How to Recover Files from Crashed External Hard Drive

Amy Dennis

Mar 16, 2023 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

Can you recover data after a disk crash?

This is an annoying problem. If a hard drive crashes can cause your important data to be nothing at all. However, you still stand a good chance of recovering data from external hard drive, even if the drive is crashed and corrupted. Read on and get to know how to accomplish the external hard drive crash recovery.

Part 1: Free Download External Hard Drive Crash Recovery Software

Since your external hard drive can still be recognized by the computer, you can recover crashed external hard drive data with a third-party data recovery program. Recoverit external hard drive recovery software is a choice for you. It enables you to recover data lost due to hard drive crash, system error, and accidental deletion. All you need to do is to scan your crashed external hard drive with this program to check how many files you can recover.

Your Safe & Reliable External Hard Drive Recovery Software

• Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely and completely.
• Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorders.
• Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.

Download | WinDownload | Mac

Part 2: How to Recover Data from a Dead External Hard Drive

1. Video Guide to External Hard Drive Recovery

Do exactly what this video demonstrates to you and you can get the desired results. Of course, you can also take a look at the below text-based guide to learn how to recover files from the external hard drive.

Recent Videos from Recoverit

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2. How to Recover Files from External Hard Drive Without Formatting

Free download and install Recoverit Data Recovery on your computer, connect your external hard drive to your computer and follow the next steps to recover files from an external hard drive that is undetected, crashed, corrupted, or dead.

Select your crashed external hard drive

The program will list all local partitions and external hard drives in your computer. You just need to select your external hard drive and click "Start" to continue.

Scan the corrupted external hard drive for lost files

This external hard drive recovery will start a quick scan to find your data. If you can't see your desired files, please start a deep scan with the "All-Around Recovery" mode, which can search for more files.

Preview and recover your desired files

After it finishes the scan, you can preview all the recoverable files, select the files, and click "Recover" to retrieve them.

Note: After recovering files from external hard drive, we highly suggest you fix the crashed hard disk for future use.

Part 3: How to Fix a Corrupted External Hard Drive

Sure, external hard disk repair can be done by yourself. Usually, you can simply and quickly fix hard disk errors by formatting. However, formatting an external hard disk can bring about data loss and many other issues. A safer method is to fix external hard drive using CMD.

How to Fix a Corrupted External Hard Drive Without Formatting

1. Type CMD in the search box to access Command Prompt.
2. Right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator".
3. Type the command "chkdsk F: /F" to start scanning the external hard disk for errors.
4. Press "Enter" and the disk repair tool will automatically repair your corrupted hard disk.

In the third step, you can also type the command "chkdsk F: /F /X /R" to do a more thorough hard disk check. /X can force the volume of the external hard disk to dismount before the scan. /R can help you locate the hard drive bad sectors and recover all readable data. Besides, the first F varies according to the drive letter of your external hard disk.

More Related: How To Recover Data From Crashed System Using Knoppix

Closing Words

If data in your crashed external hard drive is logically damaged, it is impossible to recover it. This is also why Recoverit data recovery offers a trial version. This trial version can help you to check how many files you can recover and check whether files found by it are what you want to retrieve or not. Get the trial version of Recoverit data recovery and recover files from the external hard drive.

FAQs

Can a crashed external hard drive be fixed?

You should be able to recover the data with a software recovery tool if the hard disc has logically failed or if the files, you’re looking for have been removed or reformatted. However, trying to retrieve data from a failing or damaged hard drive can exacerbate the damage and make the data unrecoverable.

How much does it cost to recover data from a hard drive?

Based on these criteria, basic hard disc data recovery fees range from $100 to $700. This cost is usually determined by the extent of the damage and the time it takes to get to the point of data extraction. If your damaged hard disc requires expert data recovery, you should expect to pay between $700 and $2,000 on average.

Can files be recovered from a failed hard drive?

If the drive hasn’t failed, you can try to recover essential data from it as soon as possible. You might try booting from a Windows installer DVD or a live Linux system and transferring only the relevant files from your hard drive. Even if the hard drive has crashed entirely, you can recover files manually by connecting them to another device.

How long does it take to recover data from a hard drive?

Hardware recovery takes roughly 7 to 10 days on average; however, it can take longer depending on the factors listed below. Drive Size - Even if the drive is fully working, a single scan on a 4TB drive can take up to 20 hours, and a typical recovery may require numerous scans to locate all files adequately.

How do I recover a permanently deleted file?

Locate and pick the folder containing the deleted files, then right-click on it. Then, under “Properties,” select “Restore prior version.” Windows will write down the earlier versions of permanently removed files. If no earlier versions are available, you can still use this method: Make a new file with the same name as the one that was destroyed. Then, “Properties” -> “Restore” once more.