How to Restore Data from a Dead Hard Drive

The hard disk, as a delicate device, can easily get damaged or corrupted due to different reasons, resulting in data loss. Except for physical damages caused by jolting and dropping, misaligned or scratched platters, misoperations and logical damage may leave you in a data loss dilemma.

My hard drive crashed after removing a virus. Also encountered slow pc performance. How can I recover all my data, I tried to slave my hard drive but has a local disk error when I click to open it, and a message "do you want to format it now?" appears. Please advise, I really need to recover my data.

- Question from CCM

If your hard drive gets corrupted, you must be in urgent need of an effective guide to recover corrupted hard drive. This article can help you and let’s start with the factors or triggers of hard drive corruption first.

What causes a corrupted hard drive?

A hard drive won’t die for no reason. There are different reasons account for this and  they are divided into two main categories: logical damage and physical damage. 

🔷🔹✨The logical damage may result from:

File system corruption: The file system is to organize and store files on a hard drive. If it's corrupted due to improper shutdowns or power failure, software bugs, or glitches, your drive will become inaccessible.
Virus or malware attacks: The malware creates the illusion of files automatically deleting themselves, but in reality, it is more of an indication to us that the hard disk is infected. It can also corrupt your data.
Partitioning errors: Incorrectly partitioning a drive when reinstalling Windows, attempting to create a new volume or formatting a disk, etc., may cause partition or data loss.

🔷🔹✨ Physical damage may be a more severe situation and as a result of: 

Impact or drop: Dropping the disk or subjecting it to a significant impact can cause internal components to become misaligned or damaged.
Overheating: The hard disk can easily absorb dust particles in the air, thus hindering electronic components' heat dissipation. Or you use heavy software, or due to excessive usage, such as perform multiple tasks at a time.
Electrical surges: Power surges or electrical spikes can damage the disk's circuitry, rendering it inoperable.
Wear and tear: After a long period of use, the platter and the head assembly are prone to wear out, especially the head assembly with an exact structure.

After getting some basics of a corrupted hard drive,  we can smoothly come to the next part - how to restore data from a dead hard drive?

How to restore data from a hard drive

Restoring data from a dead hard drive is pretty challenging for users without the expertise, thus it is wise to employ professional data recovery software or service to help you. 

Way 1: Restore files from hard drive using software 

MyRecover, a trustworthy tool, designed by the leading benchmark in the data security industry, is equipped with advanced scanning algorithms to get back your data efficiently.

Fast scanning speed and high success rate of data recovery.

Recover 200+ formats of data, from documents to images, videos, compressed files, emails, etc.

Filter deleted or missing files quickly and preview them before recovery.

Restore deleted files from hard drive (HDD/SSD) without losing the file name and support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc., file systems.

Support data recovery after accidental deletion, disk formatting, partition loss, virus infection, and a wide of unfortunate scenarios.

 Restore files from hard drive for free over 500MB.

When a hard disk is corrupted, relying on this tool to restore data will be your second-to-none choice.  

Step 1. Launch the program > Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan.

Step 2. MyRecover will perform a Quick Scan first, followed by a Deep Scan to find all recoverable files. 

Files could be sorted by type, modified date, size, etc., helping you find your wanted files quickly. Click the Filter feature, displayed as a funnel-shaped button, select Type > Documents, and type a specific file extension (e.g. .xlsx) to narrow it down. To be precise, directly type the file name.

Step 3. Select the data you need > click the Recover x files button. Select a new location to save the recovered data to prevent data overwriting.

 In addition, this utility can also help users perform SD card data recovery or external hard drive data recovery very easily.

Way 2: Employ a specialized data recovery service 

If you hear the following signs, your disk is probably physically damaged. In this case, the DIY method offers little help and you will have to turn to a reliable data recovery service for help.

• Unusual noises, such as clicking, grinding, or whirring sounds.
• Burning smell.
• No sound at all coming from the hard drive. 

When it comes to a reliable data recovery service, we strongly recommend you use Geek Squad, DriveSaver, Ontrack, Salvage, etc., popular choices, that have specialized equipment and hard drive data recovery expertise. They are especially useful in the following disk failure:

• Head or platter damage
• Motor failure
• PCB failure
• Firmware corruption
• Encryption issues
• RAID array failure

In general, you need to go to the nearby store or ship your hard drive to its lab. Then, they will diagnose your disk and decide how to recover data from a hard drive, depending on its severity, the amount of data, disk type, etc., factors. If you don't object, they'll start the hard drive data recovery process and return your disk back after completion. 

How to fix a corrupted hard drive

We will continue to fix a corrupted hard drive with several methods as follows. If you are using an external hard drive, please ensure it is appropriately connected to the computer via USB.

Fix 1: Use disk check tool 

The disk check tool is able to repair file system error on a hard drive and mark bad sectors as unavailable space to prevent any data from being saved there.

Step 1. Exit all the running programs >restart your PC. Then go to This PC >right-click on the dead hard drive > choose Properties.

Step 2. Go to Tools > click Check under the Error Checking section. Then, click Repair this drive to repair the found error.

The duration depends on the size of your data on it, please wait in patience. After that, you could check if the hard disk runs normally or not.

Fix 2. Format the disk using CMD

The command is very useful for fixing a corrupted drive but quite dangerous for green-handed users. It requires cautiousness. Please be sure you backup files or restore data from a hard drive before using it. 

Step 1. Input cmd or Command Prompt in the search bar of Windows. Choose “Run as administrator”.

Step 2. Input diskpart in the panel.

Step 3. Input list disk to list all the disks.

Step 4. Input select disk 2. Here users need to input the number of the corrupted disk on their device.

Step 5. Input clean to clean all the data on it. Make sure you have chosen the correct hard drive!

Step 6. Input clean partition primary size=247460 to create a new volume on the hard drive. The size of it depends on your own disk.

Step 7. Input activate to activate the new partition.

Step 8. Input quick format to fix it by formatting.

Step 9. Finally, input assign letter=D to give a name to it.

Fix 3. Re-partition the disk in Disk Management

Another effective method to fix a damaged hard disk is to delete the disk and re-partition it. This can fix some logical errors on the hard disk.

Step 1. Right-click on the Start menu> go to Disk Management. Locate the disk you need to format, right-click on the partitions >choose Delete Volume to delete them one by one.

Step 2. Then right-click on the unallocated space > select New Simple Volume.

Step 3. Then come to the New Simple Volume >click Next. You will be asked to specify the volume size, drive letter, and decide if you want to perform a quick format.  Click Net to continue.

After that, reboot your PC, and check if the hard drive is in good condition then.

How to prevent data loss on a hard drive

In order not to lose any data on a disk, it's necessary to create copies of your files with a trustworthy Windows data backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard. It can save users from labor-costing operations and wisely manage your backup images with versatile features.

File backup or sync: backup or sync any files you want, depending on the format. 

Scheduled Backup: automatically creates backups daily, weekly, and monthly without human intervention. The shortest backup interval is hourly.

Incremental Backup. A wise scheme saves you time and space by backing up only changed files in a scheduled task.

Multiple backups: backup to local disk, external hard disk, share or NAS, or cloud and save multiple copies of them.

Now download free backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard there. Install it and backup files with the following steps.

Step 1. Go to Backup in the toolbar, and select File Backup.

Step 2. Click Add Folder/Add File or drag the files you need to back up to the panel. Several files or folders can be added. Also, you need to select the backup path to save files. 

Step 3. Click Schedule Backup and set an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly backup. Then, click Start Backup. It may take a period of time, please wait patiently.

Conclusion

In this article, users could be helped to perform hard drive recovery, with some embedded tools in Windows and Mac, and some professional software, the problem “How to restore hard drive?” could be properly settled.

Moreover, users can safely and easily recover hard drive data with the help of the efficient Windows data recovery tool - MyRecover.

When the data on your hard drive is still available, you could back them up first, and then fix the hard drive; if the data is inaccessible, users could extract data from it and then repair it.

FAQs

1. How to recover data from damaged hard disk free

If you have a copy of your files on this damaged disk, you can try to restore files from backup using backup software such as Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

• Go to Control Panel > System and Security > selectBackup and Restore (Windows 7). Then, clickRestore my files.

•  Click the Search…, Browse for files” and Browse for folders”options to find your deleted files or folders.
• Select where you want to restore your files - original location or new location and then click “Restore” to restore files from damaged hard disk for free.

2. How to recover data from hard disk which is not detecting

Sometimes, the hard disk is not showing up in File Explorer, but in Disk Management. It may display as a partition without a drive letter, unallocated space, or not initialized.

In this case, you can try a reliable data recovery software to help you recover data from hard disk which is not detecting. We recommend you use MyRecover due to its straightforward interface, powerful scanning technologies, and intelligent features.

3. How to recover data from corrupted external hard disk

Connect this corrupted external hard disk and see if it shows up in Disk Management. If yes, recover data from corrupted external hard disk using MyRecover, the leader in the data recovery industry.

4. How to restore hard drive using first aid

To restore hard drive on Mac, you need to run First Aid on each volume on the disk one by one, and finally run First Aid on the disk itself.

• Select Disk Utilityin the utility window in macOS, then click Continue. Click View> Show All Devices in the toolbar.
• Locate the disk that needs recovery, start with the last volume of it, and click the stethoscope icon named First Aid in the toolbar > click Run.

• Then run First Aid to each volume from the last one to the first one, then each container, and lastly, the disk itself. When finished, click Done.

5. How to restore data from hard drive using Time Machine

Time Machine is a built-in and free backup software for Mac. It will save your personal data automatically, such as programs, music, images, etc., including permanently removed stuff from the trash.

• Locate the folder which contains the lost files, find the Launchpadicon in the Dock, and go to Time Machine> Enter Time Machine.

•  Find the files you need to recover and click Restore.