How to fix CRC errors on external hard drive

Question

I was transferring a 2 GB file from my desktop to an external hard drive. But I accidentally restarted the computer. Now I'm getting CRC errors, and I can't access what's on the hard drive. Windows 7 always says that I format the drive.

Is there a way I can fix this, using a free software. What do I do recover the data?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 01 '15 at 23:53

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You can perform checkdisk on that drive or perform a low-level format.

edited Oct 01 '15 at 23:53

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 05 '11 at 11:24

Asghar

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is it possible to recover the data once I get this kind of errors? – Wern Ancheta Aug 05 '11 at 11:25
yes you can recover with tools like easyrecovery, recover my files etc. – Asghar Aug 05 '11 at 11:26
If it is asking him to format, it is not showing him any partition, or drive letter. You can't run chkdsk with no letter. – KCotreau Aug 05 '11 at 12:39

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '11 at 12:47

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I do not know if you can fix the disk, but depending on how valuable the data is, File Scavenger would recover it, but the version you would need is $49.

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

answered Aug 05 '11 at 12:47

KCotreau

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '13 at 08:33

I would caution you to run a diagnostic on the drive before you do anything else. You may well have more than just CRC errors as they usually only come up on a bad drive. Contrary to what others say, CRC errors are unrecoverable. They are usually seen as a result of the internal logic of the drive giving different data for the same sectors and the check noticing this and throwing up an error.

Western Digital and Seagate both have software that can and will low level format your drive if it needs it. As long as you don't have a failed or failing drive, you should be able to recover your data or at least some of it provided you don't write very much to it.

Good luck because I think you are going to need it.

score -2 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 01 '15 at 23:54

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The only way to recover data from a hard disk having CRC errors is to recover data from platters directly, but this can be done by data recovery lab experts. Or sector-by-sector recovery by using hardware firmware tools.

edited Oct 01 '15 at 23:54

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 27 '15 at 22:39

user441811

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How to fix CRC errors on external hard drive

4 Answers4