How to Recover Corrupted Data from External Hard Drive on Mac or PC?

Data might be corrupted due to lots of reasons, this article shows you how to recover corrupted data from external hard drive within few clicks.

• Filed to: Data Recovery • Proven solutions

External hard drives are undeniably a great device of convenience to everyone and provide a perfect way to store a specific amount of data in external drives, which is protected from any computer crash and window malfunction. However, the facts have proved that data stored on the external hard drive are also easier to corrupt due to various reasons. So, now you connect the external hard drive to Mac or PC, successfully access the device, but now you're informed that the file cannot be opened. Disaster, right? Calm down, here is a solution to help you recover corrupted data from external hard drive easily.

Part 1. Why data or folder is corrupted?

The data and folders are found corrupted due to some key reasons like writing, reading, transmission, storage, and processing. There are a few common causes of data corruption for your reference:

• Data could be corrupted due to power outages and power-related issues.
• If a computer is made to restart forcefully by pressing the restart button hard, then it might also cause data corruption due to improper shutdown.
• Hardware failures that could be due to bad RAM, bad sectors, or processor malfunction.
• Safe ejection method is not followed while disconnecting the external device or powering it off.
• If the data is not saved properly or bad programming could also lead to a data malfunction in files and folders.

Then, how to recover corrupted folders from external hard drive on Mac or Windows computer?

Part 2. How to Recover Corrupted Files from External Hard Drive?

Recoverit is specially designed and configured with amazing features that bring advanced recovery solutions. It provides users with 8 different recovery solutions, which can deal with almost all data loss situations, such as deleted files recovery, recycle bin recovery, formatted drive recovery, lost partition recovery, external device recovery, virus attack recovery, system crash recovery, all-around recovery. And the facts have proved that the new-released Recoverit has greatly improved the success rate of the recovery.

Recoverit-Data Recovery
  • Support to recover data lost in different scenarios, like external hard disk, system crash, formatted disk, crash computer, virus infection, etc.
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  • 8 different recovery modes to help you locate the lost data and get them back in the shortest time.
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  • 100% risk-free and easy to use, it can greatly improve your working efficiency.
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Steps on Recovering Corrupted Data from External Hard Drive

Step 1. Download Recoverit on PC/Mac and choose data loss location.

Select the "External Device Recovery" option directly once the program is launched on your Mac or PC. Then, connect the external device to the computer and make it be recognized. Click the "Next" button to confirm your option in the above settings.

connect external hard drive to mac

Step 2. Choosing the target partition and click the "Start" button.

If the device is connected properly, the default partitions would reflect on the screen, and here select the target partition where data is lost. Then, click the "Start" button.

select disk

Step 3. Preview and select the data you want to recover.

It will take some time to scan for corrupted or lost files on your external hard drive. When the scanning is finished, you can locate your target files by previewing them one by one or directly searching them as you like. Tick the files you wish to restore and hit the "Recover" button to finish the process.

preview files before recovery

Step 4. Choose "All-Around Recovery" for hidden data.

If you haven't got the data in the previous scan. "All-Around Recovery" would take a few more minutes but it would recover all the hidden files and folders on your external hard drive.

conduct a deep scanning on external hard drive

Note: Avoid uploading the data on the drive where you lost it earlier.

Part 3. Tips to Protect the External Hard Drive and Data on It.

There are certain ways that would protect your data and external drive well. You can go through them and take some actions to protect your external hard drive from corruption, formatted, or lost.

1. Physical damage such as power outage, fire, dust, etc can lead to a hard drive failure in certain cases. This is a fact that these things are not taken care of every time, however, try to keep a good value of your drive and keep it safe to avoid any failure.

2. To keep track of the device's health you can use programs like Chkdsk and others that can scan for any bug on your device and fix it. This care can avoid damage to your hard drive earlier before it comes.

3. Never add unwanted data on the external hard drive as it might become full of that data and generate some bugs to cause failure. You can delete the files that you don’t need or compress the folders and files to make sufficient space on the external hard drive.

4. Handling of the device determines its life if you are carrying the external device and some important data on it. Then make sure you are treating it right and following the norms while carrying. The recommended solution to this issue can be resolved by putting the external device in a padded box before you take it outside.

5. The external device should always be placed on a flat object like a table or locker. Make sure the surface is not slippery to avoid any damage to the device.

6. The USB connector should be always checked before you plug it in. If the plug is damaged, it might damage your connector too.

7. Always plug in and plug out in a behaved manner, don't pull it abruptly from the connector as it might damage it.

8. Defrag the external device occasionally to avoid any potential damage.

Bonus: Basic Characteristics of External Hard Drive

External hard drives are used for massive storage of data for electronic devices. Hard drives are always characterized and rated on the configurations like data access performance, storage capacity, and physical form factor.

1. The external hard drives are categorized as mega storage devices that store the data for device uses. Hard drives are not the source of active data storage for devices and computers. They are occasionally used to recall the data to the main memory of the device. The classification of hard drives was initially exclusive to platter hard drives; the flash memory is now emerging as a mega storage solution. These drives are always characterized by the tasks performed by it rather than how it is performed.

2. The capacity of a hard drive is the main feature that makes it stand out from the crowd. The mega space in megabytes and gigabytes is categorized on the space it provides. The induction of flash-based hard drives in the modern market has grown to an extent that the price extinction started from thousands of dollars per megabyte to cents for a gigabyte. Although, the flash hard drives are costly as compared to the platter-based hard drives irrespective of the capacity.

3. The classification of a hard drive is done on the basis of its data reading and writing speeds. In mechanical hard drives, how many times per second the internal disk rotates is used to classify. The raw speed of a device is not always followed to check the performance, connection type, storage mechanism, and device bandwidth is also a factor to determine the speed and capacity of a hard drive.

4. The amount of space and how it gets connected to the computer is also a key factor of the external hard drives. The connection standards for hard drives are SATA, SAS, PATA, and SCSI. These are some features of hard drives that your computer should be compatible with and if not it can be added with the help of expansion cards.

Elva

staff Editor

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