Fix Data Error Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

Overview of Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)

Besides preventing us from copying files, accessing hard drive data, or initializing a hard disk; what is a cyclic redundancy check? The cyclic redundancy check, or 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, a CRC error may occur. 

Let's take a look at some user experiences with the cyclic redundancy check:

Case 1 - 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 canceling that dialog, an error message will appear saying: "Drive is Not Accessible: Data Error (Cyclic Redundancy Check)."

Case 2 - 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 Error Fix

A cyclic redundancy check 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.  

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.

# 1. Fix cyclic redundancy check data error

With the chkdsk utility in Windows, you can scan for and repair a drive's errors or file corruptions that cause the cyclic redundancy check data error.

Run the chkdsk utility to remove cyclic redundancy check error:

1) Open Command Prompt by typing it into the Start menu. You must run chkdsk commands as an administrator to have the necessary privileges to execute the scan. So right-click Command Prompt and choose “Run as administrator”.

2) Enter 'chkdsk /f X:' into the Command Prompt. Replace ‘X:’ by the drive you'd like to run the scan on. 

3) Wait for the scan to complete. Once the disk is checked and repaired, restart your computer to see if it worked.

# 2. Recover data from external hard drive, SD card, etc. after fixing the cyclic redundancy check error

After running chkdsk for the 'cyclic redundancy check' error fix, you should scan your device to see if any important data was cleaned along with the errors. This can easily be done with data recovery software. Download EaseUS free data recovery software to check for and recover any lost data.

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, upgrade to the full version for even more features.

Follow the detailed steps below to recover data from a hard drive after removing the cyclic redundancy error.

Follow the detail steps of recovering data from hard drive with cyclic redundancy error.

Step 1. Run hard drive data recovery software.

• Select the location of the hard drive on EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard main window.
• Let the program scan the whole hard drive by clicking Scan.

Step 2. Scan and find hard drive data.

Let EaseUS hard recovery software fully scan the drive and find all lost data. You can check and preview found files in the following tabs.

• Delete Files: All your deleted files are listed here.
• Drive (with your device name): It loads all found files here.
• Lost Partition Files: Check first if your hard drive is formatted or partition gets deleted.
• Extra Files: All files that lost names or paths on your drive can be found here.

Step 3. Restore data on the hard drive from Cyclic Redundancy error.

• Choose all found files on your hard drive.
• Specify an empty external storage device or a safe location on your PC for saving lost data.
• Click Recover to restore your lost hard drive data from cyclic redundancy error now.