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

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

Hard drive corruption is a common issue for Windows 10/8/7 users. Today, we are going to walk you through the solutions on how to fix a corrupted hard drive. Here is the overview of these HDD repair fixes.

What Causes a Corrupted Hard Drive (Corrupted HDD Symptoms)

Sometimes, your hard drive or external hard drive can be damaged and become unrecognized or inaccessible in Windows 10/8/7. Generally, hard drive corruption is caused by the following things.

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

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

Whether it is an internal hard disk or an external hard drive, you can find solutions to repair corrupted hard disk. The most direct way to fix a corrupt hard disk is formatting it, which will cause data loss. In this post, we will explain a few practical ways to fix corrupted hard drive without formatting.

First Thing to Do: Recover Data from Corrupted Hard Drive

If you have important data on the corrupted hard drive, you should recover your lost data with a professional data recovery tool at the very beginning. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can access and restore files from the corrupt hard disk and external hard drive quickly to ensure data security. With this top-notch file recovery program, you can:

Now, download this trustworthy data recovery software and follow the steps below to recover data from the corrupted hard drive. 

Step 1. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, choose your HDD partition (according to its drive letter or partition label) where you lost data and click "Scan".

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

You can also use Filter or Search for quick access to your lost files via file types or file names. 

Step 3.  Select all 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.

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

Viruses and malware can lead to hard drive corruption. Connect the hard drive to a Windows PC and use a reliable antivirus/malware tool to scan the drive or the system. To get rid of this problem, you can turn to Windows Defender or some reputable third-party antivirus software. Here is an example of using Norton to remove a virus.

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

When the hard drive's file system gets corrupt and you can't access the hard disk, you can run a CHKDSK scan to repair the corrupt hard drive without formatting.

CHKDSK command prompt checks the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors. If used without parameters, CHKDSK displays only the volume's status and does not fix any errors. If used with the /f, /r, /x, or /b parameters, it fixes errors on the volume. 

CHKDSK Not Working in Windows 10/8/7?

CHKDSK is not working on your Windows computer? Reliable and free CHKDSK alternative method is available here to fix CHKDSK not working issue with ease.

The "/f" parameter tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds. "/r" tells it to locate the bad sectors on the drive and recover readable information. "/x" 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 don't have any technical know-how and want to minimize data risks, using third-party software could be a better choice. The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you try an automatic command line alternative.

EaseUS Tools M is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. It's a perfect alternative to CHKDSK command. Use this one-click tool to solve your computer issues.

To fix file system error or disk error:

Step 1:  DOWNLOAD EaseUS Tools M for Free and install it.

Step 2: Open the software and select the "File showing" option. 

Step 3: Choose the drive and wait for repairing. After the operation completes, click the "View" button to check the drive. 

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

If a driver issue causes the hard drive corruption, you need to update the disk driver. There might be some issues with your device driver installed on your PC. Follow the details below:

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

Step 2. In the taskbar on the left, click Device Manager and expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers". Then you'll see a yellow exclamation mark if your disk driver is out of date.

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 ask for help from EaseUS's technical support team. They provide 1 on 1 remote assistance service to fix HDD/SSD issues, recover partition, wipe data, etc. 

Bonus Tips: How to Prevent Hard Drive Corruption Effectively

Repairing a hard drive is more difficult than taking precautions. You can protect your hard drive from corruption by safely removing external drives before unplugging, or making a backup regularly. To back up files automatically, you can run EaseUS back and recovery software. With it, you can protect your hard drive data with a simple click. Download this tool and safeguard your hard drive data.

Step 1. Run EaseUS Todo Backup and choose "File" on the main window.

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

But it's faster using the "File Type" mode when you only back up some specific file types such as documents, pictures, videos, music, and so on. So, use the proper way to choose the target files you want to backup.

Then 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..." in the "Destination" area.
Expand the "Computer" and choose the external hard drive you've correctly connected to the computer. Click "OK".

Also, if you're interested in getting more backup features, go and find them by clicking "Schedule", "Image-reserve strategy" and "Backup options".

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

Conclusion

Hard drive corruption is a common issue for lots of users. When your hard drive gets damaged, the data is not lost. Use EaseUS data recovery software to access and restore data from corrupted hard disk above all. Then, choose the correct method to repair the corrupted hard drive without formatting.