How to Repair and Recover Corrupted External Hard Drive?

Elva

• Filed to: Hard Drive Recovery • Proven solutions

Hard disk might be corrupted due to different reasons and the external hard drive spoil more easily. Here we explore the different reasons for which hard drives can become corrupt and show you how to repair a corrupted external hard drive and recover data from a corrupted external hard drive easily.

Part 1: Reasons May Cause External Hard Drive Corruption.

Possible reasons might cause external hard drive corruption:

Then, how to recover data from a corrupted external hard drive Mac or Windows?

Part 2: How to Recover Data from Corrupted External or Internal Hard Drive?

In order to recover corrupted external hard drive, the main challenge is to be able to read the device in order to extract data and without formatting the drive. In most instances, when an external hard drive becomes corrupt, on connecting it to your PC or desktop, you would be prompted to format the same. However, if that is done, then all data would be lost.

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Steps on Recovering Corrupted External Hard Drive Data on Mac or Windows Computer

Step 1 Once the program is launched, connect the corrupted external hard drive to computer and make it be recognized by your Mac or Windows computer.

Step 2 Now, you can see a list of hard disks in the program. Just select your external hard disk and click "Start" button to conduct a scanning on the device.

Step 3 The scanning will take some time and results will be showcased to you. If you do not find the desired results you can opt for "All-Around Recovery" as well.

Step 4 Preview all scanning results or search your target files by typing its file name in the searching bar. After that, you can tick the files you wish to restore and hit "Recover" button to save them on your computer.

Part 3: How to Repair Corrupted External Hard Disk?

Solution 1. Repair Corrupted External Hard Disk Via Command Prompt

You might want to know how to recover data from corrupted external hard disk and when you are trying to do so without a data recovery tool, you need to run certain features or functions on your Windows or Mac PC. The standard way to try and repair corrupted external or internal hard drive is by the chkdsk command prompt.

Step 1Click on the "Start" button and select "Run" from the list of options shown on the menu window.

Step 2Type in "cmd" and then click on OK.

Step 3Input "chkdsk *:/f /r /x" (where * points to the specific drive you want to repair) and hit "Enter".

Step 4The command will scan the disk and fix the detected issue immediately.

Once the hard disk repair process is completed, type "Exit" to close CMD.

Solution 2. Repair Corrupted External Hard Disk by Formatting

Just as the name indicates, this solution requires you to format the hard disk again. Doing so removes the corrupt or malware-affected data that might have corrupted the external drive.

Step 1Go to File Explorer, right-click your external drive, and select "Quick Format".

Step 2Change the file system and hit Format to proceed.

Wait until the process is finished.

Solution 3. Repair Corrupted External Hard Disk by Fixing File System

Many a time, corrupt or missing system files are the main culprits of external hard drive corruption. Usually, such errors happen during incomplete file saving. Thus, it’s always a better idea to repair your system files to fix the external drive.

Step 1Search CMD, right click the Command Prompt icon, and choose "Run as administrator".

Step 2On CMD, run the command: "chkdsk h:/f". Here, h is your external hard drive.

Step 3Run another command: "sfc /scannow", the system will automatically identify and fix the corrupt file system, if need be.

Solution 4. Repair Corrupted External Hard Disk with Windows Tools

Windows has a built-in repairing tool that can fix the damage external drive in most cases. The best thing is it won’t cause any data loss, so you can access the data after a successful repair.

Step 1Go to "This PC", right-click your external hard drive and hit "Properties".

Step 2Go to the Tools tab and hit "Check Now" under the Error Checking option.

Step 3A dialog box will pop up. Here, check the both options, "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of back sectors," Hit Start to begin the repairing process.

Step 4Wait patiently until the system fully repairs your drive. Then, you can open and access the data stored on it.