How to recover files from a corrupted external hard drive

When scanning process displays files, you can expand paths in the left pane and view files in the right pane. Also, you can double click a file to preview complete file content on a pop-up window, as below. File preview can help you recognize wanted files and check if files are corrupted.

Hence, you can verify recovery quality fully and accurately before final recovery. After all needed files are copied to the specified location, you can open the destination folder to view recovered files. How to prevent external hard drive from turning to corrupted or RAW? Here are some tips you can pay attention to so as to keep your external hard drive away from corrupted drive and data loss issues:. There are many ways to repair a corrupted external hard drive and some methods may cause further damage to lost data or even permanently destroy files, thus it is recommended to backup or recover files from the disk before trying any repairing actions.

In this part, we discuss three easily methods and hope they works on your case. Connect the corrupted external hard drive to computer, then open This PC to locate the drive. Right-click on corrupted partition and click Properties from context menu. Then click Tools tab and click Check button. Then system will scan the drive and check if there are errors in file system.

If a window pops up saying you don't need to scan this drive, you can choose to check the drive anyway by clicking "Scan drive". If disk checking cannot repair the corrupted partition, you will have to consider formatting it. A quick formatting is able to get corrupted file system repaired.

Open This PC, right-click on the corrupted drive and choose " Format ". Choose file system type and click Start button. Click OK when you receive the warning all files on the partition will be lost.

There is possibility that Windows cannot complete formatting the corrupted external hard drive, which means the disk may have bad sectors. Here is how to check and repair bad sectors using DiskGenius Free edition.

Please note that bad sector repairing process will damage existing files, and you should backup files in advance. Click Start Verify button and the software begins to check bad sectors.

Bad sectors are marked as red blocks, and the software will report how many bad sectors are found after scanning completes. If bad sectors indeed exist on the disk, you can click Repair button to repair them. One should be noted that not all bad sectors can be repaired by software, such as physical bad sectors. As to the disk that contains unrepairable bad sectors, you will have to consider replacing it with a health disk. Theoretically speaking, disk formatting should be done with caution because it erases data and removes installed programs.

It's extremely useful, though. Disk formatting is the configuring process of data storage media for initial, so it can solve most common hard drive issues like " Disk is not formatted , do you want to format it now? Moreover, it can scan and repair bad sectors, and sometimes remove sophisticated viruses. Another applicable disk formatting tool is from a third-party company.

The tool is called EaseUS Partition Master Free and it does the same work as the Windows File Explorer, but it works at times when you cannot see the hard drive's drive letter. In that situation, you can download this piece of software to perform the formatting. How to repair a corrupted external hard drive without formatting it? If you don't want to format it, or if the drive becomes unallocated, it won't work with the formatting method.

Don't panic, though, as you can try the two methods outlined below. There are Windows tools available that are supposed to get a problematic hard drive back to normal. Each tool is worth a try. Or, you can use administrator privileges to remove bad sectors permanently with the chkdsk command.

The Command Prompt functions the same way as the Windows tool. So make sure that you recover data with file recovery software first. If you don't have any technical know-how and want to minimize data risks, using third-party software could be a better choice. The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you try an automatic command line alternative.

EaseUS CleanGenius is a user-friendly computer fixing tool that is both safe and lightweight. Use this one-click tool to fix the damaged file system easily. Run the software. Click "Optimization", and then choose "File Showing". Select the drive with a corrupted file system. Tick the "Check and fix file system error" option and click "Execute".

Step 4. Wait the tool performs the repairing task. Also, the following step-by-step guide can help you get the way of retrieving files from a damaged external hard drive. Recoverit Data Recovery can not only be used to recover files from external hard disk, but it also supports dead Mac hard drive recovery.

Here, take the Windows version. Free download and install Recoverit on your computer, launch it and follow these steps to recover data from damaged external hard drive:. Before you start the external hard drive recovery, please make sure that you have connected the external hard drive which is damaged to your system. Launch Recoverit Hard Drive Recovery and opt for a data recovery mode. To recover data from corrupted external hard disk, select the external hard disk where you wish to recover your data.

To commence the process, you can click on the "Start" button. Recoverit will have your damaged external hard drive quickly scanned. Wait for a while and your lost data will be displayed and recovered from the corrupted external hard disk. Additionally, you can choose to perform an "All-Around Recovery" on the external hard drive as well. You have to wait for a longer time than a Quick Scan. Of course, the results of the Deep Scan would also be better. Partition Manager.

Disk Utilities. Beyond your imagination DiskGenius can do more! Emily Updated on Aug. Summary How do I fix a corrupted and unreadable external hard drive? No matter in our life or work, external hard disk is very important, we will store all kinds of important data on it, such as work information, precious photos and so on.

But due to various reasons, external hard disk is also often and easily damaged, how should we avoid and solve this trouble? Below, we will show you how to repair a corrupted external hard drive without losing the data inside. Table of Contents Causes of corrupted external hard drive How to recover data from corrupted external hard drive? How do I fix a corrupted and unreadable external hard drive? How to recover data from corrupted external hard drive?

How to fix a corrupted external hard drive? Method 3: Check and repair bad sectors using DiskGenius Free edition When the hard drive cannot be formatted, there may be bad sectors in the hard drive. How to maintain external hard drive? Conclusion By using methods above, you can fix a corrupted and unreadable external hard drive without losing data. Was This Page Helpful? DiskGenius DiskGenius is a one-stop solution to recover lost data, manage partitions, and back up data in Windows.

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