The dreaded “corrupted data” error is not an error that anyone wants to see on their computer. The error often appears in the form of ‘the file or directory is corrupted and unreadable’ Where do one start from? How do you start to recover the data that is said to be corrupted? Won’t you lose a lot of files to this error?
But not to worry. The error can be fixed. In this article, we’ll look at how you can fix the corrupted data error.
First Method: Conduct a disk check
You can run a disk check to fix hard disk errors. Here are the steps for conducting a disk check:
- Run command prompt as administrator.
- Type this command chkdsk /f drive . Press the enter key. The drive in the command should be changed to the drive that contains the corrupted data. If it is drive e, the command should be chkdsk /f e:
- Windows will start scanning your file system for corrupted files.
- Repeat the process for any other drives that you have. Remember to use the correct drive name.
- The disk check process will take some time to finish so you will need to be patient.
Second Method: Format the drive
If what you have on the drive is not that important, you can format the drive. But formatting the drive will delete all data on the drive. You should not use this if you don’t want to lose your files. Here are the steps to take to format the drive.
- Right-click on the drive that is showing you the “corrupted data” problem. Click on format on the menu.
- Select ‘Quick format’ to make the formatting process faster.
- Then click on ‘Start’ to begin the formatting process.
Third Method: Recover the data
The “corrupted data” error could be caused by corrupted data or damaged data. You can try to recover the data to ensure things are restored back to normal.
You will need a hard drive recovery software like Recoverit for this process. This software can also work for SD card recovery. Use Recoverit to recover the data. Here are the steps to recover the corrupted data with Recover it.
- Run Recoverit.
- Select the drive that contains the corrupted data.
- Click on recover to begin the recovery process.
Anti-Virus
You can use an antivirus program to check if the data has been corrupted by a virus. Use a powerful antivirus to scan the drive. The antivirus will detect viruses on the drive and cleanse the drive. Your data will be restored back after the viruses have been quarantined or deleted.
Possible causes of corrupted data and how to prevent reoccurrence
1. Virus
A virus attack can cause corrupted data. Get a good antivirus program on your computer to protect your computer from virus attacks.
2. Bad sectors
Sectors are tiny bits of storage on a drive where data is deposited by a computer. Bad sectors on a hard drive can cause corrupted data. Bad sectors can be caused by power surges, physical damage to a hard drive by dropping it roughly or handling it insensitively. Overheating of a hard drive could also cause a bad sector. Removing a hard drive when it is still reading or writing files can also cause a bad sector.
3. System crashes
If your system crash and you see a blue screen error, any file that was being saved before the system crashed could get corrupted.
4. Lost clusters
Lost clusters of files and cross-linked files can cause corrupted data. This happens when a computer saves two different files in the same cluster. These files become cross-linked, and you get corrupted data errors
Conclusion
With the methods listed in this article, you’ll be able to fix “corrupted data” errors on a hard disk.
