Fix and Recover Corrupted Hard Drive: 2024 Complete Guide!

No doubt that the hard drive of your computer system is one of its delicate components. It’s within the hard drive that you have all of your data stored, be it photos, videos, documents, or any related files. Your computer hard drive remains perfect until otherwise, whether infected by malware or virus, which corrupts it. When such happens, you cannot access any of your data files again, and that’s heartbreaking.

If you are in a similar situation, there’s a way out. This article is structured to explain how to fix and recover data from corrupted hard drive. So continue reading to learn about this.

Part 1: Common Reasons Why Hard Drive Gets Corrupted

As we all know, the hard drive of any computer system is well designed and free from any physical damage, corruption, or virus/malware attack. However, there are scenarios where we have the opposite. In such cases, here are some possible reasons for corrupted hard drive:

• Virus Attack

Viruses, and malware are one of the greatest enemies of any computer system, whether Mac or Windows. When your computer is attacked by a virus, the entire system, including the hard drive starts misbehaving. You can start experiencing glitches, lags, frozen screens, and more, which are often frustrating. Fixing this is pretty simple, but you must have a professional hard drive recovery tool at hand.

• Power Failure

Another interesting reason why your hard drive gets corrupted is power failure. When you connect your computer system to an unstable power source, the BIOS can’t recognize or detect the corresponding hard drive. When such happens, the hard drive fails to operate as there's no adequate power to spin up the motor in it.

• Physical Damage

Another common reason why your computer hard drive gets corrupted is physical damage. By physical damage we mean issues like dead or torn head, stuck motor, and more. Even environmental damage (another type of physical damage) can corrupt your hard drive, so it doesn’t function well. When your hard drive is corrupted by physical damage, some of the signs you notice include clicking sounds, plus other disgusting noise . Though you can still recover the data on the drive, you must fix it first before proceeding. The best thing to do is take it to a technician for repair.

• Firmware Failure

Are you using or running your computer system on an obsolete operating system? If so, there’s a tendency that the hard drive won’t work, which leads to the assumption that the hard drive is corrupted. In such a situation, you need to  install the latest update to fix the current firmware package on your computer, so it can run smoothly.

Part 2. Best Corrupted Hard Drive Recovery to Recover Data in a Few Clicks

Eassiy Data Recovery software is one of the most reputable tools available online that supports the smooth recovery of data from a hard drive. It retrieves data from your hard drive without complicating the OS. This software isn't limited to hard drive recovery, as it allows you to retrieve data from SD Card, HDD, SSD, camera, and others. It's capable of retrieving data like photos, videos, documents, emails, etc.

Key Features:

• 1-click to recover data from a corrupted hard drive without quality loss.
• Retrieves 1000+ types of data like photos, audio, emails, etc.
• Connects with more than 2000+ storage media, such as USB Drive, cameras, hard drives, and more.
• Offers both quick and deep scanning before recovering data from your computer system, hard drive, SSD, or any related storage media.

How to Recover Corrupted Hard Drive with Eassiy Data Recovery Software?

Step 1: Run the Eassiy Data Recovery tool, and select the desired data that you want to recover by checking the right boxes.

Once done, connect the corrupted hard drive to your computer, and click on the name to proceed with data recovery.

Step 2: Now tap the blue Scan button at the lower right corner of your screen, and wait for Eassiy software to analyse the hard drive.

Step 3: After the scanning is over, Eassiy with list out the recoverable data on your corrupted hard drive. Kindly preview the file, and choose the ones to recover. However, if you don't like the output of the scanned data, select Deep scan and wait for Eassiy to perform a in-depth scanning operation to recover the corrupted hard drive.

Step 4: Now preview the recovered files and click on Recover. Eassiy will commence data recovery on the hard drive. Wait till that is finished then eject the hard drive from your computer system.

Part 3. How to Fix to Corrupted External Hard Disk

Fixing a corrupted external hard disk is easy, but you need the right guide at hand. Find below some of the recommended hacks shared by experts to repair a corrupted external hard disk:

1. Connect to Motherboard USB Port

Sometimes your computer hard drive might seem corrupted, whereas it isn’t. There might be some issues with the USB port you connect it to. A simple way to fix this is to connect the drive directly to the USB port on your computer motherboard. You can always find this port at the back I/O panel of your computer system. Once found, kindly connect the drive to the port using the appropriate USB cable. Do not force the connection, so you don’t damage the port.

2. Try Another Device

Another simple solution to fixing a corrupted hard drive is to try to connect it to another device. This solution clears the assumption that your computer USB port is faulty and helps you verify whether or not the hard drive truly working. Should the hard drive connect with another computer system, then the fault is from your device. We advise that you take that computer to an engineer for repair. However, if there's no progress on connecting with another computer, then the hard drive is faulty, and you need to troubleshoot it to fix it. Kindly proceed to the other troubleshooting methods below.

3. Change the Drive Letter

By changing or assigning another drive letter to your computer, you can also repair the hard drive if corrupted. Find below the quick guide to follow if you want to repair your corrupted hard drive via this solution:

• Head to the bottom left corner of your screen, click on the Quick Start button and enter Disk Management in the search bar.

• Click on the corresponding button, and right-click on the corrupted hard drive. Some options will come up, kindly choose Change Drive Letter and Drive to proceed.

• On the next screen, hit the Change button. If you can't find a Drive Letter, simply click Add to continue.

• Now choose a Drive Letter from the flyout menu, and hit OK > OK to complete this step.

4. Update Drivers

Drivers play a crucial role in the functioning of a computer system. It's responsible for sending signals from your computer OS to the hard drive and vice versa. If your Drivers is outdated, there's no way your computer OS can connect or read the hard drive successfully. We advise that you update or reinstall Drivers.

Here's how you can do that:

• Head to where you have the Quick Start icon, and enter Device Manager in the empty space.

• Click on the icon that corresponds with your search function to access the page below:

• Next, expand the Disk drives by clicking on the drop-down menu. You will find some drives underneath. Locate the faulty hard drive, and right-click on it.
• Select Properties from the options, and the response page down here will appear:

• Navigate to the Driver tab, and hit the Update Driver icon to proceed. A prompt similar to what we have down here will come up:

• Hit the Search automatically for drivers or better yet use the second option if you have the updated drivers on your system.

• However, if you do not have any Drivers update to install, kindly click on Uninstall Device.

• Tap on Uninstall, then reboot your device. The Drivers will reinstall itself automatically.

5. Fix the Hard Drive Using CHKDSK

With CHKDSK (Check Disk), you can quickly scan your computer hard drive, and fix any issue causing it to malfunction. This solution is simple to implement. All you need is to enter the parameter corresponding to the issue you want to fix, and CHKSDK will fix it immediately.

Here's how to use CHKSDK to repair your hard drive:

• Enter Windows PowerShell (Admin) in the search field at the lower left corner of your computer, and click the corresponding icon.

• Tap on Yes should a prompt requesting that you allow access to UAC come up.
• Next, type the string chdsdk E: /r, where E: is the name of your faulty or corrupted hard drive.

• Once done with the above, hit the Enter key on your keyboard to complete the solution.

Note: This solution can take several minutes, hours, or days to finish, depending on the size of your hard drive.

6. Repair Hard Drive with SFC & DISM

Here is another cool solution to resolve the corrupted hard drive issue on your computer system. This solution uses two functions to fix your hard drive, namely: System File Check and DISM. The system file check function runs a diagnostic test on your hard drive to detect any file corruption, then replaces it. DISM also does the same thing, plus verifies the integrity of the new file, so as to ensure it's free of corruption.

Follow the guide below to fix a corrupted hard drive using SFC & DISM:

• Type Windows PowerShell (Admin) in the search field located at the bottom left corner of your screen.

• Tap on the corresponding icon to continue. The page below will come up:

• Next, type the string sfc/scannow and press the Enter button.
• Now proceed to type dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restore health, and hit Enter.

7. Scrutinize for Viruses

If the solutions above don't work, kindly proceed to scan your computer for viruses using the right software. Should the software detect any virus, then use an antivirus to fix your hard drive.

Part 4: FAQs

Q1. Can I recover corrupted hard drive?

Yes, you can recover data from a corrupted hard drive. However, professional data recovery software is needed. A good one for the job is the Eassiy Data Recovery software.

Q2. What is the best way to recover corrupted hard drive?

Obviously, there are several ways to recover a corrupted hard drive, however, the best one involves the use of a data recovery tool. We did mention one in the article above. Kindly use it to retrieve lost, deleted, or corrupted data.

Q3. How can I prevent hard drive from getting corrupted?

Preventing a hard drive from getting corrupted is one of the easiest things to do. Find below what you need to do:

• Always ensure that you eject the hard drive from your computer before detaching it completely.
• Install antivirus to help you prevent virus attacks.

Conclusion

Now you know how to fix and recover a corrupted hard drive. All solutions are simple to employ, free, and reliable. Select the one that suits you. However, we recommend Eassiy Data Recovery to help you retrieve data from a corrupted hard drive.