How to Recover Corrupted Files from External Hard Disk?

External hard drives are usually used for storing various files. Often, they are used for data backup and saving large-sized files. Now, many issues can make an external hard drive corrupt and damaged. This is equally disheartening for the users as an internal hard drive corruption. In this situation, it is often asked how you recover the external hard drive when it is corrupt. This blog will focus on this topic and tell readers how they can recover files from external hard drives.

Few Steps to Recover Corrupted Files from External Hard Disk

1. Download Windows data recovery software.
2. After the following steps, check the correct hard drive partition.
3. Preview corrupted Windows data files
4. Finally, save all files to your hard drive partitions.

#1: Scan With Anti-Virus to Fix Corruption Hard Disk Issue

There are many anti-virus applications available on the market. You can choose any trusted antivirus software and scan your hard drive with it to resolve the corruption. Before running the tool, make sure it does not delete any files in order to recover corrupted data from external hard drive. Some of the anti-viruses are:

Norton Anti-Virus

1. Avast Anti-Virus
2. AVG Anti-Virus
3. Avira Anti-Virus
4. Kaspersky Anti-Virus, etc.

Note: While scanning corrupted files or hard disks, Some of the anti-virus programs delete infected files. Make sure to check before using anti-virus.

#2: Format your Corrupted Hard Drive

If anti-virus didn’t work for you, then you have only one option left, i.e., format the disk. But formatting an HDD will erase complete data. If saved files are not important, then format the disk immediately.

Steps to Format Corrupted Hard Disk

• Open Disk Management, and press the Windows + R key to open the Run box.

• Type diskmgmt.msc and click on the Ok button. After that, the Disk Management window will appear. Select the external hard drive.

• After that, right-click on it and click on Format. After that, follow the instructions.

Steps to Format Hard Disk Corrupt Partition

1. Open File Explorer and select the corrupted partition.

2. Right-click on it and after that, click on the Format option

3. Now it will ask you to select the file system (exFAT, NTFS, etc.)

Direct Software to Recover Corrupted Files from External Hard Disk

There are different ways to fix this corruption and you can try any one of them. But the solution is not trusted and safe. Due to this, you may lose your important files. But this most trusted Hard Drive Data Recovery will empower you to save files.

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The program can also recover permanently deleted word documents from hard drive. You can view all recovered files and folders. Browse all files and use filters to keep only selected data after recovery.

Also Read: How to Recover Deleted CCTV Footage from DVR Hard Disk?

How to Fix Corrupted Files in External Hard Drive – Working Steps

Step 1: Connect the external hard drive to your system.

Step 2: Launch the software on your system. Click on the Scan button underneath the corrupted external drive letter.

Step 3: The software will scan it and show all the items for preview. It will easily recover files from corrupted hard drive and highlight them in red.

Step 4: Now, users can choose the files they wish to retrieve and select those before clicking on the Save button. Choose the location where you want to save these recovered shift deleted PST files from HDD. The application will retrieve all the chosen files.

• In case you want to try some manual methods beforehand, here are two common manual tricks to remove external hard drive corruption. These methods do not assure data recovery from the corrupt HDD.

#3: Run the CHKDSK Command to Fix a Corrupted Drive

You can also use a command prompt to fix the external hard drive that is not formatted or has corruption errors. Most searched solutions, but in actuality, this method will not solve the corruption issue.

1. Open the Command Prompt by typing CMD in the search box.

2. Type chkdsk Z: /f /r /x in the command window. Here, replace Z with the drive letter of your external hard disk.

Extra Info:

Symptoms of Hard Drive Corruption

Here are some of the common symptoms of corrupt or damaged external HDDs. Before knowing how to recover corrupted files from external hard disk,

1. PC fails to recognize the hard disk.
2. Files are disappearing from the drive.
3. Getting error message that ‘you have to format the drive before opening’.
4. Error message: ‘the drive is corrupt and inaccessible.
5. The size of the external hard disk becomes 0.
6. The HDD size is shown correctly but files are not found.
7. The file system of the external HDD became RAW.
8. The disk makes a ticking noise after connecting, but the sound was not there earlier

If one or more of these symptoms are occurring, then there is a possibility that the drive is corrupt and damaged. What you have to do then is stop using the hard drive immediately. You should also try to recover corrupted files from hard drive.

Conclusion

Various reasons can lead to external hard drive corruption. In the above discussion, we have answered to recover corrupted files from external hard disk whenever they are corrupted. If you suspect that your external HDD is corrupted or damaged, you can use the Data Recovery Tool to restore important files and save them in a different location. You can also try some manual methods given in the above section in this write-up.

Commonly Asked Question

Q: Is it safe to use Windows automation software?

SoftwarePro is completely safe to use and will not harm your computer or its data. The scanning process occurs in read-only mode to avoid accidentally damaging the storage media. To avoid file corruption, it is recommended to restore data to a different drive than the one lost.

Q: Is it possible to recover deleted files on Windows?

Yes. The way Windows handles file deletion allows you to recover accidentally deleted files in most cases, as long as they haven’t been overwritten by new data. This means that as soon as you suspect data loss, stop using the damaged drive until you can recover it.