How to repair a damaged external hard drive and recover all the data inside it in Windows 10? step by step guide

We all use hard drives because they are essential parts for our computer, there are internal disks and external, but both can have different faults and problems that may need to be fixed. Here at internetpasoapaso.com we will show you all the information you need to be able to repair the hard drive whenever you want.

In this post you will find what are the possible causes that cause failures in our disks, and how to fix them. You can also study the types of damage that can be found on disks and what to do in the presence of each of them.

Finally, you will find a small list of the most used software to repair and recover files from the HDD. This is a detailed guide that will allow you to be your own technician from home.

Why do external drives usually get damaged? Causes

Our external drives just as inmates can be subjected to different risks, so we can even lose our information. Every day we are more those of us who use this type of memory thanks to its portability and easy handlingalthough they may be suffering damage without us realizing it, it may be too late when we see it.

Next, we are going to show you some of the most common faults that cause our external drive to lose information or become completely damaged:

virus or malware

Viruses are things that not only harm the health of our computer but of everything they touch, although its main function is to steal information, they can alter the writing and encodings of the files rendering them totally useless. But, just as they do it for files, they also do it for disks, since they are housed in parts of the memory, occupying space that is not detectable with the naked eye.

these viruses they can grow until they completely occupy the memory of the disk causing failures, and preventing us from writing or erasing in memory. These feed on all the files that we place near it.

Viruses arrive when we connect our external memory to laptops or computers that are infected, and they are the most vulnerable to being infected.

How to solve it?

The solution is to keep our operating system up to date, although they are certainly external drivesbut if the internal disk is cured or cleaned against all viruses with a good antivirus programit will not be infected, and we can be sure that we will not lose any files.

Corrupt files (Bad Sectors)

As well as viruses corrupt files They can be a serious problem for us. external disk. These are housed in our disk preventing modifications or alterations of the information that exists in it, on many occasions the bad sectors make our external drive cannot be recognized by our computer.

These are caused by a virus, or an error when passing files. It is also known as corrupt files or defective, to those files which could not be spelled correctly within the disk causing an error, which accumulates within the system.

How to solve it?

To prevent these types of problems we must take into account that we should never remove or remove our external drive without first ordering the system to kick it out. Close all the activities that are running in the compartment between the internal disk and the external hard disk, in order to separate them, since they connect and generate codes and commands that, if not closed, cause errors.

We must also prevent the computer from turning off while we use our external disk since these blows generate defects in the partitions, for this reason it is recommended connect our PC to a No-Break.

Let us not forget that we must always keep an eye on our recordsince we could lose all our filesso it is recommended to use programs like CrystalDiskInfo, HDDScan, EASIS Drive Check, Hard Disk Sentinel, HDD Health, DiskCheckup, Acronis Drive Monitor to always keep our external drive free of errors.

Sudden changes in temperature

This problem can cause up to death of our HDD. They manifest when there is an electronic failure in external hard driveor when our computer suddenly sends an electrical overload or sends a voltage to the external drive, greater than it can withstand, generating overload, or a temperature so high that it can damage the logic circuit board.

When these problems occur, the external drive’s platters may start working slower oa deform to death total external drive.

How to solve it?

We can’t leave our external disk connected for a long time to our computer, we should only use it when we want to copy or paste files, that is, not exceed them of use. We should also check with a multimeter the voltage it receives our HDD, which should not be greater than 5 Volts.

falls and bumps

This is one of the things that we must always take care of, because a hit or fall can cause damage to everyone our records. We must remember that external drives are mechanical parts that comply with a circuit, that a blow can generate failures within the system, and cause irreparable situations and never access the information that we have on the disk.

How to solve it?

We must take care of the disk, in order to avoid damage, so we must place them in place without exposing it to so many blows, that is, a flat surface and without the risk of anything falling on it.

wear over time

It is inevitable that it will be damaged our external drive, because everything that exists has a lifetime, and our HDD does not escape from that. Although we can do a few things to prolong its life such as:

• Use them in cool places (without humidity) and do not expose it to the sun
• Keep them free of dust, always clean them with a brush
• do not wet them

What types of damage do hard disks usually have? Are they all repairable?

When we are frequently using our external disk, we generate some errors or even failures. Next, We show you what these problems are and know if they are repairable or not:

Physical damage

Physical damage can be said to be the most common in our disks, but they have a cause, so here we show you a list of them which are the most common:

• Logic board faults.
• connectors broken or movedor also some broken data.
• Errors in the integrated circuit. this kind of problem needs card replacement and reprogramming and additionally repairs from the source of the problem.
• Problems in the reading head, for this failure it is necessary to open the disk in a suitable environment and with high knowledge of what is going to be done in order to prevent the loss of information and the disk permanently.
• overuse wear or broken circuits.

How to detect disk failures?

We can detect what our disk failures are before it’s too late. What we have to do is notice the symptoms that our disk shows us. Here is a list of those symptoms:

• Visible disk damage: These damages can be noticed from the outside of the disc, although in others, we have to open them and see the changes that may be in the internal part.
• When we insert the disk and our BIOS fails to recognize the connection of an external memory.
• When our operating system Lets show the availability of the external hard drive.

logical damage

The logical damages have repair, since as we have explained previously these are caused by errors within the system. Here are some of the most common causes:

• Disk read errors. When the disks have reading failures, it is because at the encoding level there is something altered or organized in an erroneous way, causing a failure in the use of the hard disk.
• Logical damage caused by viruses. Many of the viruses can also affect the logical part of our external hard drive, so we have to be very careful to protect our drive from any virus threat.

mechanical damage

Last we have mechanical damagewhich are more frequent than those shown above, although they may be the same causes:

• Shock damage: When we subject our external drive to a lot of blows, whether consecutive or not, it can cause damage to its physical structure, even in some cases breaking the command card.
• Damp locations or poor handling of the disc.
• Excessive and unnecessary use achieving wear On the disk.

Steps to repair external drive with logical damage easily and quickly in Windows

logical damage they are easier to repair since we can execute any program or command to be able to eliminate those errors that cause a logical failure in our external drive. here we will see Two methods that we can use to repair our hard drive:

With CHKDSK (Windows)

When we don’t want to use more external programswe just need to learn how to use command prompt, and if we don’t know, we can guide you with below steps to run recovery via CHKDSK.

First we go to the Windows menu and We write in the PowerShell search engine.

After we have the search result we select the result that says “Windows PowerShell” and we run it “As administrator”.

We will see that a window appears with the name of “Administrator: Windows PowerShell”

This window is known as the console. Already, inside it, we use the command “CHKDSK/f B:” (without quotes) so that an analysis of everything is carried out in order to find possible errors that are affecting the health of our hard drive.

We will see that after executing the command, a brief information about the disk will appear, which tells us the type of file system, in the case of us and usually it is NFTS.

In this way, the recovery process will begin, which we must wait the necessary time for the system to repair. our external drive. During the process we must not turn off or block our computer since if we interrupt it we can further damage the unit.

Easeus Partition Master

Ease US Master is a third-party application that allows us to recover partitions or the entire disk in a few clicks. For you to learn how to use it, We bring you two simple steps:

• First we must download the program (later you have the link).
• After having downloaded, installed and run the softwarewe right click on the device and select “Surface test”
• We let the software do your disk inspection and repair automatically all sectors affected. To finish, we click on “Finish” and the process is automatically finished.

Download Easeus Partition Master Windows

Steps to recover data from a damaged hard drive

On some occasions when we inspect our hard drive some files and important information are lost, and when the disk repair, we can even lose all the files that we have saved in it. So if we want to retrieve that information We must follow the steps below:

With CHKDSK (Windows)

The command prompt as we have already seen in the previous sections in a function or tool of the same operating system which we can do many things. but for this we need to know the commands that we are going to execute, since, if we want to recover information and we do not know how to do it, we can lose it forever. Follow the steps:

• we go to windows menu and we write symbol of the system and we enter the first result that is shown to us. We can also access by pressing the keys “Windows + R”, and we write “CMD” and type in “ENTER”.
• When the console of the Command Prompt we wrote CHKDSK E: /f Y press enter. Although the letter “AND” We can change it for any other letter that is assigned in our external hard drive.
• Then we write “Y” and press on “ENTER” and repeat the same with the letter “AND”. We wrote “E: >attrib -h -h -r -s /s /d” and type in “ENTER” again.

When we do all these steps, most of the files that were accidentally deleted and maybe the ones that were manually (intentionally) deleted will be recovered, and will be housed in a folder inside the external hard drive.

With EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

If we are one of those who do not like to do many things, we can download software that does it for us. In this case we are talking about EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, which is excellent at doing its job.

First we start the softwarewe select a location (this is the HDD) for the scan to be performed.

This scan is very quick, taking no more than about three minutes. Then it will show us all the files found that were deleted.

Once the scan is finished, another scan will start, but this one deeper, it finds much more information of all the lost files, so it may take much longer.

We will see a list of those files that can be recovered and we look for the ones we want really recover. After we select the files to recover, we click on “Retrieve” for the process to begin.

Download Easeus Partition Master Windows

Unconventional methods to repair an external drive depending on the type of damage

When our external hard drive has some failures in its functions, we may resort to all the methods we find to be able to save everything that we have stored on it. There are very little used methods to be able to try to save the hard driveso you should try to do them with great care. Here are some of those methods:

Transfer a wipe to your external hard drive

Well, maybe we have already heard that passing a erase by alloys or on copper foils or on circuit boards can eliminate some problems. The truth is that yes, although not 100%, since what this does is eliminate the dirt that is on the disk or card, but it never hurts to try.

So we must go to the inner part of the disc and erase with a preferably clean eraser, without applying force, and clean the residue of the eraser. With this we could eliminate the problem, so what remains is to see if it was solved.

Freeze external drive

Many technicians believe that by lowering the temperature of the circuits they can repair the hard drives, so if we want to resort to this method we must look for an airtight bag so that when we enter the HDD to the freezer does not receive moisture, because if it does we will lose our disc forever.

After we’ve stored our drive in an airtight bag, we put it in the freezer for an hour or two, and test that the drive no longer has the problem.

Clean with acetone and cotton or a brush

Finally we leave this method, which we must have acetone (the higher the concentration, the better) and a brush with soft cells. First we impregnate the brush with acetone and quickly clean the entire circuit and alloys of the disk. We make sure it’s really clean and we test that the problem is gone.

Note: Acetone is used as it is one of the more volatile reactants, because in this way the disc will not get wet and we avoid burning or losing our disc forever. It is true that we can also use alcohol.

List of the best programs to repair damaged storage drives in Windows

There are different programs that allow us to repair our external hard drive, all with a few simple clicks. Here is a small list of those best recommended programs:

TestDisk

This is a software that allows us torepair any boot sector, recover deleted partitions, repair tables from damaged partitions and even recover everything that was erased by the failure or by some accident. IF we want to copy files from partitions that are deleted or that we cannot access, this also helps us in this task.

Work in different formatsincluding FAT/NTFS/exFAT/ext2. Also, that TestDisk has an application that complements it whose name is PhotoRec.

Download Test Disk Windows

EaseUS Partition Master Free

As we have already mentioned in the previous sections of this post, Ease US Master It helps us to recover and repair the partitions of our hard drive, it also allows us to resize, move, merge or divide the partitions if we want.

This is a program with many functions focused on the well-being of our hard driveso it is highly recommended by all its users.

Download Easeus Partition Master Windows

windstat

With this software we can perform from a deep cleaning of our disk until recovering and repairing all those files or partitions of our disk. Once this program is installed we will be able to repair our disk as many times as necessary and whenever we want.

Although it is not very famous, it fulfills all its functions to the letter. It focuses more than anything on cleaning and recovering files, so if we download this software for that purpose, we have installed the correct one.

Download Windirstat Windows

Clonezilla

This is an imaging and cloning tool that allows us to repair our hard drive. CLONEZILLA is originated as an independent tool, we can find it in two different versions as CloneZilla Live and CloneZilla SE/SERVER EDITION.

These versions are one for Windows and one for Linux. The version available for Linux is CloneZilla Live, and the one available for Windows or other operating systems CloneZilla SE.

Download CloneZilla Windows

OSFMMount

This is a software that works perfectly with our disk, which allows us to mount image files as drive letters and even browse the data directly if we want to. Supports image files of any type such as DD, ISO BIN or others.

One of the characteristics that makes it most important is its ability to create ramdiskswhich is very useful if we want additional security, since it would be like another backup, and if we need to store data that requires quick access, such as browser caches or files, we can do it with just a few clicks.

Download OSFMMount Windows

Defraggler

Is a defrag tool light that activates the defragmenter of our computer, in such a way that it eliminates junk files and organizes all the information freeing up more space in our disk drive. It has a fairly intuitive interface that helps us quickly visualize the parts of the drive that are fragmented and which files are not causing problems on our drive.

Download Defraggler Windows

Tips to take care of your SSDs so they have a longer lifespan

If we want to prevent our drive from failing and we want to extend its useful life, we must be somewhat delicate with our external hard drive, so it is It is highly recommended to follow the tips below:

Let’s take care of the position

Hard drives are designed with a structure of magnetic dishes with a brief separation between each other that prevents them from colliding or rubbing, achieving a correct operationbut we also have to understand that they are designed to be used and always work landscape way so if we want our hard drive has a longer life We must always keep this in mind.

If our HDD If the needle is not lying down, it may be too close or too far from the plates, resulting in low reading speed and decreased performance.

Let’s take care of the cables

We must take care that the cables are well connected, since this can cause a great disk failure, so that if they are not corrected, the life of our external hard drive is quickly shortened. We also have to take into account that if we are not aware of this problem, we can lose important data.

Take care of us from falls or bad blows

Although it seems that the hard ones are designed with a case hard enough to withstand blows, the truth is that it is not, since a strong blow it can damage its structure and internal discs.

Let’s not overuse

The hard drives Just as light bulbs have a life time, if we exceed their use we could shorten their life, that is, if our HDD It remains in operation for long periods of time even when we are not using it, it will begin to present failures due to wear, so we must take care of this.

List of the best programs to recover data from external drives in Windows

To avoid losing forever the files that were deleted, we quickly have to resort to a recovery program or the command prompt. Most of us prefer to choose a program to do the work for us, for this reason here a small list of the best programs to use to recover information from our external hard drive:

Disk Drill

This is a software which allows us to do data recovery, which we can use free of charge for testing purposes. Its developer is cleaverfilesand is mostly used to scan internal and external devices, being compatible with different file systems such as FAT and NTFS.

This software is characterized by being one of the most important when it comes to preventing data loss. We can find two versions of it: Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery.

• Recovery Vault allows us to add a layer to the recycle bin, keeping a reference of all the files that are deleted.
• Guaranteed Recovery makes a copy of the file moved to a previously selected folder and thus saves a history of the files, in order to carry out a recovery with greater efficiency.

If we have these two add-ons installed we will have a greater chance of recovering all the information that may have been deleted.

We should also include that this program allows us to create image files in formats like iso, img, or dmg. If we want to perform a data search in a clone, we do compromise the original source, with this software we can do it without any complications.

Download Disk Drill Windows

Download Disk Drill Mac

Recuva

Its developer is Pyriform. Recuva It is the second on our list because with e we can recover all permanently deleted files, those that our system may have already forgotten and that are counted as blank spaces.

It is a completely free software with functions that allow you to work in internal and external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, MP3 players and others. We can find this program available for 32 bits and 64 bits.

It should be noted that Recuva It is a program with many users, so it has a good prestige. It has a portable version and in an unstable way, where the portable version has the sale that it does not risk the possibility of overwrite hard drivethat is to say that we will not lose data during the installation.

This is software which works in a mode Freemium, that is, it can be improved by purchasing or acquiring a commercial license.

Download Recuva Windows

restoration

restoration It is free software like the previous ones, although it is a little smaller. It is characterized by its simplicity since it does not require a complex installation, because with just one click on the .exe file it can be installed. Once your function is opened from any single window, we can do a recovery with a few steps that are quite simple and easy to understand.

It is one of the best programs that we can find in a simple way, it allows us to recover internal and external hard drives, as well as also memory cards and USB sticks. We can trust that they will give us excellent results from their work, since it can be said that they are very efficient.

Download Windows Restoration

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

It is more than just a simple data recovery program, as it also offers extensive functionality, and easy handling with a Windows Explorer-like interface. With just three simple steps we can recover any lost information.

The three steps to recover data are:

• We select the type of data we want to recover
• We select the location
• Last we preview and recover.

Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Windows

Pandora Recovery

This is a free software that allows us to recover any lost data, it has an integrated assistant that facilitates its use and understanding.

This has to be installed directly on the computer so that the file recovery operation can be executed from damaged or failed hard drives.. Pandora uses three fairly simple file recovery methods:

• Browse
• Search
• scan the surface

Download Pandora Recovery Windows