How to Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive Without Formatting?

Summary: Do you want to know how to fix a corrupted hard drive without formatting? In this blog, we’ll explore some ways to repair external hard drives without formatting.

Hard disk corruption is one of the common situations that Windows users experience. The hard disk drive may get corrupted due to multiple reasons. Sometimes, when you try to access a corrupted hard drive, it shows an error message, “You need to format the disk in drive: before you can use it.” We’ve come across various users’ queries on how to repair corrupted hard disk without formatting or understanding the consequences, i.e., permanent data loss of hard drive corruption. 

We’ve shared below some effective methods to fix corrupted hard drive without formatting. Read on to know more!

What Causes Hard Drive Corruption?

There are several reasons that can cause hard drive corruption, such as:

Now that you’re aware of the causes, let’s proceed with fixing the corrupted hard drive.

Best Methods to Repair External Hard Drive without Formatting?

You can try the below-given DIY (do-it-yourself) methods for repairing and recovering hard drive.

Quick Reach:

  1. Run Antivirus Scan on your Hard Disk
  2. Run Command Prompt to Check for File System Errors and Bad Sectors
  3. Run SFC Scan
  4. Check Hard Disk in Disk Management

Method 1: Run Antivirus Scan on your Hard Disk

Malware or viruses can lead to hard drive corruption. You can run a malware scan on your hard disk to get rid of the issue. Windows comes with a built-in antivirus program – Windows Defender Antivirus. To run a scan, follow these steps:

Method 2: Run Command Prompt (CMD) to Check for Bad Sectors and File System Errors

External hard drive repair may be required if your system gets affected by file system errors or bad sectors. You can fix a corrupted hard drive by running the CHKDSK command in Command Prompt.

Caution: The CHKDSK command known for scanning and repairing drive, allow to use /f and /r attributes to fix the corruption in the hard disk. However, the command scans and marks the bad sectors on the disk, due to which Windows doesn’t read or store data from these sectors, eventually causing data loss. Therefore, we’d suggest taking backup of hard disk data using a professional data recovery software before performing this method.

Follow the given steps:

Method 3: Run SFC Scan

SFC (System File Checker) utility in Windows scans and fixes missing or damaged Windows system files. It also checks the integrity of the protected system files and replaces the corrupt ones with the correct versions.

Note: System File Checker enables you to modify the files, which may get damaged if the utility is not used correctly. Hence, it’s better to recover data from the hard drive before proceeding with the process.

Follow the given steps to run SFC scan:

Method 4: Check Hard Disk in Disk Management

Sometimes, the hard disk doesn’t show up in the File Explorer. In this scenario, you need to check if the disk is visible in Disk Management. Follow the given steps:

If still, you’re not able to access your hard drive, you need to format the drive with the NTFS file system, which will cause permanent data loss. You can choose ‘Do not format this volume.’ This action would convert the corrupted hard drive into a RAW drive. But, don’t worry. You can restore the data from  RAW hard drive using a powerful data recovery software.

Recover Data from Corrupted Hard Drive

You can easily recover data from corrupted hard drive using a reliable data recovery software, such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional. The software supports recovery from formatted, corrupted, or RAW hard drives. The software quickly scans the drive and locates the missing or lost files. To recover data from RAW hard drive, follow the given steps:

Conclusion:

Hard drive corruption may occur due to multiple reasons. Using the above-discussed methods, you can repair corrupted hard disks. These methods include running an antivirus scan, CHKDSK, and SFC scan and assigning a drive letter to the drive. However, data loss is associated with some of these methods, if they’re not performed with caution. Therefore, it’s suggested to recover your data first and then follow the discussed troubleshooting methods to repair corrupted hard drive without formatting.

FAQs:

Read this guide to learn more about disk structure and how to repair corrupted hard disk without formatting.

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