[Complete Guide] How to Repair Corrupted Hard Drive on Windows 10/11
Hard drive corruption can make your files vanish, slow down your system, or even prevent Windows from booting at all. Nevertheless, your disk is not always really corrupted. Minor problems can make it appear that way at times. However, whether can you repair a corrupted hard drive depends on the kind and the degree of damage to the hard drive. In this complete guide, we’ll go over identifying corruption systems, what causes them, and how to repair corrupted hard drive and restore your data.
How to Tell If a Hard Drive Is Corrupted?
You can tell a hard drive is corrupted if it displays any of the following symptoms:
- Strange noises like clicking, grinding, or whirring may come from the drive.
- Very slow file access, freezes, or system lag.
- Missing, damaged, or unreadable files.
- Blue screen errors or sudden restarts.
- Errors like “No Bootable Device” when starting up.
- Random file system or missing file errors.
- Warnings from the drive’s health monitoring system.
- A growing number of unreadable spots on the disk.
- Can’t open or access the drive at all.
- Drive shows as RAW or unallocated in Disk Management.
- The drive feels hotter than normal.
How a Hard Drive Gets Damaged?
Hard drives can get damaged in many ways, usually from physical damage, software (logical) errors, or environmental factors. Here’s how:
- Dropping the drive or computer can break internal parts.
- The read/write head scratching the platter (head crash) causes permanent data loss.
- Water or humidity can short-circuit or corrode components.
- Fire can severely damage the drive.
- Overheating from poor cooling or blocked vents can warp or damage parts.
- Dust buildup can cause overheating.
- Power surges or unstable electricity can fry components or corrupt data.
- Static shock can destroy the drive.
- Viruses or malware can delete, corrupt, or lock files.
- Software bugs or bad installs can cause data loss or corruption.
- File system errors can make the drive unreadable.
- Bad sectors from crashes or aging reduce usable storage.
- Firmware bugs can stop the drive from working.
- Factory defects can cause early failure.
- Human mistakes like accidental deletion, formatting, or improper shutdowns can damage data.
- Normal wear and tear shorten the lifespan over time.
- Running the drive nearly full can make it wear out faster.
How to Recover Data from a Corrupted Hard Drive?
A corrupted hard drive can become inaccessible. You also might have to format it for repairing purposes, which will cause permanent data loss. Thus, before you repair corrupted hard drive, your first priority should be to retrieve its files. A hard drive retrieval tool like 4DDiG Data Recovery can help you in this task. It can reclaim files from corrupted, formatted, and inaccessible disks with high success. Here’s how this tool can benefit you:
- The software aids in restoring the files that have been lost because of system crashes, disappeared partitions, and boot failures.
- This application is able to recover files that have been deleted or lost due to system crashes or malware attacks.
- This file repair software is compatible with 2000+ file formats such as RAW pictures, videos, audio, and others.
- The tool is compatible with an unlimited number of internal/external storage devices such as hard disks, USBs, SD cards, digital cameras, drones, and so on.
- It enables you to scan and recover files according to their path and type.
- There is also the repair application that can mend files.
- You may enter the keywords and adjust filter labels to find the files you want.
- It offers a lifetime of free upgrades and free technical support.
Here’s how to recover data from a corrupted hard drive with this tool:
Step 1: Install and execute the corrupted hard drive recovery tool on your computer. Then, select the corrupted hard disk in the tool. If it’s an external one, first connect it to the PC, then select it in the tool.
Step 2: Pick your desired file types to reclaim. Hit “Scan Selected File Types.” Pause or stop the scanning to inspect the recovered files. Adjust the filter tags such as “Type,” “Modified Date,” and input keywords in the search field to find the exact matches.
Step 3: Once you’ve found your desired file types, tap “Recover.” Choose a destination to save the files on your computer or cloud drive. Next, follow the solutions in the section beneath to repair corrupted hard drive.
Proven Methods to Repair Corrupted Hard Drive
After recovering data, now if you’re thinking whether can you repair a corrupted hard drive, the answer is based on certain variables. If the drive has logical errors or corruption, yes, you can repair it. But it also depends on how severely corrupted it is. For serious logical issues and physical damage, you might have to reach out to a drive repair and recovery service. Here’s how to repair corrupted external hard drive or an internal one in 8 ways:
Method 1: Format the Corrupted Hard Drive
You can repair corrupted hard drive on Windows 10/11 by formatting it, if its file system is corrupted and you can’t access the disk. Formatting will erase all its damaged data and file system structures, giving it a fresh start. Here’s how to repair corrupted hard drive by formatting it:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to your computer if it’s an external one. Click on the “Windows Start” button. Then, execute “Disk Management.”
Step 2: Right-click the corrupted hard disk. Select “Format.” Set the volume label, allocation unit size, and choose the file system, e.g, NTFS.
Step 3: Untick “Perform a quick format.” Hit “OK.”
Method 2: Assign a Drive Letter
Your drive’s letter might conflict with another device’s letter, leading you to believe it’s corrupted. But if you can access the disk in Disk Management, you can repair corrupted hard drive by assigning it a new letter. To do so:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to your computer if it’s an external one. Click on the “Windows Start” button. Then, execute “Disk Management.”
Step 2: Right-click the corrupted hard disk. Pick “Change Drive Letter and Paths.” Next, tap “Add.”
Step 3: Choose a letter for your hard disk from the drop-down list. After this, tick mark “Assign the following drive letter.” Hit “OK.”
Method 3: Execute the CHKDSK
If you want to know how to repair corrupted hard drive using CMD, then employ Windows-embedded CHDKDSK. It can fix sectors or file system errors that might be the cause of hard disk corruption. This method is suitable if your disk is still accessible, but missing its files. However, it’s not suitable if the corruption is severe, and every run of the CHDKSK can reduce the chances of data recovery. So, use it carefully. Here’s how to repair corrupted hard drive using CMD CHDKSK:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to your computer if it’s an external one. Type “cmd” in the “Windows Search’ field. Then, execute “Command Prompt.”
Step 2: Type the following command. Hit “Enter” afterward:
- chkdsk [place the drive letter here]: /x /r (x dismounts the disk for repairs, and /r locates bad sectors and retrieves readable data from them. Whereas /f troubleshoots logical errors in the disk).
Step 3: Wait for CHKDSK to repair corrupted hard drive on Windows 10/11.
Method 4: Clear the Read-Only Attribute
When your hard disk is accessible but you can’t read its files, they might be hidden from view, and the drive might not be corrupted, actually. In such a case, you can remove the read-only attributes from the disk to read the files. Here’s how to repair corrupted hard drive using CMD ATTRIB command:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to your computer if it’s an external one. Type “cmd” in the “Windows Search’ field. Then, execute “Command Prompt.”
Step 2: Type the following command. Hit “Enter” afterward:
- attrib -h -r -s /s /d [place the drive letter here]:\ *.*
Method 5: Scan for Malware
Having your hard disk corrupted by malware is a given when one is accustomed to downloading files that are considered suspicious or when sharing your PC frequently. Therefore, get yourself a trusted antivirus software such as Norton, McAfee, or Avast. Install it on your computer. Supposing you have an external disk, connect the disk to your PC first. Then, run the scan on it and your computer to remove the virus from its roots.
Method 6: Update or Reinstall Disk Drivers
It is also possible that due to corrupted or old hard disk drivers, you may think that the disk is corrupted. In such a situation, you can update or reinstall disk drivers if you’re able to see them in the Device Manager. Here’s how to repair corrupted external hard drive or an internal one:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to your computer if it’s an external one. Click on the “Windows Start” button. Then, execute “Device Manager.”
Step 2: Right-click the corrupted hard disk. Hit “Disk drives” to extend it. Then, right-click on the corrupted hard disk driver. Choose “Update driver.”
Step 3: A driver update that is compatible with your hard disk will be found by Windows and automatically installed. Alternatively, you may download a matching driver by hand from the manufacturer’s site and install it.
Step 4: The hard disk driver may be corrupted in case it fails to update. So, uninstall and reinstall it. To do so, choose “Uninstall device” instead of “Update driver.”
Step 5: Reboot your computer. Windows will automatically reinstall a compatible hard disk driver.
Method 7: Run Windows Troubleshooter
In a situation where your hard disk has minor hardware issues, you can find and repair them with the aid of Windows-embedded Troubleshooter. Here’s how to repair corrupted external hard drive or an internal one with this tool:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to your computer if it’s an external one. Type “Windows + R” in the “Windows Search” field. This will open “Run.”
Step 2: Type “msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic.” Click “OK.” Tap “Next.” This will execute the Troubleshooter.
Step 3: The tool will scan for minor hardware issues leading to the hard disk corruption and provide a fix. Troubleshoot the problems manually. Then, reboot your computer.
Method 8: Contact Professionals
Still unable to repair corrupted hard drive on Windows 10/11? It might be physically damaged or severely corrupted. Thus, you’ll need to contact a professional and credible disk repair and recovery service. Tell them about the issue and send the hard disk to them if required.
Bottom Line
Whether can you repair a corrupted hard drive depends on how severely it’s corrupted and if it has logical errors or physical damage. A few issues may be resolved using CHKDSK, formatting, driver updates, or antivirus software. But some severe cases might need the assistance of professionals. However, before you learn how to repair corrupted hard drive it’s important to reclaim your data using a trusted program such as 4DDiG Data Recovery. It can retrieve data from numerous data loss scenarios and internal/external storage devices with high success.
