External hard drives are a lifesaver. They are a nifty tool that can help us create safe backups for our data and most of all they are pretty durable.
But no matter how durable and how much you take care of your external hard drive, they still get damaged and corrupted.
And of course, the first thing you want to do is repair them. But, how do you perform a hard drive repair? You’ll be pleased to know that there are actually different ways on how to do an external hard drive repair. And the best part is they are all listed below!
Reasons Why your Hard Drive Needs Repair
The damage on your hard drive didn’t just happen for no reason. That is why before repairing your external hard drive it is best to know the reasons why it was damaged. It helps you figure out the best solution to repair this error.
- Virus attack – One of the most common reasons why external data storage devices get damaged is due to virus attacks. Devices often get infected because of interrupted data transfers and corrupted files.
- Power supply and overheating problem – Keep in mind that an external hard drive is a device, and if it’s working a lot or processing a large amount of data, it will eventually heat up. This will then cause errors and damages.
- Bad sectors – These are unusable partitions lurking around your hard drive. And although they are unusable, these tiny bundles will eventually bulk up and cause errors. Also, and also, bad sectors can also be acquired through physical damage.
- Physical damage – Damages on your external hard drive can also affect its performance and may risk the safety of your data.
- Logical Errors of the drive – This occurs when a hard drive cannot access due to non-mechanical issues.
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Perform External Hard Drive Repair on Windows
Here are the ways on how to do a hard drive repair on your Windows computer. Check them out.
1. Run Command Prompt (CMD)
The easiest way to do an external hard drive repair on Windows is through the Command Prompt. This will run a scan on your hard drive to rule out any issues available. Here’s how to do it.
- Connect your hard drive to your PC.
- Open the Command Prompt as Administrator.
- On the CMD window type in CHKDSK /f/r/D: (replace D with the letter assigned to your external hard drive) then hit Enter.
- Wait for the scan to finish and when it’s done close the window. Open your hard drive and see if it’s repaired successfully.
2. Run SFC Scan
Another way to repair an external hard drive is by the SFC scan. It removes bad sectors and scans and fixes missing or damaged Windows system files.
- Use a USB cable to connect your external hard drive to your PC.
- Launch Command Prompt and type in D: \> SFC/scannow (replace D with the letter assigned to your external hard drive) the Enter.
- Wait for the scan to finish. When it’s done, close the window and restart your PC.
- After that, check your hard drive if it’s repaired.
3. Format External Hard Drive
If the two methods above didn’t work, you might want to consider formatting your external hard drive. This way, your device will reset and all potential viruses will be removed.
This method will wipe out all your hard drive’s contents. Better back up your file before proceeding.
- Carefully connect the hard drive to your computer.
- Go to My PC right click on the hard drive.
- From there, select Format.
- There will be several confirmations that will show up on the screen. Carefully read them and follow the instructions to proceed.
- After the process is done, check your hard drive if the error still exists.
Repair External Hard Drive on Mac
Here are different ways how to perform a hard drive repair on Mac. Check out the three methods below.
1. Run FSCK Command
The File System Consistency Check or FSCK command is one of the easiest ways to repair external hard drives on Mac. This method will check and repair errors on your hard drive.
- Connect the hard drive to your Mac and open the Terminal.
- Type in diskutil list, this will show all the drives connected to your PC. Locate your target drive.
- Restart your Mac and boot it in Single User Mode by holding the “Command+S” keys before the Apple logo shows up.
- You will see texts appear on the screen. When it stops, type in: /sbin/fsck –fy. Then hit Enter.
- After that, type: /sbin/fsck_[external drive system] -fy /dev/(letter assigned to drive).
- The scan will then commence. When it’s done, type Reboot in command and restart your Mac. You can then check your hard drive after the process.
2. Use Terminal
If that didn’t work, you can still use Terminal’s other feature to repair hard drives on Mac. Here’s how to do it.
- Launch Terminal and type in the command “cd /Volumes” and “Is”. Hit Enter and you should see all our drives.
- Select your target drive and key in “diskutil verifyVolume xxx (external storage name)” then hit Enter.
- Next, type in “diskutil repairvolume /Volumes/xxx (external hard drive name)” then Enter.
- After a few moments, the process should end and your hard drive should be repaired.
3. Format External Hard Drive
Now if none of the solutions above worked, then try to format your hard drive. This will reset and reboot your drive and remove potential bugs.
- Open Utilities and find the target drive.
- Click the drive and select the Erase option.
- This will format your hard drive. Wait for the process to finish.
- When it’s done, check if it’s repaired.
If you don’t have the time to repair your hard drive, you can send them to the repair center. However, these services require a fee depending on how much work is needed on your drive.
Bonus: Recover Data from External Hard Drive with echoshare Data Recovery for Mac and Windows
Now, if you failed to back up your files before repairing your hard drive and you completely lost all your data. Don’t worry! echoshare Data Recovery is here to help.
This one-of-a-kind data recovery tool works smoothly with both Mac and Windows OS. It can recover any data on your hard drive, including photos, videos, audio, and even email! As this tool supports multiple data formats such as JPEG, MP4, MP3, WAV, and a whole lot more! And rest assured that your data quality will remain the same after recovery. 100% no quality loss guaranteed!
With its user-friendly interface, you can recover your data quickly. Yes! echoshare Data Recovery also supports batch recovery which lets you recover multiple files at once. How amazing is that? It also repairs corrupted data and brings them back to their original shape!
Aside from data repair and recovery, this tool also protects your data against errors and bugs! Pretty cool right? So don’t waste time and grab this tool now!
Steps to Use echoshare Data Recovery
Step 1: Hit the download button above and install echoshare on your computer.
Step 2: Insert your external hard on your PC.
Step 3: After that, launch the program. Select how your file was lost and what type of file you want to recover and hit Next.
Step 4: On the next screen, select your hard drive and click Scan.
Step 5: Mark the ones you want to recover and hit Restore.
Step 6: Save your retrieved file on a different drive with a different file name.
Conclusion
It’s good to know that there are solutions that can help us repair external drives and at the same time recover the data we accidentally lost. If ever you are in the same spot again, feel free to use the methods and products we introduced.