It’s very common for a hard drive to get corrupted. Moreover, this unwelcomed guest appears all of a sudden without any prior information. However, it’s not erroneous if you say that you’re facing the data corruption issues from the beginning. Therefore, if you ever come across situations like corrupted digital picture/files, inability to access data, failure to open a file within an application, etc. it signifies that your data is at risk. Moreover, the instances of data loss aren’t limited to these, and are wider than what you consider. Whenever you come across an error message saying that your hard drive is corrupt appears; the only question that strikes is how you can recover data from corrupt hard drive. Well, there are manual methods you can choose from depending on your data loss situation to recover data from corrupt hard drive.
Why The Hard Drive Does Turns Corrupt?
There are several reasons due to which your hard disk may turn corrupt. Of these, we have listed the major ones below:
- Virus Intrusion: Viruses are malicious code, which whenever present on your hard disk may damage the file system, that in turn, makes it corrupt.
- Damaged Master Boot Record (MBR): If due to any reason, the boot sector of your internal hard disk gets damaged, it will corrupt your disk and fails to boot or load the operating system (OS).
- Bad Sectors: Another reason behind hard disk corruption can be presence of too many bad sectors. All these HDD sectors store data that, sometimes can’t be written or read from some sectors commonly called as bad sectors.
- Age and Usage: Sometimes, when you use a specific hard disk for long, it gets deteriorated and thus, gets corrupted.
- Unsafe Removal (if external): Another reason that result in corruption is the unsafe removal of external hard disks from the system.
How To Recover Data From Corrupted Hard Disk?
This section entails all the possible troubleshooting solutions by following which you can recover data from corrupted hard disk:
Method 1: Run SFC Scan
System File Checker (SFC) is a Windows command-line utility that helps you fix missing or damaged Windows system files that further leads to hard drive failure/corruption. When you scan, it monitors the system file integrity and replaces the damaged file with a cached copy. Proceed with the below-given steps to run the SFC scan for recovering data from corrupted hard drive:
- At first, you need to open the command prompt window by following the below-listed steps:
- Turn On your Windows system by pressing the power button.
- Whenever you see the manufacturer’s logo, make sure to turn off your system by pressing the power button again.
- You need to repeat the turn on and off process thrice.
- Further, turn it on for the fourth time and let it load completely. It will open a “Choose an option” screen.
- From there, proceed with these steps:
Click Troubleshoot >Advanced options >Command Prompt
This will open the Command Prompt window. Then, you have to run the SFC scan with the below-given steps:
Note: Before you run the SFC Scan, type in the command- DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press the Enter key. [Only applicable for Windows 10, 8.1, or 8.]
- Now, Type SFC /scannow and press the Enter key.
- However, if you’re using an external hard drive, then type “sfc /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=c:\ /OFFWINDIR=c:\windows” and replace the letter c: with your hard drive letter.
Method 2: Use Windows Error Checking Tool
If you have come across minor hard disk errors and are looking for a way to fix them, you can try the Windows built-in error-checking tool. The below-stated steps will help you use this utility:
- To begin, open Windows Explorer on the system on which you have connected the corrupted hard disk.
- Further, right-click the hard disk and select the properties option.
- Now, go to the tools tab and click on the check icon.
- At last, restart the system and check if you’re able to access your data.
Note: Following the same steps will help you fix issues on other partitions of the hard disk.
Method 3: Run CHKDSK Command
The Windows Operating System comes with the built-in CHKDSK scan feature that helps you fix hard disk file system corruption and other disk-related issues. Following the CHKDSK command, you can recover data from corrupted hard disk:
- At first, open the command prompt as an administrator on the system to which you have connected the corrupted hard disk.
- Further, in the command prompt window enter the following command, and press the Enter key: chkdsk /f /r x:
Here, x is the disk letter of a hard disk partition
/f fixes errors
/r identifies the bad sectors and tries to read information from them.
- By using respective disk letters, you can run the same command for other partitions as well. Once done, restart the system.
- Lastly, check if the above steps help, you access data on the hard disk.
Method 4: Avail Professional Data Recovery Service
Many times, due to either one reason or other you would still be stuck with corrupted hard drive even after following the above listed solutions. It signifies that your hard disk is severely corrupted. In such a situation, you must look for the assistance of a data recovery expert. Of the many available, Stellar is one such data recovery expert that can handle the data recovery tasks seamlessly and recover the lost data without any hassle. Their experts recover data from corrupted hard disks in a “controlled environment” in the class 100 cleanroom lab. They also guarantee data security and use proprietary data recovery tools to ensure the recovery of up to 100% of the data.
Closing Thoughts
This blog has helped you understand the various reasons that may corrupt your hard disks and thus, your crucial data. What you can do is use effective anti-virus software to prevent hard disk corruption. Besides, safely remove provided, HDD is external before ejecting. However, if you end up with corrupt hard drive, then you can try fixing it by using the manual methods mentioned in this blog. However, if this doesn’t help, there’s always an alternative of seeking the help of a hard disk recovery expert. For hassle free experience, you can opt for the service of Stellar data recovery to fix the issue and recover data from a corrupted hard disk.