Recover Data From a Hard Drive With Bad Sector — How To ⁅Complete Solution⁆

Do you have folders or files on your hard drive that are damaged or can’t be opened? Does your computer freeze or take a long time to load programs? Does it fail to start up or give you errors when you try to read the HDD? Some parts of your hard drive may be bad.

You can recover data from a hard drive that has bad sectors, which is good news. Let’s look at what bad HDD sectors are before we talk about the best ways to recover data from a hard drive with bad sector.

Types of Bad Sectors on a Hard Drive

Bad sectors on a hard drive can be:

• Soft or logical: software issues cause these incorrectly working storage clusters. Some causes include unexpected or forced computer shutdowns, power outages, forcible HDD disconnection, and malware.
• Hard or physical: Besides manufacturing errors and normal wear and tear, you might cause physical damage by dropping your HDD or exposing it to extreme temperatures and dust (e.g., due to faulty CPU fans).

You might have heard that you can’t recover files from bad sectors. That’s only partially true because it depends on the damage. Let’s dive deeper into the matter.

Can data be recovered from a hard drive that has bad sectors?

A hard drive with bad sectors can still have data recovered if the damage is reasonable. Fixing any kind of program problem is possible, from file system failures to malware attacks.

Unfortunately, data recovery is hard or impossible when there is physical loss. Professional data recovery services may be able to help, but even they can’t fix hard drives that are seriously damaged. Hopefully, that’s not the case with yours.

Learn how to get files back from a hard drive that has bad sectors, whether the problem is mental or real.

How to Recover Data From a Hard Drive With Bad Sectors

The first three methods below will show you how to recover data from a bad-sector hard disk with logical damage, while the fourth solution is for its physical counterpart.

Option 1: BLR Tools for Hard Drive Data Recovery with Bad Sectors

BLR Tools is a trustworthy hard drive data recovery software for you to recover data from a hard drive with bad sectors. It can recover all partitions from your hard drive. The power recovery feature of the hard drive data recovery software enables you to restore a huge amount of files in different formats, including images, videos, document files, audio files, etc. Besides, it is fully compatible with computer internal hard drives and removable hard drives.

• Recovers data from 2000+ storage media, including HDDs, SSDs, USB drives, SD cards, etc.
• It enables the recovery of data lost due to formatting, disk corruption, virus attacks, and more.
• It works with all popular file systems, such as NTFS, FAT, HFS+, and APFS, among others.

Here’s how to recover data from an HDD with bad sectors using BLR Tools:

1. Once you download, install, and launch the program, click Hard Drives and Locations, find, and click your hard drive with bad sectors. select the HDD with bad sectors
2. The software will perform quick and deep scans. You can pause or stop the process anytime, and you can leverage the search bar and filters (type, size, time, tag, and status) to retrieve specific files. scan the hard drive for lost files.
3. Once the scanning is complete, preview the retrieved data in full screen or in the right-hand sidebar, click Select All or choose specific files, and hit Recover. recover files from a hard drive with bad sectors
4. Select the destination (preferably another disk) and click Recover. confirm bad sector data recovery

BLR Tools has been around for years. This bad-sector hard disk data recovery software is only one of its dozens of expert tools with millions of trusted users. You can rely on it to recover data in different - different scenarios.

Option 2: Contact a Professional Data Recovery Service

Now you know how to get back data from a hard drive that has bad sectors. But what if the program doesn’t get the data back? Bad things could happen to the body.

So, get in touch with a professional data recovery service to see if they can fix the problem. They know how to fix a hard disk’s bad area and will look at it carefully before they try to fix it.

What if they can’t make things right? Then it’s likely time to get a new HDD.

How to Fix a Hard Drive With Bad Sectors

Option 1: Repair the Hard Drive With Bad Sectors Using CHKDSK

Once you retrieve data, you can try repairing your hard drive with the CHKDSK (Check Disk) command in the Command Prompt (CMD).

However, you can first run a similar check in File Explorer to detect potential errors. That way, you don’t need to use the CMD if your computer reports no disk errors. If you’re sure bad sectors exist, skip to the CMD part below.

Here’s how to run CHKDSK in File Explorer:

1. Go to File Explorer > This PC, right-click your problematic HDD, and select Properties. access HDD properties
2. Switch to the Tools tab and click Check. Check the hard drive for bad sectors.
3. You’ll see the “You don’t need to scan this drive” message if the utility finds no errors. However, you can scan the drive to double-check. scan the drive before bad sector data recovery.
4. Once the error-checking utility scans and fixes potential issues, you’ll see the following success message: Click Close. bad sector data recovery success

You don’t need to run the Check Disk utility in the Command Prompt if it doesn’t report errors in File Explorer. However, even if it fixes an issue, the CMD performs more actions to recover HDD bad sectors. Here’s what to do:

1. Find CMD in the search bar and click Run as administrator.
2. Run this command: chkdsk g: /f /r /x. However, replace g with your hard drive’s letter. The f parameter rewrites the file system directory, the r initiates the repair, and the x dismounts the HDD to run the scan and fix potential errors. recover HDD bad sectors with the chkdsk command

If this method doesn’t work, try formatting the hard drive.

Option 2: Format the Drive

Formatting your hard drive will rewrite the file system directory and eliminate software issues. The Check Disk utility does the same, but the following steps are more straightforward.

Here’s how to format your drive in Disk Management:

1. Launch the Run Command dialog box using the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter or click OK.
3. Right-click the HDD with bad sectors and click Format. format the drive to recover HDD bad sectors
4. Untick the Perform a Quick Format checkbox and click OK. Otherwise, disk management will ignore bad sectors. perform a quick format

Note: A full format will permanently delete all data from your hard drive, making it irretrievable. Be sure to recover data from the hard drive with bad sectors using BLR Tools, as mentioned earlier.

Conclusion

Bad sectors on an HDD aren’t the end of the world. You can fix bad sectors on your hard drive that are caused by things like file system problems and malware to get your hard drive back up and running. You can also get help from professionals if the above methods don’t work because your HDD is physically damaged.

But don’t forget to first restore data from a hard drive that has bad areas. The best way to keep your data safe is to use a data recovery tool like BLR Tools.

FAQs

Why do hard drives have faulty sectors?

HDD bad sectors are usually caused by software faults, unexpected computer shutdowns, power outages, viruses, and forced HDD disconnection. Accidental drops, dust, severe temperatures, or manufacturing faults may potentially cause physical damage.

How can you prevent faulty hard drive sectors?

Clean your computer regularly, treat the HDD carefully, securely eject external drives before unplugging them, and install and update antivirus software. Buy HDDs from trustworthy manufacturers and keep them out of moisture, dust, and excessive heat or cold.

Does hard drive reformat cure faulty sectors?

Full formatting may restore logically damaged hard disk sectors. Only the file system directory is rewritten by Quick Format. Both delete data, however, BLR Tools can restore it if you don’t replace it.