How to Scan and Repair Hard Drive or SSD for Free

Repair and Scan Damaged Hard Drives. The best free solutions

File storage is one of the basic pillars of modern computing. We keep more and more documents, photos and videos. never before we had needed so much space to store data. Although it is true that cloud platforms have become a popular option among users, there are still many who prefer to have their files locally. In the latter case, a serious hard drive failure can be a big problem.

Has something similar happened to you? Is your computer’s storage drive starting to fail? If so, you have come to the right place. Here we show you which are the programs that you should know in order to scan and repair your hard drive or SSD.

The selection of tools that we have made is based on two basic criteria:

• that they are effective. We recommend applications that will help you solve problems with your hard drive, either by scanning the drive, repairing it or recovering lost information.
• They don’t cost a penny. The other variable that we take into account here is that the recommendations we make to you are completely free.

With all these clarifications on the table, it is time to learn about those tools that will allow you scan and repair a hard drive or SSD for free. Let’s start!

Tools built into Windows: Check Disk and Diskpart

Windows includes a couple of utilities that will help you manage your hard drive and its partitions. One of them is diskpart and the other CheckDisk. Next, we show you how to use them on your computer to apply a comprehensive repair.

check disk

CheckDisk can scan and repair your hard drive in most cases. Although its use does not always work, we can say that this command is a good start when it comes to solving errors in a drive.

The first thing you need to do is open a new Command Prompt window as administrator. The simplest way is to type “CMD” in Windows search and right click on the first result. From the context menu, select Execute as an administrator.

Next, enter the following command:

This will scan the drive for errors. Remember to specify the letter of the drive you want to scan (in our case we have put C:). In reference to this process, keep in mind the following:

• Unable to browse main unit while the operating system is running. As shown in the image above, CheckDisk will offer to scan the hard drive the next time the computer is restarted.
• Add more options to CheckDisk. The command supports some additional parameters, such as /Xto force the volume to be unmounted before scanning, or /R, which locates bad sectors and recovers data. To add these functions, write the command like this: chkdsk C: /F /X /R.

diskpart

The objective of CheckDisk is to save the drive without erasing data. However, that doesn’t always work and unfortunately the next solution is format the drive. This is where a second CMD tool comes into action. All the commands of diskpart they are intended to manage units. One of them is FORMAT. How does it work?

Enter to CMD as administrator, just as you did in the previous step. So, run these commands:

• Enter the command diskpart to access the DISKPART tool in CMD.
• run list disk in order to list all disks. Each one is identified by a number.
• Uses select disk X to select the volume. Remember to change X to the identification number of the disk you want to format.
• Next, write clean to clean the drive. This erases all data on the drive.
• Create a primary partition with the command create partition primary.
• Write format fs=ntfs to apply a full format or format fs=ntfs quick for a quick format. As it is not as exhaustive, the latter would allow the recovery of more information with specialized tools such as Recuva. Also, the command uses the NTFS file system, which is better than FAT32.

A tool to diagnose: CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo is an application that is responsible for diagnosing the status of a storage unit. By having this information on hand, you will be more likely to save the data on your hard drive before it fails. Similarly, its indicators could reveal that the time has come to change your hard drive or SSD.

How to use CrystalDiskInfo step by step is something that we have already explained to you. Let us this time focus on your tools to scan and diagnose the health of an SSD or HDD:

• Health condition. It offers a general percentage that roughly reveals how your hard drive is doing.
• Temperature. Thanks to the internal sensors of the disk, the application informs you of the temperature of your drive. This is a key indicator to discover anomalies in your unit or in your team in general.
• hard drive data. CrystalDiskInfo specifies the firmware used by the SSD or hard drive, the interface, the supported features, and the serial number. When you’re having problems with your PC’s storage and you go to the technical service, having data like this at hand is crucial.
• Run Hours, Total Power Ons, and Total Host Writes. These are vital values ​​in any SSD or HDD that help determine if the drive may have started to degrade. In the case of mechanical hard drives, the speed of rotation is mentioned.

CrystalDiskInfo offers a huge amount of information about the status of your computer’s hard drive and SSD. It is true, it does not have repair utilities, but it is an ally when it comes to anticipate possible errors in the future. This will save you more than one scare, like losing files from a sudden drive failure.

When files have been deleted: Recuva to the rescue

Have problems with your hard drive caused you to lose files? If you find yourself in such a situation, you will surely be interested in knowing how to use Recuva to recover deleted data. But does it really work?

How file deletion works

The recovery of files on a hard drive or SSD it is possible thanks to the mechanism that file systems use to delete data. Although a document has disappeared in the Explorer, that does not mean that its deletion is permanent. We explain ourselves.

Deleting an item in a folder on disk sends it to the trash. Thus, you can easily recover it without any specific tools. Once the recycle bin is emptied, the system makes the user believe that the document has been permanently deleted. However, the reality is that the file can now be replaced with another when needed. Until that happens, it will remain on the disk and can be easily recovered.

What can you do with Recuva?

Recuva It takes care of scanning the drive and looking for those files that are waiting to be replaced by others in the allocation table. This method is even effective when a quick format to driveas explained in the DISKPART section of this article.

The features of this software are as follows:

• Wizard File Recovery. Despite its effectiveness, it is not a difficult application to use. The entire process is done following the guidance of an assistant.
• Scan in specific locations. Recuva is capable of targeting specific folders and drives. Think for a moment about the time it would take to recover your files if, by default, all connected disks are scanned. Being able to specify locations will save you a lot of time.
• Select the type of file to search for. Imagine that you have formatted a hard drive due to an error. Maybe you backed up your documents, but not your photos. Again, having the option to choose the class of files to locate will reduce the overall time of the process.
• Multiple and selective recovery. When the file scanning is finished, the user will be able to select only those that he wants to recover. Likewise, the tool does not return them to their original directory, but rather allows them to be exported to a specific place, facilitating the creation of backup copies on USB sticks or external hard drives.

As you have seen, Recuva is an excellent application to recover data. It will come in handy to have on hand if you have no choice but to format a volume or a failure has caused the loss of information.

Complementary utilities to try to save your hard drive

So far we have already provided you with four essential resources for scan and repair your hard drive or SSD. First, we have talked about the tools built into Windows (CheckDisk and DiskPart) that often help recover corrupted drives. On the other hand, we quote CrystalDiskInfo, which diagnoses your drives to prevent failures in the future. Finally, with Recuva You will have at your disposal all the power of a leading data recovery software.

With these four programs, the possibilities of repairing disks on your PC and recovering the stored files increase considerably. Still, we want to quote you other free add-on utilities that will help you in specific cases:

• IM Magic Partition Resizer. An application specialized in managing partitions that includes an analyzer of the state of the volumes.
• Clonezilla. Open source software compatible with many file systems to clone the contents of a hard drive and deploy it to a new one. It runs without installation and from USB, similar to Linux distributions.
• MalvaStyle USB Repair Application. Unit repairer specializing in memory sticks and SD cards. It can also help you with external hard drives.
• WinDirStat. Disk usage statistics viewer and a cleanup tool.

Scanning drives and repairing them is sometimes impossible

We are convinced that all the mentioned programs and methods are great for know the status of the SSD or HDD, repair it if necessary and recover your data. Unfortunately, sometimes, even when combining the power of several tools, there is nothing you can do to save your hard drive.

If the drive has sustained serious physical damage, there may be no chance of it returning to normal operation. In the most extreme cases, even data recovery software might not work. Since no component lasts forever, it is best keep your information safe making a backup in the cloud or on a second hard drive. Take a look at these programs to create backups.

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