Damaged Partition Recovery: How to Repair A Damaged Partition

How do I fix a damaged partition?

Partitioning your hard disk is always a beneficial thing largely because data is independent on one partition and it's a good way to maximize data storage efficiency. You can save your data in different partitions. It is a convenient way to store your files while maintaining computer performance.

These partitions created on your hard drive are never everlasting, however, they may be removed, destroyed, lost, or damaged because of various factors.

Partition flaws can result in data loss and the need for corrupted partition repair. There are built-in methods for repairing partitions as well as  AOMEI Partition Assistant Windows partition repair software.

If the partition gets damaged, you can’t access it via Windows File Explorer or Disk Management. You may encounter the following error messages:

“Drive disk not formatted; Will you now format it?”

“Corrected and unreadable file or directory”

“You need to format the disk in drive G: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?

Common causes of partition damage

Partition damage can be caused due to various internal and external factors leading to data loss. You should know certain reasons for partition data loss to prevent partition repair the next time before damaged partition recovery. Let us look into the main four reasons for partition damage.

▪ Partition table damage or corruption. If the partition table is corrupted, you will be unable to access the partition to read or write data. You can use the Command Prompt to fix the partition table.
▪ Computer virus attack. Viruses can be designed to specifically attack your partitions and their data. Fortunately, numerous antivirus apps are available online, many of them free of charge.
▪ Human factor. For beginning computer users, they misuse the disk or improper operations like expanding or shrinking the size of a partition. This will lead to the corruption of the partitions and finally permanent harm.
▪ Bad tracks or sectors. Logical errors or physical damage to the disk could result in bad sectors. In case of a logical failure in the sector or tack, only the bad section/track is not available and you can attempt to fix the partition.

How to repair damaged partitions and recover partition data?

All files are not accessible in the damaged partition. In this case, if you want to repair the damaged partition and access those files from it, you need to find a partition recovery program to retrieve data from the damaged partition. Or you can choose to repair the damaged partition by using CHKDSK or performing a format directly.  

Repair corrupted MBR on Windows 11/10/8/7

You can use a reliable tool to repair MBR without a bootable DVD or CD or to repair the structure on an external drive or a USB flash drive.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a professional hard drive manager that is specially designed for Windows. It enables you to create a bootable USB drive (or CD) to boot up the failed computer and repair the MBR using a graphical user interface in PreOS mode.

The software can rebuild the master boot record (MBR) on internal/external hard drives, SSDs, portable hard drives, USB drives, and so on. Besides, it also allows you to easily resize the C drive after the repair for better hard drive management. Supported operating systems: Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista. Download and try it to repair the corrupted MBR.

Note: 

1. To repair an external hard drive, connect it to your computer and then launch the AOMEI Partition Assistant.

2. To repair the boot drive, install AOMEI Partition Assistant on a healthy PC and use it to create a bootable USB drive. Then, use the bootable USB drive to boot your own computer.  Follow the steps below to repair the damaged partition. 

Step 1. In AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, right-click the disk you want to repair and select Rebuild MBR.

Step 2. Select the damaged partition. If you cannot find the partition, you can click "try again". Choose the correct OS of your device to set the type of MBR on it, then click OK.

Step 3. The tool will start scanning the files in the damaged partition. The scanning time depends on the size of your data files. After the scan finishes, you can preview the recovered files from the damaged partition and selectively recover the files you want.

Repair the damaged partition using CHKDSK

If you have the correct solution to help you out, it is not difficult to fix a damaged partition. CHKDSK is a handy tool for Windows computers. It is a built-in Windows utility that checks the file system and file system metadata. In addition, it can also be used to repair any partition errors found.

Before repairing via CHKDSK, make sure you have recovered all necessary files from the damaged partition.

Step 1: Press the Windows key on your keyboard and search for Command Prompt. Right-click and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Type chkdsk #: /r (replace # with your drive letter which you need to repair) and press Enter.

Step 3: After the command prompt has finished, you will see what actions were performed.

Perform a format in Disk Management

If the partition is damaged and cannot be repaired by using CHKDSK, formatting the damaged partition is the best way to repair it. As a result, all files in the damaged partition will be erased and the partition will be back to its original state.

Of course, only once your data are retrieved should this be performed. Some data will be lost forever if you format them before trying to retrieve them.  

Step 1: Press Win+R and input “diskmgmt.msc” to open Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click on the damaged partition you want to repair and select “Format”.

Step 3: Add a name for the new partition and tick “Perform a quick format”. Hit OK.

Step 4: Then you can choose OK if you want to back up any data before formatting.

How to recover deleted files from partitions?

After you fixed the damaged partition, you may find some files saved in it are lost. How to recover deleted or lost files from partitions? If you have available backup files, like File History, Windows Backup and Restore, and other copies, it's easy to get deleted files back.  But if there is no backup file, it's recommended to use professional data recovery software, like MyRecover, to restore deleted files from hard drives, external hard drives, SD cards, and other storage devices. 

With fast scanning speed and a high recovery success rate, MyRecover has won a lot of popularity. It's worth trying to perform data recovery.  It can restore deleted images, videos, word documents, Excel Sheets, Powerpoint, and more than 200 types of files.

Download this data recovery tool to restore files right now!

Step 1. Hover the mouse over the partition saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. The software will scan the partition automatically with a fast scan and deep scan. You don't need to wait for the scanning process to finish if you find the files you want. 

Step 3. You can type keywords of file names or use Filter to locate the deleted files quickly. Click "Recover XX files" to save the files to another folder. 

Bonus tips: How to prevent your partition from damages

There are a lot of things that you can do to prevent repairing the partition in the future to save time and effort to recover your data. A list of things you are able to do here:

❖Using antivirus-As the most typical reason for partition damage is a computer virus, you should always scan your external devices. Make sure that your machine has a proven updated antivirus tool.

❖Operate computer properly-Do not perform invalid operations on your computer because it may cause faulty and corrupted partitions.

❖Avoid pirated software-Do not install pirated software if possible. While free, you might cause serious damage to the computer and even disable it sometimes. Prefer licensed application versions and be safe.

Conclusion

A damaged partition usually unexpected happens. We have discussed three ways to recover data from the damaged partition and how to repair a damaged partition in this post. The most important for damaged partition recovery is to implement solutions to avoid the damage happening again. Take care of your information through regular backup, so in the event of data loss, you can get back to it. If you think Windows backup is too complicated, you can try this freeware-AOMEI Backupper to back up hard drives, partitions, and files.