2 Steps to Fix Data Error Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

Overview of Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) Error

What is cyclic redundancy check error that prevents us from copying files, accessing hard drive data or initializing a hard disk? The cyclic redundancy check, or call it CRC, is an error-detecting technology commonly used in digital networks and storage devices to detect accidental changes to raw data. When there's a bad spot on the media of your hard disk, CRC errors occur.

Let's see some cyclic redundancy check examples

Drive not accessible, data error cyclic redundancy check

"My 1TB Seagate Free agent GoFlex has some error in opening the disk. First it asks me to format the drive before being able to use it. Of course, I won't format it because it's full of data. After that canceling that dialog, an error message will appear saying: "Drive is Not Accessible: Data Error (Cyclic Redundancy Check)."

Cannot initialize disk: cyclic redundancy check

"How can you fix an external HDD that fails to initialize? It gives data error (cyclic redundancy check) each time I try to fix it."

Data Error Cyclic Redundancy Check Fix

A cyclic redundancy check error can be triggered by many incidents that seem to be inevitable. For example, registry corruption, a cluttered hard disk, an unsuccessful program installation, or misconfigured files. 

Be careful enough when such an error happen to you, especially when Windows asks you to format the disk drive with CRC error for a continuing use. There are 2 things you must do to remove the cyclic redundancy check data error from HDD, USB flash drive, SD card or other disk storage drive.

Step 1. Fix cyclic redundancy check data error

You can learn how to run chkdsk utility in Windows 10, 8 or 7 to scan, find and repair the drive's errors or file corruptions that cause the cyclic redundancy check data error on SD card, external hard drive, etc. 

Run CHKDSK utility to remove cyclic redundancy check error

1) Open the command prompt under Accessories. You must run CHKDSK commands as an administrator to have the necessary privileges to execute the scan.

2) Type "chkdsk /f x:" into the command prompt. Replace the X: by the drive you'd like to run the scan on. Press enter.

3) Wait for the scan to complete. Once finished CHKDSK, restart your computer to see if it worked.

Step 2. Recover data from 'cyclic redundancy check' external hard drive, SD card, etc.

If there is valuable data you can't lose after performing chkdsk for 'cyclic redundancy check' error fix, download EaseUS free data recovery software to recover data from an inaccessible hard drive and transfer data to a safe spot.

The free version of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard allows you to recover up to 2GB files for free. To recover an unlimited amount of data, please upgrade to its full version.

1) Select the storage location that sends data error (cyclic redundancy check) and click "Scan" button.

2) EaseUS recovery software will run a quick scan first. After the quick scan finishes, a deep scan will automatically launch in order to find more lost and inaccessible files on the drive.

3) Select files the software has found for you in either quick scan results or deep scan results and click "Recover". You can save the recovered files to another data storage device.