How to Recover Corrupted Files on Windows 11/10

Today, in this article shows how to Recover Corrupted Files on Windows 11/10. If your file opens with an error, has trouble showing the content, or won’t open at all, it’s probably corrupted. This happens a lot, and it can be caused by a lot of things we can’t change. Files that get corrupted aren’t always completely lost, though.

Has your computer ever shut down right as you were about to save a file? If that’s the case, there’s a good chance that this file will become damaged. When a file gets damaged, you’ll get an error message telling you about the file and why the program can’t open it.

You can also go to the official Microsoft support site to know more information. When people see this error message, they often get scared because they think they might not be able to get the file back. There are many ways to fix broken files, which is good news.

Ways to Recover Corrupted Files on Windows 11/10

Make your files accessible with CHKDSK

Checkdisk is still better known by its old filename, CHKDSK, which was used in MS-DOS. It’s a classic app that has come with Windows for a long time. Its main job is to check for and fix corrupted disks. So, when it comes to a corrupted volume, it can make some files that seemed to be broken again accessible.

But while Disk Drill would try to save all of your lost files from a device, CHKDSK doesn’t care about them. It’s a tool for fixing whole volumes, not individual files. So, if you use CHKDSK, some of your most important files may be lost forever. To use CHKDSK to fix the bad volume with the letter Z:

• Run an elevated Command Prompt – the quickest way is by pressing Windows Key + X and choosing Windows Terminal (Admin).
• Type chkdsk /f z: to run a scan on the file system level. This might render some of your files accessible again but won’t repair actual problems on the storage device. For that, you can use chkdsk /r z:. Note that this process can take significantly longer since it scans the whole storage for errors.

Fish your files out of a backup

If you have a way to back up your files, you can restore each corrupted file to a previous version. But what if you have a backup of the whole hard drive? Does that mean that you’ll have to delete everything on the storage device to get a few files back? That could cause more data to be lost! “Nope” is a nice answer, thank goodness.

Even if you can’t do that, many apps that make backups let you access them from inside the app. For example, Disk Drill lets you make backups of volumes that are exact to the last byte. If you have one that has “good” copies of your corrupted files, you can use it to get them back.

• Run Disk Drill and click on the Attach disk image link at the end of the device list.
• Point Disk Drill to your byte-for-byte full volume backup file.
• Choose the mounted image (as stated in the Type column). Then, start a scanning process by clicking on Search for lost data.
• Proceed as we saw above, like a typical Disk Drill data recovery process. Soon you’ll have back non-corrupted versions of your files “recovered” from your mounted byte-for-byte backup.

Using Windows Explorer

Use the mouse-friendly File Explorer to do the same checks that CHKDSK does without having to type anything.

• Fire up the Windows File Explorer. Either click on its icon on the taskbar or seek it in the Start menu. However, it’s quicker if you press Windows Key + E.
• Choose This PC from the list on the left. Right-click on the device you want to scan and choose Properties from the menu.
• Move to the Tools tab and click on the Check button.
• Choose Scan and repair drive. Soon after, your drive should be “fixed”, and most of your files accessible again.

Get your files back with Disk Drill

Disk Drill is one of the best ways to fix storage devices that are broken. Most people use it when they can’t get to a volume because it shows up as empty space or RAW. Here’s how the process works:

• Download Disk Drill from its official site, install, and run it.
• Choose the device where your corrupted files are stored from Disk Drill’s Device/Disk list. Then, click on Search for lost data.
• Let Disk Drill scan your device. You can check the files it’s already scanned by clicking on Review found items on the top right. However, for optimal results, we suggest you let the scan complete.
• When Disk Drill’s scan completes, click on Review found items.
• Choose the files you want to recover by marking them with a checkmark on their left. Then, click on Recover.
• Choose the destination path for the recovered files. It’s best to choose a different storage device than the one from where you’re recovering data.
• When Disk Drill’s data recovery completes, click on Show recovered data in Explorer to check your recovered files in the default file browser.