How to Repair Corrupted Hard Disk Without Formatting in Windows 10/8/7

To fix a corrupted hard drive without formatting in Windows 10/8/7, you can try five different methods. However, to protect your data, it's essential to run a data recovery software like Deep Data Recovery to recover your files and save them to a safe location first. This will ensure that your data is safe even if the hard drive is not recoverable.

Top 5 Ways to Repair Corrupted Hard Disk (Quick Navigation)

Hard drive corruption is a common issue for Windows 10/8/7 users, and fortunately, there are solutions to fix a corrupted hard drive. The following fixes can help repair a damaged hard drive, and we'll walk you through each of them to get your hard drive back in working order.

What Causes a Corrupted Hard Drive (Corrupted HDD Symptoms)

A damaged hard drive or external hard drive can become unrecognized or inaccessible in Windows 10/8/7 due to various reasons such as physical damage, power outages, software glitches, or improper shutdowns, leading to hard drive corruption.

Power supply and connection errors
Virus issues
File system errors
Bad sectors
Software/hardware issues
Physical damage

At the same time, you may receive error messages like "X:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable" or "The hard drive becomes RAW and prompts a 'disk needs to be formatted' error.

You can find solutions to repair a corrupted hard disk, whether it's an internal hard drive or an external hard drive. Formatting the disk is the most direct way to fix it, but this approach comes with the risk of data loss. Fortunately, there are other practical ways to fix a corrupted hard drive without formatting, which we will explain in this post.

First Thing to Do: Recover Data from Corrupted Hard Drive

If you have important data on the corrupted hard drive, the first step is to recover your lost data using a professional data recovery tool. Deep Data Recovery can access and restore files from the corrupt hard disk and external hard drive quickly to ensure data security, allowing you to retrieve your valuable information.

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You can recover lost pictures, documents, videos, emails, and other files from a corrupted hard drive.
The software recovers data from a RAW drive or partition on various storage devices, including a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), USB flash drive, pen drive, and SD card.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to recover data from a formatted hard drive or external hard drive within a short time.

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To recover data from a corrupted hard drive, download a trustworthy data recovery software and follow these steps.

Step 1. Run Deep Data Recovery, and click "Next".

You can use Filter or Search to quickly access lost files via file types or file names.

Choose the partition where you lost data, and click the "Scan" button.

Step 2. When the scanning finishes, find lost HDD files in "Deleted Files" or "Lost Files" and double-click to preview them.

Step 3. Select the desired items, files, and click "Recover" to save the found HDD partition data to another safe location.

Now that you've got back the crucial data, you can follow the solutions here to fix the damaged hard drive.

How to Repair Corrupted Hard Disk Without Formatting (5 Ways)

You can find solutions to repair a corrupted hard disk, whether it's an internal hard disk or an external hard drive. The most direct way to fix a corrupt hard disk is formatting the HDD, which will cause data loss. However, there are 6 practical ways to fix corrupted hard drive without formatting.

Solution 1. Check and Repair Disk to Fix Corrupted Hard Drive

To fix hard drive corruption caused by viruses or malware, connect the hard drive to a Windows PC and run a reliable antivirus/malware tool to scan the drive or system. You can use Windows Defender or reputable third-party antivirus software like Norton to remove the issue.

Step 1. Download and run Norton Power Eraser. If a new version is available, Norton Power Eraser will check and download it.

Step 2. In the "Norton Power Eraser" window, click the "Scan for Risks" icon.

Step 3. Wait patiently during the process.

Step 4. After successfully removing the risk, click "Finish".

Solution 2. Run CHKDSK Scan to Repair Damaged Hard Disk

If your hard drive's file system becomes corrupted, and you're unable to access the disk, you can run a CHKDSK scan to repair the hard drive without formatting it.

The CHKDSK command prompt checks the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors, displaying the volume's status and optionally fixing errors with specified parameters.

CHKDSK can be run with various parameters to specify its behavior. For example, the "/f" parameter tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds, the "/r" parameter tells it to locate the bad sectors on the drive and recover readable information, and the "/x" parameter forces the drive to dismount before the process starts.

Step 1. Next to the Windows Start menu, in the "Search Windows" box, type cmd.

Step 2. On the search result, right-click on the "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator".

Step 3. Type the command: chkdsk E: /f /r /x. Here you should replace E with your drive letter.

Solution 3. Try File System Repair Software to Fix Damaged HDD

If you're not tech-savvy and want to minimize data risks, using third-party software might be a better option. For computer professionals, the Command line can be useful, but wrong commands can cause severe problems, so we recommend using an automatic command line alternative.

Solution 4. Update the Disk Driver to Fix Corrupted Hard Drive Without Formatting

If a driver issue causes the hard drive corruption, update the disk driver to resolve the issue. This may be due to a problem with the device driver installed on your PC, so check and update it accordingly.

Step 1. Right-click on This PC/My Computer and choose "Properties".

Step 2. To check if your disk driver is outdated, click Device Manager in the taskbar on the left and expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers". If your disk driver is outdated, a yellow exclamation mark will be displayed.

Step 3. Right-click and choose "Update driver".

Step 4. Choose "Search automatically for updated driver software..."

Solution 5. Seek Help from Professional Data Recovery Services

If the corruption is severe and the above solutions fail to repair the corrupted hard drive, you can seek assistance from Qiling's technical support team, who offer remote assistance services to address issues with HDD/SSD, recover partitions, and wipe data.

Do You Need Specialized Data Recovery Services?

For tough data loss situations like reformatting drive, RAW disk, partition loss, repartition failures, and system boot error, you may need further help. Consult with Deep Data Recovery Experts for cost-efficient one-on-one manual recovery service, which includes services offered after a FREE diagnosis, such as helping you recover lost data.

1. Unformat the drive

2. Repair the RAID, RAW disk, or operating system

3. To recover a lost partition that cannot be recovered by software, you may need to consider more advanced and invasive methods. This could involve physically accessing the hard drive or SSD, which may require professional assistance.

Bonus Tips: How to Prevent Hard Drive Corruption Effectively

To protect your hard drive from corruption, take precautions like safely removing external drives before unplugging or making regular backups. You can also run Qiling back and recovery software to back up files automatically with a simple click, safeguarding your hard drive data. Download this tool to ensure your data is safe.

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Step 1. Run Qiling Backup and choose "File backup" on the main window.

Step 2. On the "File Backup" window, you can choose almost every type of files from many directories.

When backing up files, it's faster to use the "File Type" mode if you only need to save specific types like documents, pictures, videos, or music, rather than selecting each file individually. This mode allows you to choose the target files quickly and efficiently.

To complete the task, add the plan name or text description to the file backup and then choose a backup location.

To backup files to an external hard drive, click "Browse..." and select the external hard drive from the "Computer" list. Then click "OK".

To get more backup features, click on "Schedule", "Image-reserve strategy" and "Backup options".

Step 3. After settings were all made, click "Proceed".

Conclusion

Hard drive corruption is a common issue, but the data isn't lost when the drive is damaged. To access and restore data, use Deep data recovery software. Once the data is recovered, choose the correct method to repair the corrupted hard drive without formatting.

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