How to Recover Corrupted External Hard Drive without Formatting

This article describes how to recover files from corrupted external hard drive without formatting in 6 proven methods, such as chkdsk, assign or change drive letter, reinstall or update driver, etc.

Ivy

By Ivy / Updated on January 15, 2025

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Discovering the external hard drive is inaccessible when you try to open it in Windows Explore. This somehow means that the hard disk is corrupted. Next, you can recall if there are any more of the following symptoms for sure.

  • Hear strange sounds, such as clicking, whirring, or whining noises while using external hard drive
  • The external hard drive shows wrong size and varies very much, e.g. 1TB drive only shows 500GB.
  • The external hard drive does not perform well.
  • Receive error messages, such as “You need to format the disk before you can use it” when connecting the external hard drive.
  • ....

If, sadly, with one or more of these symptoms, your hard disk is indeed corrupted. Take a deep breath and calm down, there is still a chance to recover files and fix corrupted external hard drive without formatting as long as it’s showing up at least in Disk Management. We’ll show you several methods in the following.

Common Causes of Corrupted External Hard Drive

Sometimes you need to format the external hard drive to restore it to a healthy status, but not always. So, learn more about possible causes before making a decision:

Possible Reasons  Description
⛔Improper ejection Removing the external hard drive without safely ejecting it can result in file corruption during transfer.
⚡Power failures: A sudden power outage or power surge can corrupt the file system or the drive itself, making it inaccessible.
💾Hardware failures Components within the hard drive can degrade over time or suffer from physical damage, i.e. shock, drop, extreme temperature, water, fire, etc.
🕷️Software conflicts Incompatible or buggy software can sometimes cause system instability, leading to a corrupted drive.
🦠Virus or malware attacks Harmful software can delete, hide, encrypt files or damage the file system itself, causing data loss.

How to Recover Files from Corrupted External Hard Drive without Formatting

Regardless of the possible causes, the first thing is to recover files from corrupted external hard drive as this drive may be dead at any time. Using powerful data recovery software will be one of the best methods, especially without backups.

MyRecover, categorized into different zones based on scenarios and Intelligent equipped with scanning methods - Quick Scan for simple tasks while Deep Scan for others, effectively reducing scanning time and speeding up recovery, will be a good choice. It also features a user-friendly interface, more flexible recovery options, and more.

❤❤❤ Why Choose MyRecover?

✔ It has a free version that can recover data up to 500MB.

The Deep Scan feature is always available if you can’t find data (with Quick Scan).

✔ Recover deleted or lost documents, images, videos, audios, etc., in more than 1000 formats.

✔ Search or filter data quickly through file name, extension, data type, etc.

✔ Preview and recover files while scanning.

✔ Selectively restore files, not all of them.

✔ Recover data from specific locations (e.g. Recycle Bin), deleted or lost, formatted, RAW partition, or entire disk in less time.

Work perfectly with NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS file systems.

Download Software Windows 11/10/8/7/Serve

Now, click the download button to get started.

⚠️Warning: Be sure to install this software to a new location instead of the external hard drive. Otherwise, your data may be overwritten.

Step 1. Scan the External Hard Drive

Launch this Windows data recovery software - MyRecoverafter installing. Then, navigate to Advanced Recovery > Disk Data Recovery, hover the mouse over the external hard drive, and click Scan.

Select Entire Disk to Scan

Step 2. Search for Lost Data

By default, this software will automatically run Deep Scan to thoroughly scan the selected driveand find deleted or lost files. You can use search & filter features to locate them quickly without waiting for the final result:

  • click the funnel-shaped button to specify the data type (e.g. Documents, Images, Videos, etc) to target the filter range.
  • If necessary, set the size, from less than 512KB to 1GB above.
  • Or directly type the file name or extension in the search box to narrow it down.

Filter

Step 3. Recover Data from Corrupted External Hard Drive

Once found, double-click them to preview and select the desired files by ticking the checkboxes or leaving the unwanted files blank. Then, click the Recover button and select a new location to save the recovered files as restoring to the original location may cause data overwriting.

Recover Data from Corrupted External Hard Drive

⚠️The free edition of MyRecover can recover deleted or lost data from external hard drive over 500MB. Once exceeded, please upgrade to MyRecover Pro or Technician to enjoy unlimited data recovery. The lifetime version is a one-time payment for all features with no time limit, which is super cost-effective.

How to Fix Corrupted External Hard Drive without Formatting

Well then, you can attempt to fix corrupted external hard drive without formatting using the following methods.

Way 1: Try Some Thing Simple

Sometimes, the external hard drive is not corrupted but unrecognzied due to a loose connection. So it’s necessary to check the following things:

  • Check the USB cable for any visible wear and tear signs. If yes, replace it with a new one.
  • Try a different USB port and see if the external hard drive is recognized.
  • Connect the external hard drive to another working computer to exclude issues with the drive itself.

If these things are fine, continue with more advanced troubleshooting methods.

Way 2: Assign or Change Drive Letter

In general, when you connect the external hard drive, the computer will assign a drive letter to it automatically. However, due to random glitches or file system corruption, the external drive may lose its drive letter.

Step 1. Press Win + X and select Disk Management.

Step 2. Locate and right-click the external hard drive, and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Step 3. In the following window, click Add > select a new drive letter. Then, click OK. If the drive letter conflicts, click Change.

Assign New Drive Letter

Way 3: Use CHKDSK

CHKDSK is a command-line tool that can scan and fix hard drive errors. Using the /r parameter, it still can check the disk surface and mark bad sectors accordingly.

Step 1. Type cmd in the search box and select Run as administrator.

Step 2. Type chkdsk X: /f /r /x and press Enter to scan and fix the file system errors. Please replace X: with the drive letter of your external hard drive.

chkdsk f r x

⚠️Notes:
  • /f tells CHKDSK to fix any errors it finds.

  • /r helps to scan for bad sectors and mark them as unusable, and recover readable information.

  • /x forces Windows to dismount the drive before scanning.

Way 4: Use SFC

SFC is also a command line utility that can scan and repair corrupted system files (if there are any), making it possible for you to access the external hard drive again.

Step 1. Open CMD with the administrator by typing cmd in the search box and selecting it.

Step 2. Type sfc /scannow and press Enter. Just wait until the process is complete.

SFC

Way 5: Reinstall or Update Drivers

Outdated or corrupted disk drivers can also prevent the external hard drive from being recognized well. If the problem still exists, try to reinstall or update drivers.

Step 1. Right-click the Start menu and select Device Manager.

Step 2. Expand Disk drives to find the external hard drive, right-click on it, and select Update driver.

Update WD Disk Driver

Step 3. Select Search automatically for updated driver software and follow the prompts to install any found updates.

Search Driver Automatically

Step 4. Select Uninstall device if there is no update and restart your computer. It will reinstall the drivers automatically.

Way 6: Scan Disk for Viruses or Malware

In addition, the disk may be infected by viruses or malware. To exclude this possibility, you need to scan the disk using antivirus software. The built-in Windows Defender will be the best choice if you don’t want to download any software.

Step 1. Type windows security and select Virus & threat protection on the right side.

Step 2. Click Scan options.

Scan Options

Step 3. In the Scan options window, select Full scan and click Scan now. Once found any threats, it will be quarantined automatically. Or you’ll be asked how to deal with them.

Full Scan

How to Prevent Corrupted External Hard Drive and Data Loss

You don't want to corrupt the external hard disk, but sometimes accidents happen. Well, you still can do some things for effective prevention:

  • ​Use a UPS power supply.
  • Always remove the hard drive with the safe eject option.
  • Keep your drive in a cool and dry place.
  • Regularly monitor the drive’s health.
  • Create backup copies to protect data safely, even in the event of a corrupted disk. Microsoft offers users built-in backup software like Backup and Restore (Windows 7), File History, and Back up to OneDrive to help you.

Conclusion

This article describes how to recover files from a corrupted external hard drive without formatting and fix it easily and quickly. Using powerful data recovery software MyRecover, is one of the best methods for recovering data with a high success rate.

Download Software Windows 11/10/8/7/Server
Secure Download

It’s categorized into different areas according to the data loss scenarios, equipped with optimal scanning methods, and known for its super-fast scanning and recovery speeds. In addition, it still has many flexible recovery options.

Ivy
Ivy · Editor
Ivy is an editor of AOMEI Technology, she covers backup & restores hard disk & partition management and cloud file transfer, and so on for AOMEI. She is an outgoing girl and enjoys helping people find solutions to their problems. She loves traveling, eating, reading, and so on. She usually hangs out with friends at her leisure time.