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Solved! How to Recover Data from Hard Drive with Bad Sectors
How to recover data from a hard drive with bad sectors? You can clone a bad sector hard drive with AOMEI Partition Assistant or recover data from a HDD with bad sectors with MyRecover.
By Penny / Updated on October 31, 2024
Help! Can you recover bad sectors on a hard drive?
My 250GB HDD doesn’t show up at all. Moreover, loading one of the four partitions always takes a long time. But I cannot access any files. After talking to a few friends, I found many bad sectors on this hard drive. So is it possible for me to recover data from bad sector hard disk? Thanks.
- A user from TenForums
For computers, a bad sector is a permanently damaged disk error on a disk storage unit. If a sector is hurt, all the saved files of that sector could lose. An operating system such as Windows or Linux will automatically avoid detected and marked bad sectors as long as its OS discovers these errors.
Users cannot access the saved data on their computers after a hard disk drive failure (physical damage & logical damage). Bad sectors is one of the major manifestations of logical damage. Accurately, if there’s a growing number of bad sectors of hard drives, your hard disk drives are going to fail.
It’s difficult to read data from bad sectors. Let alone modifying its data. So is it possible to recover data from dead hard drives? It turns out it is possible. Read on to learn about the 2 feasible methods, you can also learn how to repair a hard drive with bad sectors as well as the symptoms & tips for bad sectors.
How to recover data from hard drive with bad sectors (2 ways)
In brief, recovering data from hard drive with bad sectors means salvaging readable and modifiable data from healthy sectors. Please get an overview of these two feasible fixes.
Way 1. Clone and copy hard drive data to a new drive
For failing hard drives with bad sectors, the most straightforward fix is to clone the hard drive skipping bad sectors to another drive. Because even after fixing HDD bad sectors, its data saved in bad sectors cannot be retrieved successfully.
Leading partition manager software, AOMEI Partition Assistant is good at cloning disks. Let’s show how it works.
- Notes:✎...
- You’d better use a blank hard drive to save cloned data because all the existing data on your destination hard drive will be replaced. If not, make a Partition/Disk Backup before cloning.
- Please ensure the capacity of your destination drive is much larger than the old hard drive.
Step 1. After launching AOMEI Partition Assistant on your PC, click All Tools > Disk Clone Wizard.
Step 2. You’re advised to select the “Clone Disk quickly” option. If you need, you can also choose the option according to your needs.
Step 3. Please locate your source and destination disks. If the selected destination disk is an SSD storage, check the “Optimize the performance of SSD” button.
Step 4. You can resize the partitions on the target disk or not. A Note will pop up about how to boot the computer from the destination disk. After that, click the “Finish” button.
Step 5. Please go back to the main interface and click Apply > Confirm.
Way 2. Recover data from a hard drive with bad sectors
Besides, restoring existing and missing data to a secure disk is another way to get data off an old hard drive with bad sectors.
Professional Windows data recovery software like MyRecover can detect deleted & lost files from your hard drives with bad sectors.
- ★Tips:
- Recover 1000+ file types: deleted & lost MS Office files, folders, compressed files, photos, videos, audio, and hundreds of file types from HDD, USB, SD cards, etc.
- Easy-to-find: During Quick Scan and Deep Scan, you can search your desired folders by Path, Filename, Date, etc.
- Powerful features: Retain the original Format, Path, and Filename for the deleted files.
- Excellent compatibility: Support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and ReFS file systems on your Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, or Windows PC.
- Support free recovery of 500MB of data.
How to recover data from dead hard drives? Download and install MyRecover to recover data as much as possible!
Step 1. After launching MyRecover, hover the mouse over the partition that stores your desired files. Then click Scan.
Step 2. You can quickly locate your desired image files by Name, Path, Date, or Type. You can also wait to view all the deleted & lost files after the scanning process.
Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Recycle Bin/Other Missing Files folder and select the files you want to restore. Then click the “Recover x files” button.
After the Windows data recovery process, you’re supposed to save these retrieved files in another safe location.
How to fix HDD with bad sectors?
Undeniably, the more bad sectors accumulate on your hard drives, the more data you’ll lose. So are you bothered by fixing bad sectors on external hard drive or hard drives? Please get specific fixes below if it happens to be your case.
1. Fix HDD bad sectors via CHKDSK
Does CHKDSK fix bad sectors? Undoubtedly, it does because CHKDSK aims to check a volume’s file system and file system metadata for physical and logical errors. And the /f, /r, /x, or /b parameters can help you correct volume errors.
With bad sectors, there’ll be no data to recover detected from your hard drives.
Step 1. Type “cmd” in the search bar and click “Run as administrator” to open the command prompt window.
Step 2. Type “chkdsk” in the window.
Step 3. Type “chkdsk d: /f” or “chkdsk d: /r” as you need.
2. Perform a quick format to fix HDD bad sectors
Does quick format delete files? Yes, this process could remove all the content (including the bad sectors) on the drive and generates a new file system for further use. Let’s show how it works.
After opening Disk Management, please right-click on your hard drive with bad sectors. Then click Format > Perform a quick format > OK.
Bonus tips: Symptoms and tips of bad sectors
Symptoms of bad sectors
When a sector goes bad, the hard drive attempts to move the data to a spare sector to prevent data loss. If this transfer fails, the data in the bad sector is lost. Here are some signs that your hard drive may have bad sectors:
- Windows fails to boot or frequently shows a blue screen.
- You see a message saying, “Windows detected a hard disk problem.”
- The system can’t format the disk and gives an error: “Windows was unable to complete the format.”
- Your computer responds slower than usual.
- The computer freezes or runs slowly when the disk is connected.
- Partitions become inaccessible or seem to disappear.
Tips of bad sectors
To prevent bad sectors, follow these tips:
- Shut Down Safely: Always use the Shut down option in the Start menu instead of pressing the power button.
- Monitor S.M.A.R.T. Data: This feature helps track the health of your hard drive.
- Regular Cleaning: Keep your computer dust-free for proper airflow to prevent overheating.
- Handle with Care: Be gentle when moving the hard drive, especially while it's connected.
- Proper Environment: Keep the hard drive in a stable environment—not too hot, cold, humid, or dusty.
- Buy Trusted Brands: Choose hard drives from reputable manufacturers.
- Eject Properly: Always use the "Safely Remove Hardware" option before disconnecting the hard drive.
Wrapping up
How to recover data from hard drive with bad sectors? Since you’re not allowed to read or access bad sectors, you can only recover hard drive data from healthy sectors. Please get specific steps from the above two ways. For hard drive bad block repair, please go to the last part directly.
FAQs on recover data from hard drive with bad sectors
1. Should I replace a drive with bad sectors?
It's advisable to replace a hard drive that has bad sectors. To avoid losing data on the old drive, you can use professional cloning software like AOMEI Partition Assistant to clone it to a new drive.
2. Can data be recovered from bad sectors?
In some cases, data can be recovered from a hard drive with bad sectors. However, there's no guarantee due to the nature of bad sectors.
3. Can a hard disk with bad sectors be repaired?
Bad sectors can sometimes be repaired, depending on the type. Logical bad sectors (soft bad sectors) may be fixable, while physical bad sectors (hard bad sectors) generally cannot be repaired.
4. Can data be recovered from a corrupt hard drive?
If the failure is logical—like corrupted files or a damaged file system—you can often recover corrupted hard drive at home using data recovery software -MyRecover. However, if it's a physical failure, such as a damaged disk, recovery at home may not be possible.
5. Can you recover data from a cleaned hard drive?
Yes, if you've wiped your hard drive and wish you hadn't, there's still a chance your data can be recovered. When files are deleted, they aren't fully erased; instead, the information is marked as deleted, meaning the data may still exist until it's overwritten.
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