Recover data from a damaged hard drive and fix the damaged disk

Recovering deleted data from a damaged hard drive:

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

How to Recover Data from a Damaged Hard Drive

• Part 1: Possibility 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 Is Not Bootable
• Part 4: How to Fix a Damaged/Faulty/Dead Hard Drive

When your hard drive fails to respond and, when you try to boot from it, you hear some clicking sounds, which then stop, and you can no longer access it, your hard drive might be dead. How can you tell if a hard drive is dead? Here are a few signs to look for:

• 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 has failed. Don't panic; follow the tips below to recover data from a dead hard drive.

Part 1: The Possibility of Data Recovery After Hard Drive Failure

Hard-drive failures are eventually a fact of life for all computer users, and losing photos, music, documents, and other files can be frustrating – not to mention that such data are often irreplaceable.

Don't worry, as your files can still be saved, unless the disk is physically damaged, and in most cases, the data is still intact. If you have backups of your important files, then that's great. However, if you didn't backup your data beforehand but found the components on your drive still running, you can use a bootable CD/DVD data recovery software like the Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition to retrieve data from the bad hard drive.

TIP: Make sure the disk is recognized as an “Online Disk”, and its partition or free space shows up properly. Then you can proceed with the software. If the disk is not recognized as an “Online Disk”, you may refer to Part 3.

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

Data Recovery Wizard WinPE is a bootable data recovery software for use after system crashes and boot issues. Before you start, please first create a bootable USB. Then, boot from the Data Recovery Wizard WinPE boot disk. Next, follow these steps to recover data from a damaged HDD.

Step 1: Create a Bootable Disk

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

Plug in the USB drive to your computer and launch the Data Recovery Wizard WinPE Edition. Select the USB drive and click “Create” to make it bootable.

Create a bootable disk with the tool

Step 2. Boot from the USB device

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

Set your computer to boot from “Removable Device” (a bootable USB drive) or “CD-ROM Drive” (a bootable CD/DVD) instead of 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 Data Recovery Wizard utility from the WinPE boot disk. Select the disk that you want to scan for all lost files.

Click “Scan” to start the scanning process.

Recover data from a computer or laptop. After the scan is finished, 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 another location to prevent overwriting.

In addition to recovering lost files from a damaged hard drive, Data Recovery Wizard WinPE version also supports data recovery from RAID, external hard drives, dynamic disks, and memory cards. It can also recover lost photos, documents, and media files, restore formatted files, and recover data from lost partitions, and more.

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

If your damaged HDD does not show up as “Online,” you'll need to repair it before proceeding.

Scenario 1: An HDD Shows "ONLINE (ERRORS)"

When a dynamic disk encounters an I/O error, its status is shown as Online (with errors). Typically, all volumes on the disk will show as Critical.

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: HDD Shows as "Uninitialized"

The “Uninitialized” status indicates that the 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 functions normally. If it still shows as uninitialized, you can proceed with initialization.

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

Scenario 3: HDD Shows as "Lost"

The "lost" state indicates that the disk has been destroyed, shut down, or disconnected.

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

Case 4: Disk Displayed as "Foreign"

A dynamic disk appears as "Foreign" when it is moved from another computer to your local computer, or when a computer running Windows XP Home is configured for dual-boot with another operating system that uses dynamic disks. You can import a foreign disk to resolve this issue.

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Scenario 5: Device cannot read or has no media

The "Cannot Be Read" status usually refers to an inaccessible basic disk or dynamic disk. This could be due to hardware failure, disk damage, or input/output errors. You can try resolving the issue with the following steps:

1. Rescan Disks

Click Operations > Rescan Disks, or restart the computer, and check if the disk status has changed.

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

1. Double-click the device in Device Manager (it will usually have a yellow exclamation point icon next to it), then open the Driver Properties window.

Step 2. Go to the Drivers tab, and click on Update Driver.

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

Update drivers to fix "No Media" error

3. Rebuild the MBR

If the MBR is damaged, of course, you can't boot into Windows. How to fix a corrupted MBR? Here we provide a safe and reliable method to help you. The partition manager tool has provided the function to rebuild MBR when failing to start due to MBR issues. Follow the step-by-step instructions to rebuild MBR.

Step 1: Create a Bootable WinPE Disk

1. Start Partition Master and click the "WinPE Creator" button on the toolbar. Choose to create a bootable disk on your USB drive. If you have a CD/DVD drive, you can also choose to make the bootable disk on a CD/DVD. 2. Click "Proceed" to finish the process.

Create a bootable disk

Step 2: Boot into Partition Master Live USB

Plug in the bootable USB or CD/DVD to your computer. Restart your computer and press F2 or Del to enter the BIOS screen. Set it to boot from “Removable Device” or “CD-ROM Drive.” Partition Master will then launch automatically.

Step 3. Rebuild the MBR

• Right-click on the disk with the corrupted MBR and select "Repair MBR" to continue.
• Select the MBR type based on your current operating system, then click "OK."

Click the "Perform Action" button on the top left, and then click "Apply" to create the MBR. Your computer should now boot normally.

Part 4: How to Fix a Broken, Damaged, or Unusable Hard Drive

When your external hard drive fails, you can try the following solutions to fix it. If you see obvious damage, like strange sounds, visible cracks, or a broken circuit board, send it to a professional promptly. The methods below are more suitable for fixing non-physical damage.

Solution 1: Use Disk Repair Service

To effectively fix a damaged hard drive or USB flash drive and recover data, use a disk repair utility tool.

Hard Drive Repair and Recovery Services

Click here to consult our experts for assistance.

Get personalized manual recovery service from our Data Recovery Specialist. After a free diagnosis, we offer 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, then click "Command Prompt (Admin)." 2. Click "Yes" to open Command Prompt with admin privileges. 3. Type `chkdsk` and press "Enter" to check for errors on the damaged hard drive. 4. Input `chkdsk C: /f /r /x` and hit "Enter" to have CHKDSK fix the hard 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 a CHKDSK alternative.

If you're not comfortable using the command prompt, you can use this alternative – CleanGenius. This tool fixes file system errors on your hard drive with a single click.

Step 1: Download CleanGenius for free on your computer.

Step 2: Run the software. Click on “Optimize” on the left, and then choose “File Display”.

Select the file with the display options you want to modify.

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

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" and under "Error checking," hit "Check." 3. After the scan completes, click "Repair drive" to fix any errors found on the drive.

Solution 4: Run a full disk check

1. Open "This PC" and right-click on the hard drive. Select "Properties." 2. Click "Tools > Error Checking > Check." 3. Choose "Scan drive" and click "Start." Close all running and open programs, then select the option to have the system check for errors during the next startup. Restart your computer.

If the report says that your disk has “bad sectors or clusters,” don't worry—the CHKDSK command in Solution 1 should fix this.

Conclusions

Repairing a damaged hard drive is very difficult, and should be undertaken seriously. However, before you spend hundreds of dollars on an expert, try ruling out some easier fixes. Even if you do manage to repair the hard drive and recover all your data, you should replace it with a new one as soon as possible. I wouldn't trust this hard drive again.