How to fix corrupted external hard drive?

[Saul1]

I have a problem with my external hard drive, when i plug it in my laptop.. it takes too long to acknowledge it and when i open a file it would hung, i tried to reformat my external hard drive but it says reformat unsuccessful..

Please help

 

[RH-Calvin]

External hard drives are similar to flash drives, so you should be very careful about using an external hard drive. You need to scan your hard drives first and fix errors before you can format the thing. There can be issues like bad sectors which is preventing to format the hard drive.

 

[sinelogix]

I would try a couple of things. First I would run chkdsk on it with the /r option (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHKDSK ).

If that doesn't work open the command prompt window and use diskpart ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770877(v... ):

type these commands one at a time:
diskpart
list disk
select disk # (where # is the number of the external drive)
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs (or fs=fat32 if you want to use on PC and Mac)

 

[saurabh mathur]

If your external hard drive can be detached by the computer but all the saved files are corrupted then you can do the following:-

• Open start and type cmd in the command prompt windows and press enter.
• Type chkdsk and click enter.

By doing this, it will help you to repair the corrupted external drive and also the files on it.

 

[durham_edison]

you can't get if fixed by yourself.

 

[AdrianG001]

I have a problem with my external hard drive, when i plug it in my laptop.. it takes too long to acknowledge it and when i open a file it would hung, i tried to reformat my external hard drive but it says reformat unsuccessful..

Please help

This all depends on the kind of damage it has sustained.
If its logical damage then you might be able to check badblocks or checkdsk depending on your os. (linux and windows respectively) Before that though I'd recommend trying to recover your files on another hard drive prior to running a repair. After recovering you can blank the hard disk mark the bad sectors and transfer the data back.

As for physical damage I've heard of recovery services but I have never used them. If you want to try that road feel free but ask others for their experiences.
I'd say get another hard drive and try to recover what you can on the new hard drive with whatever flavor recovery tool you prefer.

Regards,
Adrian

 

[ninaholm]

Missing or corrupted system files are responsible for a hard drive with unusual symptoms. It usually occurs when there is a problem during the file save process. So when your hard drive seems to be damaged and you cannot open it, maybe you need to repair the crashed system files at first.
Open Start and type: cmd, hit Enter to open Command Prompt Window;
Type: chkdsk g:/f (if the external hard drive is Driver g, click Enter.

 

[rf-harris]

You probably have a hardware issue. I suggest you to go to an expert and let him handle it. Don't try it to fix it yourself by picking up a screwdriver which might lead you to destroy your hard drive completely.

 

[JeremiahSauls]

I also would like to know more about it. I"m a newbie here. I am looking for a good guidelines.

 

[bonnieshona]

The typical, or designed, use for an external hard drive is for it to serve as a backup drive or a transport drive. Should such an external hard drive become corrupted, its contents would be erased by cleaning it with the Diskpart command. This would be followed by re-initalizing the external hard drive using an app such as Disk Management and formatting it as new. As a backup drive, the drive is restored from a restore/recovery auxiliary drive/disc or from the source files on the computer. If the drive cannot be fixed, it is discarded.

On the other hand, if this external hard drive is used as the main data drive and these files need to be recovered, then the best route to repair it would be through a professional hard drive recovery company. There is nothing available for the user to fix a corrupted external hard drive and an amateurish attempt at doing so by downloading software apps off the Internet is foolhardy.

It is bad practice not to have the source data files along with a backup set. The best practice of safeguarding important files is to have the source along with two backup sets, the two backups on different media or storage sites.

 

[Simlex]

The typical, or designed, use for an external hard drive is for it to serve as a backup drive or a transport drive. Should such an external hard drive become corrupted, its contents would be erased by cleaning it with the Diskpart command. This would be followed by re-initalizing the external hard drive using an app such as Disk Management and formatting it as new. As a backup drive, the drive is restored from a restore/recovery auxiliary drive/disc or from the source files on the computer. If the drive cannot be fixed, it is discarded.

On the other hand, if this external hard drive is used as the main data drive and these files need to be recovered, then the best route to repair it would be through a professional hard drive recovery company. There is nothing available for the user to fix a corrupted external hard drive and an amateurish attempt at doing so by downloading software apps off the Internet is foolhardy.

It is bad practice not to have the source data files along with a backup set. The best practice of safeguarding important files is to have the source along with two backup sets, the two backups on different media or storage sites.

After a recent critical crash, I made sure to have multiple media for recording backups. I was able to recover most of the data using Partition Recovery, but I was very nervous about this task.