How Do I Recover Data from Drive with Damaged File System
- What Is File System?
- Chapter 1. Recover Lost Data via Damaged Partition Recovery Module.
- Chapter 2. Recover Lost Data via Lost Partition Recovery Module.
- Chapter 3. Other Useful Ways to Recover Data from Damaged File System
- How to Fix Drive with Damaged File System
- Conclusion
- Related Articles
- User Comments
Content:
Summary: Download MiniTool Power Data Recovery to easily and quickly recover data from drive with damaged file system.
Have you ever come across the problem of damaged file system? As we know, if the file system is damaged, we cannot access this drive as well as its data. Here, I guess some people will worry about this since they don't know how to recover data from drive with damaged file system. In general, if your drive file system has been damaged due to hard drive crash or other reasons, don't worry. MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a piece of green, simple and professional software, can help you restore data from damaged disk without damaging the original data.
Here, before recovering data from inaccessible disk, I am going to show you what file system is.
What Is File System?
As we know, file system is used to control how data is stored and retrieved. And, file systems can be used on numerous different types of storage devices that use different kinds of media. Here, you can read this post "File system" to know more details.
If the file system is damaged, we cannot access this drive as well as its data. A true example is shown here.
External HDD corrupt file system
Hi! I really need some help.
My External HDD file system has become corrupt, and I need to recover all data as it has my college work on it.
Already run DSKCHK and it is still corrupt.
Please help, many thanks in advance.
Using WIN 7 64bit, 2.5inch external USB/SATA HDD (Western Digital).
I think the file system is NTFS.
Symptoms of Damaged File System
And, you may receive the following typical symptoms if you try to access the drive with damaged file system in Windows Explorer:
- The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
- The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable.
- You need to format the disk before you can use it. Do you want to format it now?
- This volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted. …
The Following Video Shows How to Solve this Error without Data Loss.
What is more serious is that you cannot access or see this drive in Windows Explorer since the Windows computer is unable to recognize the file system or this drive becomes unallocated. To be specific, you formatted the drive with the ext2/3/4 file system, but you can't access this drive since Windows can't read these file systems; if your drive becomes unallocated caused by damaged file system, you cannot see it. Here, you can read our previous post "The Volume Does Not Contain A Recognized File System – How To Fix" to know more information about damaged file system. The screenshot below shows damaged disks in Computer Management.
Next, let's see how to easily and quickly recover data from drive with damaged file system via MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
Chapter 1. Recover Lost Data via Damaged Partition Recovery Module.
Before recovering data from damaged file system, you have to download and install MiniTool Power Data Recovery. Here, you can download the free edition of Power Data Recovery to recover 1 GB data, or you can select the personal edition to effectively and safely recover more data.
If the file system is damaged, most users will firstly choose Damaged Partition Recovery to recover lost data, for this module is specially designed to recover data from logically damaged partition, reformatted partition, and RAW partition. In general, lost files could be recovered by using this module as long as the partition exists.
Step 1. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery, and then select Damaged Partition Recovery.
Step 2. Select the target drive whose file system is damaged, and then click Full Scan button at the lower right corner to begin full scanning on the device.
Step 3. Select needed files, and then click Save button which is located at the lower right corner to store selected files in a safe place.
- After full scanning, Power Data Recovery will find many partitions in the specified device but it only displays some of them. Here, if you cannot find the file you needed in these loaded partitions, click Back button to select other possible partitions.
- If you are recovering pictures, you can preview them before saving, as shown below.
- Don't directly store needed data in original partition where data loss emerges, or the deleted data will be overwritten, causing permanently data damage or data loss.
LOOK! With this tool, I quickly and effectively recovered lost data from damaged and RAW file system without damaging the original data.
Top recommendationOur previous post Recover Data from RAW File System, RAW Partition and RAW Drive Efficiently is recommended here to help you know more information about this excellent tool.
By using Damaged Partition Recovery of MiniTool Power Data Recovery, we can easily and quickly recover files from damaged disk. However, sometimes, we should try another module to recover lost files if the partition does not emerge in partition list. Here, let's see a true example from Windows 7 forum.
My external USB 3.0 HD was working perfectly well yesterday. However, today suddenly became an "unallocated" drive without even a drive name. I'm able to detect the drive but I have no way of accessing it.
The only solution that I've tried so far is to access the HD with another computer. But, the results are the same with those computers. I haven't done anything else....
Here, in this situation, how to recover data from the unallocated space?
Move onto chapter 2 to know how to get lost data back.
Chapter 2. Recover Lost Data via Lost Partition Recovery Module.
Lost Partition Recovery module not only can recover data from hard disk including mistakenly deleted partitions but also restore data from unallocated space caused by damaged file system.
Step 1. Click Lost Partition Recovery in the main interface of Power Data Recovery.
Step 2. Select the target drive you need to recover and then click Full Scan button.
Tips: in this window, we can use the Settings feature to specify needed file system (such as FAT12/16/32, NTFS and HFS+) and file types (including Document, Archive, Graphics/Picture, Audio, E-mail, Database and other files) before scanning.
Step 3. Preview and check all needed files, click Save button, and select an appropriate place to store the selected files.
Tips
If there are so many files found, we can make use of filter function configured in MiniTool Power Data Recovery to filter needless files. To be specific:
- Find Name: by using this feature, we can find needed file quickly from a large number of files as long as we remember file name. (Note: this feature doesn't work in some situations.)
- Advanced Filter: it filters needless files by file name/extension, file size, and creating or modifying date, which is good for promoting file recovery efficiency.
See! MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a good data recovery tool for us to recover lost data from drive with damaged file system. And, MiniTool offers Free Edition, Personal License, Commercial License, Enterprise License and Technician License to cater to the needs of different people. If you don't know which license type is the best for you, you can click here to know more information.
Chapter 3. Other Useful Ways to Recover Data from Damaged File System
Here, some users might think if there is any other way to recover data from inaccessible disk. Of course, the answer is yes.
1. If you don't want to spend time recovering lost data by yourself, you can turn to data recovery companies. It is indeed an effective solution for lost data recovery. But, you have to pay high recovery fees. Besides, you have to bear the risk of leaking privacy in the process of file recovery.
So, if you don't want to bear the risk of privacy leakage, you had better select a read-only data recovery tool. Besides, if you don't want to spend time learning a new program, you can choose a simple data recovery program. MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a green, professional, simple and easy-to-use data recovery software equipped with high security, is recommended here. By using this tool, you can easily and quickly recover lost data without bringing any damage to the original data.
2. If you have made a backup file, you can directly recover files from your backup files without turning to data recovery companies or any data recovery software.
Recovering data from backup files might be the best choice for everyone. However, you have to back up all needed files in advance. And, if you don't know how to effectively back up file, you can try MiniTool Partition Wizard, for it offers copy disk as well as copy partition to copy all data information from one place to another without any data loss and in simple operations.
In a word, once the file system is damaged, you have 3 options to recover lost data: data recovery software, data recovery companies, and backup files. And, you can select a suitable one according to actual needs to recover files from damaged disk. Here, according to a survey, if there is no backup file, most users choose MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover lost data because of its wizard-like interface, excellent performance as well as high security. Now, you can download the free edition and have a try. I guess it will surprise all of you. Or, you can directly get the personal edition and enjoy some discounts.
How to Fix Drive with Damaged File System
After recovering lost data from damaged file system, you can try the following solutions to fix this drive to reuse it. (Note, here, we take Windows 7 for example.)
1) Formatting
You can format the drive to NTFS/FAT32 file system.
Open Disk Management, right-click the drive whose file system is damaged, and then choose Format feature from the drop-down list. Next, specify volume label, file system as well as allocation unit size and then click OK button to continue this process.
2) Running Diskpart Commands
- Click Start button and click Run.
- Type "cmd" to the open box and hit Enter key, then you'll get the Command Prompt.
- In the command prompt box, type "chkdsk /f [Drive Letter]" and press Enter.
- Type "Exit" and press Enter.
3) Creating
If your hard drive becomes unallocated since its file system is damaged, you can try recovering lost data at first, and then create a new one on this unallocated space.
Top recommendation"Create a New Partition on a Windows 7 Hard Disk" will show you how to create partition by using Windows built-in disk management tool.
"Best Way to Create Partition on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP" will show you how to easily and quickly create Windows partition by using free MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Conclusion
If your file system is damaged, you can easily and quickly get lost data back from backup files. If there is no backup file, you can try MiniTool Power Data Recovery. By using this tool, you are able to effectively recover lost data from drive with damaged file system without affecting the original data.
If you have any questions, just leave us comments in the following area.
Common problems related to partition recovery and our solutions:
- Operating System Not Found Error Appears, How To Recover Data
- Meet The Best Way To Recover Files From Broken Computer
- How to Fix: You Need to Format the Disk before You Can Use It
- How to Recover Lost Data after Repartitioning a Hard Drive
- 10 Signs That May Drive Disk To Die & Recover Files From Dead Hard Disk