Corrupted Hard Drive

There are indeed various tools to recover data from a corrupted hard drive. Besides the tools that are available to solve such problems, there are some easy to execute steps that you can take to recover data from a corrupted hard drive. Before we start off with the various methods to fix a corrupted hard drive, let us try to understand, why does a hard drive get corrupted.

Reasons for Corrupted Hard Drive
The most obvious reason for a corrupted hard drive is improper shut down. Many of us don't take care of this fact and wonder what could go wrong with an improper shut down. But the truth is that most of the times, the sole reason for corrupted hard drives continues to be a sudden switching off of the power supply of the computer. Again, consider the situation, that you are having problems with one of your hard disks and there are chances that it is corrupted. May be the reason is a computer virus, but putting a corrupted hard drive for scan, can only further complicate the process of recovering the data later. Avoid scanning a corrupted computer hard drive. Lets get into a little more detail. When we format our hard disk for the first time, we select one of the file allocation systems, FAT or NTFS. Of course, if you are using Linux, then you will be using ext1, ext2, ext3, etc. Let us consider that while formatting your hard disk, you had selected the FAT 32 format. The FAT (File Allocation Table) is nothing but a database that stores the respective address of each file in your system. A corrupted hard drive may simply mean that the FAT in your system has got corrupted and the computer processor is thus unable to access the files that you want.

How to Recover Corrupted Hard Drive?
If a hard drive is corrupted then you need to follow certain steps to recover a corrupted hard drive. Let us start off with the process to recover corrupted hard drives that does not involve the use of any data recovery software. First of all, take into consideration the fact that whether the operating system in your computer is stored in the corrupted hard drive. If that's the case, then the process becomes a bit cumbersome as you may not be able to start the system easily. The problem is that every time you switch on your computer, the computer will check the available hardwares for any errors and after detecting it in your hard disk, it will simply try to reboot. The process will continue, until you shut down the computer by switching off the power supply. This improper shut down may cause further errors in your system. What you need to do in such cases is that you have to format another hard disk and install a fresh copy of the operating system in that hard disk. Once the operating system is installed in your hard disk, you can simply identify this hard disk as the master and the corrupted hard disk as the slave. Now, the problem that your computer was not starting has been sorted out. Check out if you can now access the files in the slave hard drive, that is your corrupted hard drive. Now, try to copy the files that can be copied from your corrupted hard drive to your master hard drive. It is of course not necessary that you can access all the data from the corrupted hard drive. In such cases we can try out the recovery process with the use of some data recovery software. Once you have recovered all the data that was in the recoverable form, you can simply format the corrupted hard drive and install a fresh copy of the operating system. Read more on, FAT and NTFS data recovery information.

Corrupted Hard Drive Recovery Using Data Recovery Softwares
There are various softwares that you can be used for the process of data recovery from a corrupted hard drive. Many of these softwares may require you to purchase a license for using the software, while there are some open source softwares too, which are available for free download from the Internet. The softwares that require you to purchase a license for recovering the lost data, may locate the files that you want to recover from your corrupted hard drive, but will not allow you to save the same, without a license key. When purchasing a data recovery software take into consideration certain aspects like the file system with which your hard disk had been formatted. For example, if it was an NTFS system, you will have to purchase a software that has the capability to rebuild and recover NTFS boot sector. Similarly, if it is a FAT or ext2 or ext3 system, the software that you have purchased or downloaded for free, should have the capability to recover data from the same. Other features that these softwares generally have or rather should have is that they should be capable of recovering deleted partitions or recovering the same.

The process of fixing a corrupted hard drive using a recovery software is similar to what has been mentioned above. Use a separate hard disk to install your operating system and connect your hard drive as the slave. Now, install the data recovery software in this hard disk and scan the corrupted hard drive using this software. Simply follow the step wise procedure of the data recovery software and you will be able to recover the corrupted hard drive. Read more on hard drive data recovery.

There are certain important prerequisites that you need to follow, when you go for corrupted hard drive recovery. Once you know that your hard drive is corrupted, unnecessary switching on and off the computer will just further spoil the condition of your hard disk. If you can start your system but are not able to access the files in the computer, then do not install any new software or store any new data in the same hard disk. When you opt for data recovery softwares, always keep it in mind that you need to install the data recovery softwares in a different hard drive, not in the same corrupted hard drive.