Macs aren’t immune from hard disk corruption and failures. They’re just as common on Macs as they are PCs. Although most Macs have solid-state drives, even these systems can have problems. Apple’s built-in utilities and some third-party programs will get you up and running.
Mar 04, 2020 Although the appearance may seem to put off a user, Pandora Recovery is still the best software with the ability to identify deleted partitions or data from an external hard disk. The wizard guides you throughout and chooses the best settings based on user input in scanning for the lost data. Nov 17, 2017 Hello everyone, Saving the drama of switching from Mac to Windows (sigh), I've decided on purchasing the Surface Pro 4. What I need to know if there is a safe program that exists to install on a Surface Pro 4 (Windows 10) that will allow it to read the Mac Time Machine backups file on my external hard drive so I can extract my iTunes content and save onto the Surface Pro 4. If the hard disk drive is outdated or damaged then the system will not read the externally attached disk. So, simply perform the steps and fix hard drive not reading Windows 10, 8, 7, etc. First, you need to click on the Start and then type: devmgmt.msc and press Enter. This is part of a series of articles about backing up your Mac, read more here: How to back up your Mac; Best cloud storage services; Best backup software for Mac; Repair the failed Mac hard disk.
Symptoms of a Hard Disk Problem
The worst noise you’ll hear from a mechanical hard disk is a clicking or grinding noise. That means the drive is failing. At that point, the drive isn’t repairable. It’s time to back up your data and then replace the drive. You already have a backup though, right?
Not all drives exhibit symptoms in this way. Sometimes you’ll get the prohibitory no symbol at startup or a flashing folder with a question mark. After turning off your Mac and turning it back on, the system boots just fine. Other times you’ll get the spinning rainbow wheel, letting you know your Mac is waiting on something. That could be because your Mac is waiting on the hard drive.no symbol at startup or a flashing folder with a question mark. After turning off your Mac and turning it back on, the system boots just fine. Other times you’ll get the spinning rainbow wheel, letting you know your Mac is waiting on something. That could be because your Mac is waiting on the hard drive.
Diagnosing the Problem
If you suspect your hard disk is failing, it is time to make a backup. Now. Again, you should already have a backup of your Mac. Don’t proceed before you try to make a backup. Apple’s Disk Utilityis the first place to start. Reboot your Mac and hold down the command and r key down at the same time to enter Recovery Mode.
Don’t have recovery mode? You’ll need an offline Mac installer to run Disk Utility off a USB drive.When you reboot, you’ll see the OS X Utilities window. At the bottom of the list is Disk Utility. Select Disk First Aid to test the hard drive for problems. The utility will fix any problems or warn you of a S.M.A.R.T hard drive error. If Disk Utility finds any problems, try rebooting and see if everything is working.
Some Macs have a built-in hardware diagnostic. Reboot your Mac holding down the D key. That runs a full hardware test on your Mac. The diagnostic will report any problems, including the hard drive.
Does your Mac Support Apple Diagnostics? Apple explains which models support this here.Your Might Have a Confused Hard Drive
The Mac’s journaled file system usually keeps things in order. Glitches and improper shutdowns might leave things scrambled. If Disk Utility reports a problem it can’t fix, it is time to try a third party utility. My favorite is Disk Warrior. It often fixes problems Apple’s utility can’t. It can also do more diagnostics on your drive.
You’ll need to boot your Mac off a Disk Warrior flash drive to do testing and repair. The program creates a Recovery flash drive. During its diagnostic process it will repair and optimize the drive. If it detects a hard drive error, the program warns you.
Sometimes it isn’t the Hard Disk
If you’ve tried all this and are still having problems, there could be something wrong with your Mac other than the hard drive. If you have a MacBook Pro, the ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the rest of the computer can go bad. The Mac exhibits all the same symptoms as a failed hard drive. The best way to figure this out is to remove your hard drive and try it in another Mac. If the hard drive works on another computer, then it isn’t your hard drive.
Check to see if the repair is free: Check your serial number with Apple. Your Mac may still be under warranty.The other typical problem is operating system errors. A system update or upgrade was interrupted leaving your Mac in a confused state. You can reinstall your operating system from the recovery mode. That won’t erase any data on your Mac.
Rarely the problem is in the Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) . Before you give up hope, try Apple’s procedure for resetting the SMC.
What if You Have a Solid State Drive?
Solid State Drives (SSDs) don’t make the typical noises of a mechanical hard drive. After all,they have no moving parts. The testing procedures are the same. You won’t be able to easily remove the hard drive to test it in another machine. Programs like Disk Warrior are smart enough to change the optimization procedure for an SSD drive.
Replacing the Hard Drive
Some Macs have easy hard drives to replace. Some Mac models hard drives aren’t replaceable by end users. Most Mac-savvy retailers know the difference and can guide you towards the right repair. Replacing your hard drive with an SSD will give you the best performance, but may limit your storage space. We cover the differences here.
ALSO READ:DaisyDisk: The Best, Most Intuitive App to Find Large Files on Your Mac’s Hard Drive
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Summary
Is your hard drive corrupted due to files system error that turn a hard drive RAW? This article covers many useful ways to help you do HDD repair with professional hard disk repair software. Follow the details to repair hard disk manually or with HDD repair software. Also, download EaseUS hard disk recovery software to recover data from the corrupted or damaged hard drive.
PAGE CONTENT:
- Possible Causes of Hard Drive Disk Errors
- How to Make Hard Disk Repair With Free Hard Disk Repair Software
- How to Prevent Hard Drive Corruption and Data Loss
- Hard Disk Repair FAQs
When the hard drive gets corrupted due to file system error or the hard drive turns into RAW, don't panic. This guide would do you a great favor by providing detailed steps to repair a corrupt hard disk without losing data. To handle it, you must check if it is the logical error that prevents you from accessing the hard drive. If so, you can check and perform hard disk repair. If it is a physical hard drive problem, you'll need to send your hard drive to the data recovery or repair service center.
Possible Causes of Hard Drive Disk Errors
Before you try to repair hard disk, you should know what causes hard drive corruption. Here is the list of top reasons for hard disk failure.
- Virus attack
- Bad sectors
- Sudden system shutdown or crash
- Human errors
- Power supply and overheating problem
Now that you know what causes hard drive failure, you can repair the hard drive to solve your problem.
- Warning
- When you connect a RAW hard disk to your computer, Windows may display prompt to format the corrupt (RAW) drive volume. Click 'Cancel'. Do not click 'Format' as it will result in permanent data loss without a data recovery tool.
How to Make Hard Disk Repair With Free Hard Disk Repair Software
Before you start, you should manually check your power supply and the heat of your fan. Make sure that they are working properly. And then, take the following solutions for HDD repair.
1. Run Antivirus
Connect the hard drive to another Windows PC and use a reliable antivirus to scan the drive. Sometimes, viruses and malware can cause such errors. Therefore, an antivirus scan may repair the corrupted hard drive and make the drive accessible.
2. Check and Repair Hard Disk Error in Windows 10/8/7
Try Windows built-in tool to check and repair hard disk error first. If it works, you can easily access your data. Here's how to do it in Windows 10, 8 or 7:
Step 1. Open 'This PC/Computer', right-click the hard disk or partition which you want to check and click 'Properties'.
Step 2. Select 'Tools' and click 'Check now' under Error-checking.
Step 3. Check Disk Options dialog will show up and select any one of the following options to check and repair hard disk.
Step 4. Select and check both 'Automatically fix file system errors' and 'Scan for and attempt recovery of back sectors', then click 'Start'.
- To run this tool in read-only mode, click 'Start'.
- To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select 'Automatically fix file system errors' checkbox, click 'Start'.
- To repair errors, locate bad sectors and recover readable information, click 'Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors', click 'Start'.
After the whole repair process, your hard disk or hard drive partition shall be able to work normally. You can then try to access saved data on the hard drive.
3. Run SFC Scan
The SFC Scannow option is one of the several specific switches available in the SFC command. It helps fix the damaged or missing Windows system files that may cause drive corruption.
Step 1. Open the command prompt window.
Step 2. Type the following command in the command prompt window and press 'Enter' on the keyboard.
If the drive is a portable drive, type the command below and replace letter c: with your hard drive letter.
Wait for the scan to finish and then restart the system. You can try again to see if you can access your hard drive.
4. Check File System With Free Hard Disk Repair Software
To check and repair file system error that causes hard disk drive corruption, you can use the free hard disk repair software - EaseUS Partition Master. It enables you to check bad sectors and prevent data corruption by fixing the file system errors with the Check File System feature.
In addition to the HDD repair, this partition manager software also provides variable useful partition organizing functions, such as resize/move partition, clone, merge, create, format, and delete partition, convert MBR to GPT, convert a logical partition to primary or primary partition to logical, and FAT to NTFS partition.
Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.
Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.
Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.
5. Use a Data Recovery Tool and Format Hard Disk
If the above methods fail to repair the corrupt hard drive and it’s still in RAW, then the corruption is severe, and you need to format the hard drive. In this case, you should use powerful data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard quickly restore files from corrupted hard disk, recover formatted hard drive data or restore data from deleted partitions before you format the hard disk. Even when Windows can not recognize a corrupted hard drive as usable, this software still supports recovery from a corrupt (RAW) hard drive.
Now, download this hard drive recovery software and follow guides below to restore lost hard disk data.
Step 1. Select and scan hard drive.
On EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, select the drive where you lose your data and click 'Scan'. Wait patiently until this program finishes the scanning, it will find all your lost data on the drive.
Step 2. Find and preview found files on the selected drive.
Check 'Deleted Files', 'Lost Files' or use 'Filter', 'Search' to find the lost files on the selected hard drive. You can double-click to open and check the found files.
Step 3. Recover and save lost hard drive data.
Select all found lost hard drive files, click 'Recover' and browse another secure location to save them. Click 'OK' to confirm and finish the recovery process.
How to format a hard drive for hard disk repair
After successful data recovery from the corrupt hard drive, format the drive in Disk Management to repair hard disk. And then, move the restored data to the hard drive.
Disk Drive Software
Step 1. Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Manage'.
Step 2. Go to 'Disk Management'.
Step 3. Right-click the target hard drive partition and choose 'Format'.
Step 4. Set the volume label, file system, and click 'OK' to start formatting the drive.
How to Prevent Hard Drive Corruption and Data Loss
How to avoid hard disk corruption and data loss trouble on your PC in Windows 10/8/7? Here below, we have some tips for you.
- Run the CHKDSK command to check and repair hard disk errors frequently.
- Clean up a virus with antivirus software in time.
- Frequently de-fragment the drive
- Do not force the shutdown system using the power button
- Back up important data on HDD regularly. (External storage devices are recommended.)
- Apply EaseUS hard disk repair software to recover HDD lost data timely once data loss trouble happens.
Hard Disk Repair FAQs
1. Can I repair hard disk?
Yes, if the hard drive corruption occurs due to file system error, you can use the free hard disk repair software to check and fix file system error.
2. How do you fix a corrupted hard drive?
You can fix a corrupted hard drive by running antivirus, CHKDSK scan, SFC scan, and format the RAW hard drive.
3. How much does it cost to fix a hard drive?
If all you want is a functioning drive, then it should cost no more than $200. The hard drive mechanism inside the external enclosure could be replaced for less than a #100, and a complete replacement for the entire unit is around $150.
4. Can a hard disk be repaired?
There are two types of hard drive errors, logic and physical errors. In most cases, Windows is able to repair a logic error, as it's almost always related to a software mishap. Formatting the drive will almost always fix this. But, if it's a physic corruption, it can not be repaired.
5. Can external hard disk be repaired?
Mac Hard Disk Format
Generally speaking, the external hard drive errors can be repaired using the CHKDSK command lines. You can start the command prompt by pressing the Windows key and try cmd.