Summary: This is a guide to fix external hard drive corrupted issue for you, and it talks about how to recover lost data from a corrupted external drive and iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, the best corrupted external hard drive data recovery software.

1. Good External Hard Drive For Mac
2. External Hard Drive For Mac
3. Portable External Hard Drive For Mac

What is corrupt hard drive on Mac?

Hard drive corruption on Mac is a drive failure of mounting, accessing, or reading on Mac, which frequently happens to external hard drives and USB flash drives. It's because they are usually used to back up a large amount of data or to extend the capacity of Mac.

Five Hard Drive Repair Software for Windows. Windows computer doesn’t contain a built-in diagnostic tool like Mac Disk Utility. But if you searching the keyword “best hard disk repair software for windows” in Google or Google Play Store, you will be able to find a big heal of hard drive repair software. Simple to use Free External Hard Drive Data Recovery software which allows you to quickly restore any type of files that you lost from the external hard drive Like WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Transcend.

A corrupted external hard drive will look like this: the Mac computer won't recognize the external hard drive when you plug it into the USB port, and the hard drive will not be automatically mounted and you can't access data on this drive. Sometimes, the Mac would return an error message like 'The disk you inserted is not readable' to report a hard drive corrupttion. Once that happens, you will lose access to the files stored on the corrupted external hard drive. It's such an annoyance especially when you don't have a copy of data backup while data on this external hard drive is especially important to you.

Don't worry. Let's check out the crux of external hard drive corruption and learn how to fix or repair corrupted external hard drives on Mac in case of losing any significant data.

Why you external hard drives is corrupted?

There are various reasons leading to external hard drives corruption, including drives sharing among different platforms, faulty connection, unsafe ejection, interruption during transferring files, hardware malfunction and virus infection, etc.

Don't know which is the troublemaker of your external hard drive corruption like this user?

Hello, I have a problem with my external hard drive. When I plug it into my Mac, it takes too long to acknowledge the drive and files can't be opened at all. I tried to reformat my external hard drive but it says reformat unsuccessful. Any suggestion on how to fix corrupted external hard drives on Mac?

Check the following fixes one by one and you will work it out.

How to fix/repair corrupted external hard drives on Mac?

Solution 1: Check if your drive is properly plugged in

Even though it sounds foolish, it could troubleshoot your corrupted external hard drive. Simply plug your external hard drive slowly or quickly into the USB port and see if you can access this drive.

Solution 2: Check if it is a faulty connection

Since the external hard drive is connected through the USB cable and port, it could be corrupted due to a wobbly connection. You can just connect your external hard drive to another USB port or USB cable.

Solution 3: Fix/repair the corrupted external hard drive with Disk Utility

If the connection is not supposed to be blamed and you sure your external hard drive has no hardware problems, it could be a minor file system corruption which could be fixed through Disk Utility. Disk Utility is a built-in utility on Mac to verify and fix basic external hard drives errors, such as multiple apps quit unexpectedly on Mac computer, a file is corrupted, an external device is corrupted or doesn't work properly, or your computer won't start up, etc.

1. Go to Utilities > Disk Utility.

2. Select the corrupted external hard drive from the sidebar.

3. Click First Aid on the top of Disk Utility window. It may take a while to fix the errors.

Solution 4: Fix/repair the corrupted external hard drive by reformatting

If Disk Utility failed to fix the corrupted external hard drive for you, the file system of your external hard drive could be seriously corrupted and need to be reformatted with a new file system. In some ways, reformatting is able to fix your external drive corruption issue but from another perspective, reformatting will erase the disk and you will lose your important data. Fortunately, there is a tool called iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac that can recover your data firstly before you reformat this corrupted external hard drive. It's a risk-free way to fix the corrupted external hard drive and you don't have to worry about data loss any more.

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is free and reliable Mac data recovery software that can recover lost data from corrupted external hard drives and recover lost data from formatted/unreadable/unrecognizable external hard drives. Moreover, this useful tool can undelete files from Trash, recover lost/deleted APFS partition and recover lost data from hard drives, USB flash drive, memory cards, pen drives, etc. It is compatible with macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

Follow the steps below to fix the corrupted external hard drive.

Step 1: Recover lost data from the corrupted external hard drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac computer.

2. Connect the corrupted external hard drive to your Mac and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

3. Select the corrupted drive and click 'Next' to scan for all the lost files.

4. Double-click to preview the scanning results and choose files you want to get back.

5. Click 'Recover' and save them to another well-functioned drive.

6. Check the recovered files and make sure all the lost files have been restored successfully.

Step 2: Fix the corrupted external hard drive by reformatting.

After successfully recovering data from the corrupted external hard drive, you can fix it by reformatting now.

1. Launch Disk Utility.

2. Select the corrupted external hard drive from the sidebar of the window.

3. Click the Erase button on the top of Disk Utility window.

4. Complete related information (name, format, scheme, etc.), and then click the Erase button.

Conclusion

To avoid losing data from corrupted external hard drive, you'd better do yourself a huge favor and make sure your backup strategy is up and running and foolproof. A little pain now will save you a world of hurt in the future. If you have already lost data because of external hard drive corruption, without wishing to pour salt in the wound, recover the lost data with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac software for good.

Summary

This tutorial article shows you how to repair a corrupted external hard drive without losing any data with professional hard drive recovery solutions. If your external hard drive, hard drive partition, USB drive, SD card, etc. devices suddenly corrupted or crashed, follow to troubleshoot the issue by yourself and restore valuable data now.

Have you ever wondered what causes your storage devices broken down, such as external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, etc. ? This article demonstrates a full range of technical solutions to hard drive corruption issues. Try your best to repair an external hard drive according to the associated symptoms. It's the most efficient way to troubleshoot an internal or external HDD with unusual signs of making a clicking noise, overheating, not opening, not responding, or not showing up. Since a disabled hard drive will potentially endanger data, you shall use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to rescue data as soon as possible.

What Causes a Corrupted External Hard Drive

A lot of reasons will spur a hard drive issue, preventing it from functioning normally. These are some examples.

• Improper operation: unplug a connected device from your PC without safe ejection
• Viral damage or malware infection
• An excessive number of hard disk bad sectors
• File system errors
• Outdated/corrupted driver
• A variety of error messages imply a hard drive problem

People who go well along with an active storage drive usually are with good habits. For instance, use devices properly, update drivers once or twice, check the virus with anti-virus software regularly. What if the error has already occurred, how to fix it? Here below, we'll show you how to repair a corrupted external hard drive without losing data at home. Be your own expert by carefully reading through, and following by to revive your external hard drive.

How to Restore Corrupted System Files from the External Hard Drive

Missing or corrupted system files are responsible for a hard drive with unusual symptoms. It usually occurs when there is a problem during the file save process. So when your hard drive seems to be damaged and you cannot open it, maybe you need to repair the crashed system files at first.

• Open Start and type:cmd, hit Enter to open Command Prompt Window;
• Type: chkdsk g:/f(if the external hard drive is Driver g:), click Enter.

Continue with the other command: sfc /scannow and hit Enter.

sfc /scannow

Good External Hard Drive For Mac

After the repair process finished, you'll see Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations message if no corruption has found. Otherwise, it'll fix it automatically.

How to Recover Data from the Corrupted External Hard Drive

When your storage device suddenly stopped working, the most urgent thing is about how to recover data or files from it. Here below you'll find two methods to get this issue fixed now:

Method 1. Recover Data with other USB Cable or New PC

If you are not sure whether the device has been in trouble, you can connect it with a new USB port or even a new PC to see whether it can be detected or not. If the drive can be read, then you can directly use your data on the external hard drive.

By chance the hard drive cannot be detected on the other computer, check its status in Windows Disk Management, and try to change a drive letter and paths to show it up.

Step 1. Right-click on This PC, select Manage. Under the Storage section, click Disk Management. Or, use an alternative way to open Disk Management in Windows 10/8.1/8/7: Press Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box, and hit Enter.

Step 2. Right-click on the SSD partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths….

Step 3. Among Add, Change, and Remove, click the 'Change' button, and then select a drive letter from the list. Click 'OK' to assign a new drive letter to the problematic hard drive.

Method 2. Recover Data with Hard Drive Recovery Software

As long as your hard drive is detectable by Windows Disk Management, let it be RAW, inaccessible or with other strange characters, powerful hard drive recovery software can help you get data out from it with simple clicks. Here we'd like to recommend you try EaseUS hard disk recovery software which allows you to restore lost data on all storage devices under Windows 10/8/7. Just download, install and activate it to follow below steps recover precious data from your connected external hard drive now:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and under the External Devices tab, choose the exact drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

Step 2. Scan for lost data

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you could see more and more data showing up in the results.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

After the scan is over, check the scan results for the desired data. You can preview the file by double-clicking on it. Click Recover and choose another location to save the recovered data.

After restoring data from the affected external hard drive, you may also want to know how to repair the corrupted device. Follow to find the answer now.

How to Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive

Here in this part, we'll show you two methods to format a corrupted external hard drive and get it back to normal again. Before proceeding, it's necessary to know what kind of hard drive problems you can use the disk formatting method to solve.

Theoretically speaking, disk formatting should be done with caution because it erases data and removes programs installed. However, it's quite useful. Disk formatting is the configuring process of data storage media for initial, so it can solve the most common hard drive issues like 'Disk is not formatted, do you want to format it now?', or hard drive is not showing up and displaying itself as RAW. Moreover, it can scan and repair bad sectors, and sometimes remove sophisticated viruses.

Method 1. Quick Fix Corrupted External Hard Drive by Formatting

Step 1. Connect the impaired external hard drive to the PC.

Step 2. Right-click the device and selectFormat.

Step 3. Set a new file system - NTFS or FAT etc. to the drive and click OK to finish the process.

Method 2. Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive with Partition Manager Software

The other applicable disk formatting tool is from a third-party application called EaseUS Partition Master Free. It does the same work as the Windows File Explorer, but at times when you cannot see the hard drive's drive letter there, you can download this piece of software to perform the formatting.

Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.

Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.

Step 3: In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.

Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.

How to Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive Without Formatting

So how to repair corrupted external hard drive without formatting? If you don't want to format it, or if the drive becomes unallocated, it won't work with the formatting method. Don't panic, you can head to the other two methods.

Method 1. Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive with Windows Tools, no Formatting

There are Windows tools available that supposed to get a problematic hard drive back to normal, and each tool is worth a try.

• Open 'This PC', right-click the drive that has bad sectors, and choose 'Properties'.
• Go to the 'Tools' tab.
• Click 'Check' to check and repair the bad sectors on your hard disk.

Or, you can use administrator privilege to remove bad sectors permanently with the chkdsk command. The Command Prompt functions in the same way as the Windows tool.

• Press Windows + R keys simultaneously, type cmd and hit Enter.
• Enter the command: chkdsk E: /f /r /x and hit Enter. (Replace E with your own drive letter)

chkdsk E: /f /r /x

If you don't have any technical know-how and want to minimize data risks, using third-party software could be a better choice. The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you try an automatic command line alternative.

EaseUS Tools M is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. It's a perfect alternative to CHKDSK command. Use this one-click tool to solve your computer issues.

To fix file system error or disk error:

Step 1: DOWNLOAD EaseUS Tools M for Free and install it.

Step 2: Open the software and select the 'File showing' option.

Step 3: Choose the drive and wait for repairing. After the operation completes, click the 'View' button to check the drive.

Method 2. Update Corrupted/outdated Driver in Device Manager

This is an imperative option to force show up an external hard drive. Sometimes, the driver issue is the main culprit for a hard drive problem, so you can try to fix it by reinstalling a driver.

• Right-click 'This PC' and choose 'Properties' > 'Devices Manager'.
• Click on 'Disk drives', right-click on your hard drive that is not showing up in Windows and choose 'Uninstall device'. (Make sure you have selected the correct USB device.)
• In the prompt asking you to confirm the removal, click 'OK'.
• Restart your computer and reconnect the drive to the PC. After the computer restarts, the driver will be automatically installed.

Method 3. Run CMD to Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive Without Formatting

This Diskpart command will erase all data on your corrupted device. Therefore, please recover data from the corrupted external hard drive first before you run CMD to repair the drive.

• Press Win+R, type:cmd and click Enter;
• Type: diskpart and hit Enter;
• Type: list diskand hit Enter;
• Type:select disk 0 and hit Enter; (0 stands for the drive letter of your corrupted external hard drive.)
• Type: cleanand hit Enter; (This will wipe all data on the drive.)
• Type: create partition primary and hit Enter;
• Type: exit and hit Enter to finish the process.

How to Maintain a Healthy Hard Drive

All computers have a hard drive installed in them, which is used to store files for the operating system, software programs, and a user's data. A computer cannot come into play without a hard drive whirling. To correctly cooperate with a hard drive, or an external one, you must possess some necessary know-how skills for keeping a storage device healthy, and in turn, to prolong its life.

Thereby, we think these three routine jobs should be carefully implanted in daily use.

1. Everyday data backup

You can back up a whole hard drive data, a certain partition, user archives or even operating system. This is the most guaranteed way of attempting all chances of hard drive recovery without worrying about data loss (e.g. Some fixes within this page are meant to erase data, making it unrecoverable). There are native backup tools for Windows, namely Backup and Restore for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, and File History for Windows 8. But modern people tend to prefer third-party free backup software, they choose over more intuitive, user-friendly, versatile and more features involved backup plans to replace such a dull and flat Windows utility. EaseUS Todo Backup Free perfectly meets an everyday backup of a hard drive, partition, files, folders, etc.

2. Periodic disk cleanup and system optimization

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Remove junk files, useless but extremely large files or system/browser cache files that occupy precious disk space, to avoid the risk of the computer becoming slow. Why not use simple disk cleanup to boost hard drive performance?

In addition, the longer you use the machine in a settled location, the more dust and debris in the air will accumulate and cause the hard drive overheating and malfunctioning. You may use a small piece of cotton rag and a dip of alcohol to clean it by yourself, and a cotton bud is also a good choice for the inside areas.

3. Take advantage of Power Save and Sleep Modes

Though there are large brands that announced a longer lifespan, you need to accept the truth that the less time your drive is running, the longer it will last over the lifetime.

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Therefore, turn off the hard drive after some time of complete inactivity. Likewise, when your computer is idle, try to utilize the Power Save and Sleep Modes, to keep it from performing certain general maintenance tasks such as defragmentation, checking Windows updates, third-party activities, etc.