. Virus Damage. Malfunctioning Antivirus Software.
What causes external hard drive corruption?
Common causes of hard drive data corruption include: Read/Write Head Tracking IssuesSudden Power Failures During File Processes. Software Failures. Virus Damage. Malfunctioning Antivirus Software.
What happens if your hard drive is corrupted?
Corruption occurs when data within a file or storage device is altered from its original state, causing it to behave differently or become completely inaccessible. Common symptoms of hard drive corruption include: The drive is completely inaccessible. Sluggish performance.
Can you restore an external hard drive?
Yes, it is possible to recover files that have been lost due to deletion or the formatting of an external hard drive. This can be accomplished because of the way modern operating systems handle data deletion on hard drives.
How to recover data from corrupted external hard drive?
The first thing you need to do is to recover the data from the corrupted hard disk. You can use DiskGenius to recover the lost data. DiskGenius is software that specializes in recovering all kinds of data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the Recycle Bin, or format the disk/storage, you can find the lost data with this tool.
What happens when a hard drive cannot be formatted?
When the hard drive cannot be formatted, there may be bad sectors in the hard drive. The free version of DiskGenius provides the ability to check and fix bad sectors.
What is the best tool to recover data from a RAW drive?
DiskGenius - The best tool to recover data from RAW drive, undelete files and check/reapir bad sectors for hard disks and USB drives.
How to recover data from a corrupt external hard drive?
To recover data from corrupt external drives, download and install the application on your Windows or Mac systems. Connect the external hard drive to your computer and launch SFWare External Hard Drive Recovery tool.
How to Repair Corrupt External Drives?
You can try fixing corruption on external hard disk using 2 methods: CHKDSK in Command Prompt and Formatting the drive.
What happens when external drives get corrupted?
When external drives get corrupted, drive becomes inaccessible and your data is jeopardized. To access your important files and folders existing on the corrupt external drives, you need to fix the it. With the help of the troubleshooting steps offered in the article, you can repair the external drive and recover data without causing any damage to it.
How to format an external hard drive?
Find the external drive and right-click on the drive. Select Format from the option and click ok . The prompted, message appears on the screen saying, Formatting the drive will erase all the data on the disk, click OK. Now, your drive is completely formatted.
Why is my external hard drive corrupted?
The major reason behind the external drive corruption could be errors in the file system. This can be caused by bad sectors, sudden system shutdown (crash), software or hardware issues and sometimes physical damage. Any damage caused to file system makes hard drive RAW and data becomes inaccessible.
What to do if your system is corrupt?
If you the corruption is due to missing or damaged System Files, all you need to do is restore corrupt system files. To fix corrupt system files, you can make use of CHKDSK.
What is error 4?
Error4: The hard drive becomes RAW and prompts “ Disk needs to be formatted ” error.
How to repair a corrupted external hard disk without formatting in Windows?
To repair a corrupted external hard disk without formatting, you can try the three fixes offered below:
Why is my external hard drive corrupted?
External hard drives can become corrupted or not accessible due to various reasons, such as file system error, bad sectors, virus attack, sudden ejection or other improper operations. Reformatting the hard drive can fix any non-physical errors on the drive. Nevertheless, all contents will be erased in the formatting process. Can we fix a corrupted external hard drive without formatting? Surely we can!
How to backup image to external drive?
2. Click Backup on the left pane and select Disk Backup. 3. Click Add Disk to select the external drive as the source disk to be backed up. 4. Click the folder shaped button in the second column to select the destination path to save the image backup . 5.
How to backup external hard drive?
Learn how to backup an external hard drive via AOMEI Backupper in detail below: 1. Connect the external drive to your computer and make sure it is detected. Download, install and run AOMEI Backupper.
Why is my external drive inaccessible?
Sometimes a corrupted USB port can cause an external drive becomes inaccessible. You can easily fix it by connecting the external drive to another USB port or a new PC.
What happens when you make a backup of an external hard drive?
If you make a backup for your external hard drive, you can restore it to normal state when it gets corrupted . The recovery process will bring you back not only a working drive but also all the data stored on it when the backup is made.
How to change the drive letter on a Windows 10 laptop?
Follow the steps below: 1. Hit Windows Key + X on your keyboard, and select Disk Management from the menu. 2. Right click the external drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. 3. In the pop-up window, click Change. 4. In the next window, choose a drive letter from the drop-down menu and click OK.
How to repair a corrupted external hard drive?
If you still cannot repair your corrupted external hard drive, let's think from another angle about recovering data from the corrupted disk using Tenorshare 4DDiG. It is a professional and easy to use tool and able to recover all kinds of data from not only corrupted external hard drive, but also raw/formatted/corrupted partition from laptop/PC. Here're how to do use it: 1 Install and launch the Tenorshare 4DDiG software. 2 On the main interface, you will see all the data types that you can recover. In this case, choose "All Data". 3 Choose your corrupted external hard drive in the "Connected Drives" section. 4 Click on the "Scan" button and Tenorshare 4DDiG will find back all the data on your corrupted external hard drive. 5 After the scan, preview and select your wanted files, click on the "Recover" to proceed. 6 Click "Browse" to define a location. Then Click the "Start Saving" button to save the recovered data.
How to fix a corrupted hard drive?
Here are the few steps you can do to format your external hard drive: Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to the computer. Step 2: Right-click on the device and select the "Format" option from the context menu.
How to repair a hard drive?
Here are the stepwise guide: Step 1: Head to the Windows search bar and type "CMD" to open it. Right-click on CMD and select the "Run as administrator" option from the context menu. Step 2. Now in the cmd, input chkdsk *:/h/r (where * points to the specific drive you want to repair) and hit "Enter".
How to uninstall a device driver?
Step 3: You will be able to see all disks on your PC listed here. Right-click on the hard disk with the errors and click on the "Uninstall device" to uninstall the device drivers. Step 4: After doing so, restart your computer and connect the hard drive again.
Why do we need a hard drive?
The hard drives are installed in all computers to store files for the operating system, user data, and software programs. To maintain a healthy hard drive, you just need to know some basic skills to prolong hard drive life. Therefore, you can do these three tasks daily to take good care of your drive.
How to fix external hard drive not readable?
If your external hard drive is not readable on your PC, try to connect it with another computer to check if the drive is working fine. If it is working on the other PC, then you need to repair the external hard drive by reinstalling the device drivers on your PC. To do so, follow the detailed steps below:
What is a backup of your hard drive?
Taking backups of your data is the most authenticated way of attempting all chances of hard drive recovery without losing the data. You can easily take the backup of your hard drive data, a certain partition of it, or the whole operating system. There are windows backup tools available known as "Backup and Restore" in Windows 7/8.1/10. The backup tool in Windows 8 is renamed to "File History".
How to uncorrupt an external hard drive without losing data?
To recover data from a damaged, RAW, or crashed hard drive, you need to use external hard drive recovery software.
Why do we need external hard drives?
Almost everyone has an external hard drive for storing important files and personal data. To use external hard drives properly, you should have some proprietary skills necessary to keep your storage device healthy and thus extend its life. Therefore, we think you should adapt to the following three habits in your life.
What is the best software to recover corrupted files?
DiskGenius is the most recommended software for recovering corrupted drives. It can efficiently retrieve files from corrupted, inaccessible and RAW drives, and it supports data recovery from FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, EXT4, EXT3 and EXT2 drives on Windows 11/10/8/7, Windows PE and Windows Server.
How to reduce computer slowdown?
Use simple disk cleanup to improve hard disk performance.
What is diskgenius software?
DiskGenius - Professional data recovery software to safely recover lost files from external hard drive or SD card that is formatted, RAW, unreadable, or damaged.
Can a computer recognize an external hard drive?
The computer cannot recognize the external hard drive, or the file system becomes RAW.
How to restore data inside a corrupted hard drive?
In the Disk Management utility, try changing the drive letter of the storage media, which could restore data inside the corrupted hard drive.
Why is my portable hard drive prone to damage?
As mentioned earlier, your portable hard drive is prone to damage daily since it is used with such doggedness that one can forget how delicate the gadget is . Because of this scenario, many problems may occur with the drive, and the standard most error that typically happens is the "External Drive or its directory becoming corrupt or unreadable.".
Why is my external drive not accessible?
Whenever you get the error notification upon opening the external drive: "H: is not accessible." It means that the disk's file or directory is either corrupted or unreadable, and you need to fix that. There might be numerous factors behind the external drive becoming unreadable. Still, the leading cause you should consider is that there might be some file system damage to your portable storage device.
Why reformat a hard drive?
Reformat the Disk to remedy the unreadable hard drive factor.
What is recoveryit?
Recoverit offers data recovery from a lost partition, unreadable or corrupt drives, and every other kind of inaccessible data.
What happens if you accidentally drop a USB drive?
Physical damages to the external hard drive should also be considered because the external drive is becoming unreadable. If you have accidentally dropped the device, it may cause some internal damage ...
Why is my HDD not readable?
Corrupted Master File Table is the other culprit behind the HDD becoming unreadable, and you cannot open the contents of the disk. A partition table is mainly damaged due to improper handling of the hardware, such as removing the external hard drive from the PC without using the "Safely Remove Hardware" option.
How to repair a corrupted hard drive?
It can also selectively clean up different partitions to repair the corrupted internal hard drive. 1. Double-click "My Computer/This PC" and then click "Manage". 2. Click "Disk Management" in the list on the left. 3. Right-click on the local hard drive you want to format and select "Format".
Why is my hard drive corrupted?
The hard drive may be attacked by the virus or physical damage due to power failure or unsafe ejection and so on. That makes it corrupts easily, no matter an internal hard disk or external hard drive. Formatting will erase your important data. You may have stored a lot of files there.
What does it mean when you get a warning when you open a hard drive?
1. When you access the hard drive in "My Computer", receive a warning: "You need to format the disk in the drive before you can use it .". 2. A message of "H: is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable". prompts up when you intend to open your hard drive. 3.
What to do if you can't read your hard drive?
If you fail to read hard drive, for an external hard drive, try to plug hard drive into another USB port and open your hard drive again. As for the power check of the internal hard disk, there may be challenges. But if the PC can detect the internal drive, repairing the damaged internal hard drive is independent of the power supply.
How to open a hard drive on another PC?
To do so, you can：. Step 1. Navigate to My PC, right click on it to find Manage and then click on Device Manager. Step 2.
Is FoneCope AnyRecover good?
FoneCope AnyRecover is an excellent recovery tool, targeting at recovering all kinds of data, even recover data from crashed hard disk .
Is the Control Panel an effective path for repairing corrupted external drives and internal hard disk?
Moreover, the Control Panel is an effective path for repairing corrupted external drives and internal hard disk.
What happens if your external hard drive is corrupted?
If the drivers used by your external hard drive are corrupted or outdated, this can result in a breakdown in communication between the drive and your computer.
What to do if your external hard drive isn't accessible?
If your drive isn’t accessible and you don’t have a backup to restore from , you can recover data from an external hard drive using recovery software. Through the use of data recovery software you can restore files that were previously lost, as well as files that are inaccessible by your operating system.
How to change the drive letter on a hard drive?
Right-click the Start button and select Disk Management. Right-click on your external hard drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Select the drive letter and click Change. If you don’t have one, click Add instead. Change the drive letter to another one from the dropdown list. Then, click OK, then OK again.
How to update my external hard drive?
Right-click the Start button and select Device Manager. Expand the Disk drives drop down and right-click your external hard drive. Click Properties. Go to the Driver tab and click Update Driver. Click Search automatically for drivers. Windows will then scan the internet for updated drivers for your hard drive.
What is check disk utility?
Windows includes the Check Disk Utility by default. It’s used to scan for and fix issues relating to the file system such as bad sectors and directory errors.
How to find drivers for my hard drive?
Click Search automatically for drivers. Windows will then scan the internet for updated drivers for your hard drive. If no new drivers are found, click Close.
What happens when you plug in an external hard drive?
The moment you plug your external hard drive in, a window opens stating that it can’t be read, or that it’s inaccessible. You might even receive a window that suggests formatting it. Regardless, something has happened that’s now preventing you from accessing your files. In these situations, you have to be strategic in what you do.
The Scenario
How to Repair A Corrupted External Hard Disk Without Formatting in Windows?
- To repair a corrupted external hard disk without formatting, you can try the three fixes offered below:
Backup Your Hard Drive Before It Corrupts
- How to repair a corrupted hard disk without formatting? Backup, the most fundamental disaster recovery technology, is the answer. If you make a backup for your external hard drive, you can restore it to normal state when it gets corrupted. The recovery process will bring you back not only a working drive but also all the data stored on it when the backup is made. Here I’d like to recom…
Verdict
- Now you know how to fix a corrupted external hard drive without formatting in Windows. You can connect your external drive to a different USB port or PC, change drive letter of the drive, or run the CHKDSK utility. To protect your hard disk from possible errors, you can create backups for it with AOMEI Backupper. Besides the backup & recovery funct...