How to Recover Data from Damaged Hard Disk? Tips and Tricks
Do you want to learn how to recover data from damaged hard disk in this blog? Here, we have all the tips that you will need to know while retrieving your file from the hard drive.
It is now common that people keep more than one hard drive to keep their data in more than one place. This is meant to keep the data safe but what is not understood or taken into consideration is the risk that comes along. Not only the external hard drives but also the internal hard disks, are not included. Any type of storage device is prone to getting corrupted or damaged.
Here, you will understand what measures you can take to retrieve files from a damaged hard drive. You can never rely on a hard disk for not stopping to work one day. You may witness a case where one day your hard drive is working fine and the next day you are not able to access it.
This can be annoying and confusing, as you have no idea what’s happening all of a sudden. And of course, the data stored on your hard disk will make you stress over it so much that you start panicking. We will help you get all your data back but for that, you need to first understand the ways that lead to damage to the hard drive.
Methods to Recover Data from Damaged Hard Disk
If your computer can detect your drive when connected to it, that means the drive has been damaged due to logical failure (explained in the next section). This also means that the data can be recovered using the third-party tool. Learn what a tool is and how it helps.
Main Causes of Hard Disk Failure
These two ways are crucial to know, as only these are what are causing damage to your hard disk. Learn these two reasons to have better clarity.
1. Hard Disk Being Damaged Due Mechanical Failure
When there is something physically wrong with the hard drive, it means it has mechanically failed. Not only Platter-based or magnetic hard drives are usually prone to getting damaged, SSD’s can get corrupted too. This could happen due to overuse for years, not handling the hard drive well or dropping it frequently. Short circuits inside it can cause a lot of damage. And the users go looking for solutions to restore files from damaged hard disk.
When your hard drive stops working, you will start to understand as it will make clicking sounds. Although there wouldn’t be much that you could do in such a situation, you can only get your hard drive recovered from a data recovery center. But for the data, you can use the software to recover your damaged data before it is lost for any reason.
2. Logical Failure Leading to Hard Disk Damage
If your hard drive is damaged due to a logical failure, it is far better than a mechanical failure. This is because a logical failure is at the software end and there is still a lot that you can do. The following reasons cause logical failures that make users ask how to recover lost data from damaged hard disk:
- Computer shutting down abruptly during a Hard Drive operation
- Accidentally formatting or deleting data
- Data transfer is being interrupted
- Sudden Electrical Transient
- Ejecting the Hard Disk Improperly
When the logical failure causes damage to the hard drive, it will not make any noise, but it will also not let you access the data or boot up. Now, learn how you can retrieve your data from the damaged hard drive.
Immediate Actions to be Taken to Recover Data from Damaged Hard Disk
- Accidentally deleting data or a hard drive failing will not do anything to your data; it doesn’t disappear. The data will stay on your hard drive and not be removed, but it can be overwritten.
- The data stored on your hard disk has its own dedicated space. In cases of accidental formatting, deletion, or failed hard disk, your data is considered “fit for overwriting”.
- In such a case of failure, you need to stop working on your hard drive as soon as you detect the changes. It doesn’t matter if you are using it or not; your computer will start overwriting your data, eliminating the chance of data recovery.
- If you want to know how to recover data from a damaged hard disk, you need to save your data first. How? Shut down the computer to which the hard drive is connected and unplug it.
- You will only be able to recover the data if you have it on the drive. Once it is overwritten, there is no going back, and your data will be lost forever.
- You can try one thing to check if your drive is still showing, i.e., by connecting it to another computer. If it shows, well and good; if not, you can use the third-party software to recover it.
Learn how to do that in the following section.
Recover Data from Damaged Hard Disk with Professional Software
It is possible to get the data back from a hard drive that is completely damaged. You just need the right type of software to do it. Here, we have an accurate solution for it. The Hard Disk Recovery Tool is a professional tool to help you retrieve all the deleted data from a hard drive.
The wizard allows you to extract lost or corrupted data from a GPT or MBR partition. Also, recover deleted files from partitioned hard drives and also from IDE, EIDE, and SATA storage devices. You can use this software in all Windows OS versions, which is the best feature that it provides. Check out the video to understand how this application works.
Read More: How to Recover a Hard Drive That Won’t Boot?
Step-by-Step Process to Recover Data from Corrupted Hard Drive
- Download and run the hard drive recovery program.
- Then click the “Scan” button to recover all deleted files from your hard drive.
- Now the application will start scanning and we will wait until it is 100% complete.
- View all recovered files in the left pane.
- Select the file you want to save and select the appropriate location.
How to Protect Hard Drive Failure in Advance
May be? Yes. It may not work 100%, but it will work 95%. The benefit is that you know when to start backing up and prevent disaster. The secret lies in a tool called SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology), which is found in all modern hard drives.
SMART is capable of measuring dozens of parameters indicating the health of the drive, including:
- Read Error Rate
- Rotation Time
- Search Error Rate
- Number of sectors transferred
- Change number of repetitions
- Soft read error rates and more.
There You Have It!
How to recover data from damaged Hard Drive has two ways of causing it, as mentioned. You can get your data recovered in case of a logical failure but not mechanical failure. Take no risk with the data if it can still be recovered and use the tool as professional help for a successful recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1:What happens if the file is damaged?
Ans: By definition, a corrupted file is a file that has been modified due to a hardware or software failure. This can happen due to an unintentional or intentional cause by an attacker. Damaged files will be difficult to understand. Therefore, it cannot read or write to the disk.
Q 2: Is it possible to recover corrupted files?
Ans: Damaged files can be restored. But the ease of file recovery depends on the damage. In most situations, you need to do everything yourself. But in special cases, you may need to consult a data recovery specialist.
Q 3: Can I use the CHKDSK utility to recover data from a damaged hard drive?
Ans: If necessary, you can use the CHKDSK utility from the CMD prompt CHKDSK C: /f /r that appears
If the damage is minor, it can be recovered. However, when bad sectors start to appear, they do not stop but spread. Therefore, CHKDSK will allow you to search for a day or two, but no more.