Recover Data from a Dead Hard Drive and Repair the Corrupted Disk

Recover deleted data from a damaged hard drive:

1. Download and install the WinPE version of tools Data Recovery Wizard on your computer. 2. Select your hard drive, then click the Scan button. 3. Preview the files, then click Recover.

How to Recover Data from a Damaged Hard Drive

• Part 1: Chances of Data Recovery from a Dead Hard Drive
• Part 2: How to Recover Data from a Dead Hard Drive
• Part 3: What to Do If the HDD Won't Boot
• Part 4: How to Fix a Damaged or Failing Hard Drive

When you hear your hard drive attempting to start up, making a few clicking noises, and then failing to respond, it's probably dead. Here's how to tell if a hard drive has kicked the bucket.

• Unusual noises
• Computer crashes
• Disk errors and data loss
• Drive not recognized by the computer

If you're experiencing any of these symptoms, your hard drive may be failing. Don't panic; follow the tips below to recover data from a damaged hard drive.

Part 1: The Possibility of Data Recovery from a Dead Hard Drive

Hard-drive failure is eventually an issue for all computer users, and the loss of photos, music, documents, and other files – which are often irreplaceable – can be frustrating.

Don't worry, your files are safe, unless there's damage to the file system. Most of the time, the data is intact. If you have backups of your important data, then that's great. But if you don't and your drive's components are still working, you can use a bootable CD/DVD data recovery software like the tools Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition to retrieve data from a bad hard drive.

TIP: Make sure the disk is recognized as an "Online Disk", and its partitions or unallocated space is displayed normally. Then, you can proceed with this software. If the disk is not recognized as an "Online Disk", refer to Part 3.

Part 2: How to Recover Data from a Damaged Hard Drive

MiniTool Data Recovery Wizard WinPE is a bootable data recovery software that helps you retrieve data after system crashes and boot issues. Before starting, first create a bootable USB. Then, boot from the Data Recovery Wizard WinPE disk. Next, follow these steps to recover data from an unbootable HDD:

Step 1: Create a Bootable Disk

Get a blank USB. If it has important data on it, back it up to another device, as the data will be deleted when you create the bootable disk. You can use tools like Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition to create the bootable drive.

Connect the USB drive to your computer and launch tools Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition. Select the USB drive and click "Create" to make it bootable.

Step 2: Boot from the USB drive

Connect the bootable disk to the unbootable computer, and change the computer's boot order in the BIOS. For most users, this will involve restarting their computer and pressing F2 as it boots up to enter the BIOS.

Set your computer to boot from “Removable Device” (your bootable USB drive) or “CD-ROM Drive” (your bootable CD/DVD) instead of from the hard drive. Press “F10” to save and exit.

Step 3: Recover data from unbootable hard drive

After booting from the USB, you can run the Tools Data Recovery Wizard from the WinPE boot disk. Select the drive you want to scan for all lost files.

Click “Scan” to begin the scanning process.

This will restore data from your computer or laptop. Once the scan is complete, you can preview all recoverable files, select the target files, and then click the "Recover" button to restore your files. It's best to save all recovered data to a different location to prevent overwriting the data.

 

In addition to recovering lost files from a failed hard drive, the WinPE version of tools Data Recovery Wizard also supports data recovery from RAID, external hard drives, dynamic disks, and memory cards. It can also recover lost photos, documents, and media files, formatting files, as well as recover data from lost partitions.

Part 3: What If the HDD Is Not Showing Up Online?

If your hard drive is showing up as “Offline” in Disk Management, try these steps to fix the problem.

Scenario 1: Hard Drive Shows "Online (Error)"

When a dynamic disk encounters an I/O error, its status is shown as Online (with Errors). Typically, all volumes on the disk appear as "At Risk."

If the I/O error is due to a transient problem (such as a loose cable), reactivate the disk.

If the status still shows Healthy (with issues), there might be a disk failure. Back up your data and replace the disk as soon as possible.

Scenario 2: Hard drive shows as "Uninitialized"

The “uninitialized” status occurs when a disk has no valid signature or has been corrupted by a virus.

Step 1. Connect the hard drive to another computer and check if it mounts properly. If it remains unformatted, you may proceed with the initialization.

Step 2: Right-click the disk, and then click Initialize Disk. The status of the disk changes temporarily to Initializing, and then to Online.

Scenario 3: Hard Drive Shows up as "Lost"

The “lost” state occurs when the disk is destroyed, closed, or disconnected.

Open "Disk Management," right-click the missing disk, and click "Reactivate Disk." If you have multiple missing disks, Disk Management will attempt to reactivate all of them.

Scenario 4: The disk is shown as "Foreign"

A dynamic disk appears as "Foreign" when it is moved from another computer to this one. It also appears as "Foreign" if a computer running Windows XP Home is set up to dual-boot with another operating system that uses dynamic disks. Importing the foreign disk can resolve this issue.

• Right-click the disk.
• Click "Import Foreign Disk." Your data will not be lost.

Scenario 5: Device cannot read or there is no media

The "Cannot Be Read" status occurs when a basic disk or dynamic disk is inaccessible. The disk might have a hardware failure, be damaged, or have I/O errors. You can try to resolve this error by following these steps:

1. Rescan the disk

Click Actions > Rescan Disks, or restart the computer, to see if the disk status has changed.

**2. Update the driver through Device Manager**

Step 1. In Device Manager, double-click on the device (it usually has a yellow exclamation triangle icon next to it), and open its Properties window.

Step 2: Click the “Driver” tab, then click “Update Driver.”

Step 3: Click on “Search automatically for updated driver software.”

Rebuilding the MBR (Master Boot Record)

If your MBR disk is corrupted, you can't boot Windows. How to fix the corrupted MBR? Here we provide a safe and reliable method to help you. tools Partition Master has provided the function to rebuild MBR when failed to boot due to MBR issues. Follow the step-by-step guide to rebuild MBR.

Step 1: Create a bootable WinPE disk

1. Launch Partition Master and click "Bootable Media" from the toolbar. Choose "Create bootable media". 2. Click "Next" to complete the process.

Create a Bootable Disk

Step 2: Boot into the Tool's Partition Master USB

1. Connect the bootable USB or CD/DVD to your computer.
2. While rebooting, press F2 or Del to enter the BIOS screen. Set to boot from "Removable Device" or "CD-ROM Drive." Then, Partition Master Tool will run automatically.

Step 3: Rebuild the MBR

Click on “Toolbox” and select “Rebuild MBR”.

Select the disk and MBR type, then click “Rebuild”.

You should then see the message "MBR of Disk X successfully rebuilt."

Part 4: How to Repair a Damaged/Broken/Dead Hard Drive

When your external hard drive isn't working, try these fixes to get it up and running again. If you see obvious damage like strange noises, visible cracks, or a broken printed circuit board, take it to a professional instead. These methods are better for fixing non-physical damage.

Solution 1: Use a disk repair service

To effectively fix a damaged hard drive or USB flash drive and recover data, utilize a disk repair service.

tools Hard Drive Repair and Recovery Service

Click here to contact our experts for a free assessment.

Consult with our tools Data Recovery Specialist for a one-on-one manual recovery service. After a free diagnosis, we can provide the following services:

• Repair HDD, SSD, external hard drives, USB flash drives, and recover data from all RAID levels
• Restore lost partitions that cannot be recovered by data recovery software
• Fix disks that are unreadable or inaccessible due to bad sectors
• Recover disks that have become GPT protected partitions
• Erase data, format hard drives, install/uninstall software or drivers, etc.

Solution 2: Repair file system errors

If your hard drive has bad sectors or internal errors, it can become damaged and stop working. If you know how to run the CHKDSK command on your computer, fixing a damaged hard drive is easy.

1. Press Win + X and select "Command Prompt (Admin)". 2. Click "Yes" to start Command Prompt as an administrator. 3. Type: chkdsk and press "Enter" to check for errors on the damaged hard drive. 4. Input: chkdsk c: /f /r /x to have CHKDSK fix the drive. (Replace "C" with the letter of your damaged hard drive.)

If you're new to CHKDSK, and don't know how to use it, you can use alternative tools for CHKDSK.

If you're not comfortable with the command prompt, try the Command Line alternative – CleanGenius. Use this one-click tool to fix file system errors on your hard drive.

Step 1. Download CleanGenius for free on your computer.

Step 2: Run the program. Click "Optimize" on the left, and then choose "File Display".

Step 3: Go to "Select Drive" and choose the drive with file system errors. Check the option "Check and fix file system errors," then click "Execute."

Step 4: Wait for CleanGenius to finish the repairing process. When it's done, click Here to view the results.

Solution 3: Repair the corrupted non-system drive using a file manager

1. Press "Win + E" to open File Explorer, then right-click the respective drive in the left pane. 2. Select "Properties," then click "Tools" > "Error Checking." 3. After the scan is complete, click "Repair drive" to fix any errors on the drive.

Solution 4: Run a thorough disk check

1. Open "This PC," right-click on the hard drive, and select "Properties." 2. Click "Tools > Error Checking > Check." 3. Select "Check the disk," then hit "Start." Close all running and open programs, and choose to have the system check for errors the next time it starts. After that, restart your computer.

If it reports that your drive has “bad sectors or clusters,” don't worry—the CHKDSK command in Solution 1 should fix this issue.

Conclusions

Diagnosing and repairing a damaged hard drive is very difficult. Take it seriously, but before you spend hundreds of dollars on an expert, try eliminating some easier fixes. Even if you do get the hard drive working and recover all your data, replace it with a new one as soon as possible. I wouldn't trust this one again.