Summary :

1. Best Disk Utility Mac
2. Mac Os X Repair Disk
3. Best Free Mac Disk Repair Utility
4. Free External Disk Repair Mac

Hard drives can run into problems sometimes. This article will show you how to make hard drive repair and recover data from a hard drive. When your hard drive needs to be repaired, you can try the top 4 solutions in this article to fix the hard drive.

When your hard drive is corrupt or you encounter other hard drive errors, the data on the hard drive can be inaccessible and unreadable. How to make hard disk repair Windows 10? If you don't know any solutions, this article can be a big help.

Open Disk Utility. In general, you can just open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. However, if your Mac doesn't start up all the way, or you want to repair the disk your Mac starts up from, open Disk Utility from macOS Recovery: Apple silicon: Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button. Proper maintenance is the key to preventing hard disk issues, and you will hardly find an app more equipped for the job than Drive Genius. It consists of 18 disk repair tools, which are placed in 3 categories: Speed Up, Clean Up, and Protect. Instant DrivePulse is one of its most useful features.

The following contents will show you some ways to make HDD repair. Before you try the following solutions, you can try some simple fixes to repair the disk errors. For example, try to unplug the internal drive and connect it again to see if Windows can read your storage device. You can also try another USB port on your computer if your hard drive is external.

If simple fixes cannot help you, then you can follow the methods in this post to make hard disk repair Windows 10 by yourself.

Solution 1. Reinstall Your Hard Drive’s Driver

If your computer cannot read your external hard drive, you can connect it to another PC to see if the drive can be read and work normally. If it works, you can make external hard drive repair by reinstalling the device drivers on your computer. Here are detailed steps for you to reinstall your hard drive's drivers.

Step 1. Input Device Manager in the Windows 10 Cortana search box and click on the best match to open the device manager.

Step 2. Locate Disk drives and double click it.

Step 3. Then you will see all disks on your computer displayed here. Right-click the hard disk with hard drive failure and then click Uninstall device to uninstall the drive.

Step 4. Restart the computer and connect the hard drive. The drivers will start installing automatically in most cases.

After restarting, you can check if your external hard drive can be read. If this solution doesn't work, you can try the next method.

Solution 2. Check and Fix Hard Drive Errors with Disk Repair Tool

You can use a professional HDD repair tool to fix hard drive issues. There are many wonderful third-party hard disk repair software that you can use to diagnose and fix hard drive issues. Be sure to choose a reliable one.

Here I recommend you to choose the third-party disk utility - MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition. It is the professional hard drive repair software & an all-in-one partition manager, which can help you check and fix hard drive errors in just a few clicks.

The MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition can also help you manage computer hard drives in a flexible way with its features like extend partition, resize partition, format partition, migrate OS to SSD/HD, copy disk, convert MBR to GPT and so on.

So the free hard disk repair tool is worth trying. Now let's see the detailed steps.

Step 1. Download the disk utility MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by clicking the following button. Install it on your computer and launch it to get the main interface.

Step 2. Then select the partition on a hard disk and choose Check File System on the left action panel.

Step 3. As you can see, here are two options for you to choose from. The option Check only will only scan your hard drive for errors but it will not fix detected file system errors automatically. The option Check and fix detected errors will scan the drive and fix any file system errors found. To make hard drive repair, please select Check & fix detected errors and click Start.

Step 4. After the hard drive repair is completed, you can close the program.

Solution 3. Repair Hard Disk Errors with CHKDSK Utility

If the above fixes cannot help you fix the errors, you can run the Windows CHKDSK utility with CMD (via admin mode) to perform hard drive repair on Windows 10. You can access the Windows 10 disk utility via command prompt. Here are detailed steps.

Step 1. To access the Windows built-in hard drive repair tool, type cmd in the Windows 10 Cortana search box. Then right-click the best match then choose Run as administrator.

Step 2. In the Command Prompt window, type CHKDSK *: /f /r (* represents the drive letter of the specific drive that you want to repair) and then hit Enter. With this command, the hard drive is analyzed track-by-track to detect and fix recoverable data on the defective areas. It will give you all the details here.

The commonly used parameters /f and /r have different meanings:

• /f – fix any errors it detected.
• /r – Locate bad sectors on the drive and try to recover any and all readable information from them.

Step 3. After the error checking is completed, you can type exit to close the command prompt window.

This way should help you fix hard drive errors effectively. If your hard drive is working properly, you can backup important files as soon as possible. Sometimes the dead drive just occurs without notice.

Solution 4. Format the Hard Drive

Another effective method to eliminate hard drive errors is to format the hard drive. As you know, a hard drive can become RAW due to virus attack, improper operations, bad sectors or power outage. In this case, you are unable to access the hard drive data. You can format the hard drive to fix the error.

However, if you just format the hard drive directly, all files will be deleted including important files in it. So the best way is to recover the data to another drive with a piece of professional hard drive recovery software firstly. Then format the drive with a professional drive formatting tool.

Recover Data Before Formatting the Drive

To make internal hard drive data recovery, my recommendation is to use reputable and reliable hard drive recovery software MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate.

It can help you recover all kinds of files including photos, audio, music, videos, emails archives, documents from various storage media like HDD, SSD, SD card, USB drive, digital camera, memory stick and so on.

Step 1. Get the hard drive recovery software MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate by clicking the following button. Install it on your computer and get it registered.

Step 2. After registration, you will get the main interface. Then launch Data Recovery on the top toolbar.

Step 3. Select the drive you want to recover data from and click Scan button on the lower right corner.

Here are three parts on the Data Recovery interface:

• Recovery Result:You will see the last scanning result record here and you can load recovery result by yourself to recover files directly.
• Logical Drive:All existing partitions on your computers will be listed here. If a partition does not have drive letters, it will be arranged at the end of the list.
• Hard Disk:All disks on your computer will be listed here, including external hard drive, SSD, USB drive, etc. You can also select a disk to scan directly.

Besides, if there are lost partitions or unallocated spaces on your hard drive, there will be Lost Partition or Unallocated Space parts.

Step 4. The data recovery software is scanning your drive now. You can click Pause or Stop button near the progress bar to pause or stop the scanning process if you find what you want. You can wait for the scanning to complete.

Step 5. Check needed files in the recovery result. You can preview a picture or .txt file which is smaller than 20MB. At last, click Save to save the recovered files.

Step 7. Choose a directory to save the needed files. It is recommended to save the recovered files on another drive. Otherwise, the lost/deleted data could be overwritten. Make sure you save files to a safe place.

During the repair process, if the hard drive you’re trying to fix contains important files, then you can also use the above data recovery tool to extract the documents, photos, music, videos, emails and other files from the hard drive easily.

Format Hard Drive

Now, you can format a hard drive that’s not working properly to fix the disk failure. Here are detailed steps to tell you how to format hard drive Windows 10 with the free disk utility.

Step 1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate and get the main interface.

Step 2. Select the drive and choose Format Partition from the left action panel.

Step 3. Then specify the partition label, file system as well as cluster size on this page. Then click OK to continue.

Step 4. Click Apply on the upper right corner to allow the pending operations.

After formatting, you can use your hard drive as normal.

Conclusion

Hard drive can become damaged or corrupted due to various hard drive errors like bad sectors on hard drive, file system corruptions. So you must learn these basic tips. After reading this article, you may find that hard drive repair is not so complicated.

If you have any question about how to make hard drive repair Windows 10 when there are hard drive errors, you can leave a message in the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you have better solution, don't hesitate to share it with us. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you may contact us via [email protected].

Hard Drive Repair FAQ

This article covers the top five completely free data recovery software for Mac, which varies in features, functions, and performance. However, they all have one thing in common: they are free.

Compare the five tools carefully, and select the one that fits your needs best.

Top 5 Completely Free Data Recovery Software for Mac

When you get data loss on your Mac due to accidental deletion, partition/hard drive formatting, system crash, macOS upgrade, file system or hard drive corruption, stay calm and pick up one of the recommended data recovery software below for help.

1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is one of the free top and handy Mac data recovery software that enables you to recover data from the emptied trash bin, Mac notebooks, desktops, hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, memory cards, digital cameras, etc. It works on internal APFS/HFS+/HFS X drives, and FAT/FAT32/exFAT/NTFS file systems used in USB flash drives and external hard drives connected to Mac.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. All-in-one data recovery software

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is fully compatible with the latest macOS 11.0 (Big Sur), 10.15(Catalina), 10.14 (Mojave) and all the former versions. It enables all Mac users to perform a full recovery of lost valuable data in only 3 steps: Scan > Preview > Recover.

# 2. HFS+ Fusion Drive Recovery

The latest update of EaseUS Mac data recovery software has improved its support of Fusion Drive, which makes it work even better in retrieving files from Mac computers that are installed on fusion drives.

# 3. Encrypted Drive Recovery

Another great update in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac is that it supports encrypted drive recovery by offering guidance to assist Mac users in decrypting and unlocking their drives with password.

# 4. Data Protection

Once the data protection feature is enabled, it will automatically back up the deleted files to a safe location. If you unexpectedly delete files and want to recover later, you can quickly restore the lost files from the created backup.

Pros:

• Support to restore 200+ file types on Mac, including recovering lost Word/Excel/PPT documents, photos, videos, music files, emails, archived files, and more.
• Quick Scan + Deep Scan technology greatly enhances recovery probability.
• Real-time Preview allows you to preview found files while scanning and before proceeding with data recovery.
• No quality-loss recovery brings your lost photos, videos perfectly back in its best performance.

Cons:

• The completely free version is limited to a maximum of 2GB data recovery. (The outstanding Windows data recovery free version also provides 2GB free file recovery.)

2. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is a popular Mac data recovery application developed to recover lost partitions or files from Mac internal and external hard drives. Also, the Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery options in the free trial version support to monitor the file deletion activity and retain metadata so as to quickly undelete files.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Undelete Protected Data (Not Available in Free Version)

Being similar to the Data Protection feature in EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, Disk Drill also contains an undelete protected data feature that requires Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery features to be enabled in advance.

With these two features enabled, Mac users could quickly undelete files from a Trash Bin reference or shadow copy of each file to a user-specified folder.

# 2. Allocate Existing Files

When Finder fails to read data, Disk Utility reports the drive as unformatted, Disk Drill can scan the partition and retrieve data from Mac.

Pros:

• Compatible with all the Mac OS X and macOS systems.
• Recover 200+ file types.
• It is packed with free and useful disk tools for all users.
• An intuitive user interface to recover lost files effortlessly.

Cons:

• The free version only allows a preview of data recovery.
• Recovery Vault and Guaranteed Recovery are not available in the free version.

Best Disk Utility Mac

3. PhotoRec

PhotoRec is a free, open-source program that works very well in data recovery on older operating systems like OS X, Linux, Free BSD, Net BSD, Open BSD, and Windows.

It allows users to restore most common files, like photos, audios, documents, ZIP archives, and others from internal or external devices, such as digital cameras, memory cards, USB flash drives and partitions/hard disks.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Advanced File Carving

PhotoRec first searches for the data block or cluster size. The program will quickly load value from superblock like ext2/ext3/ext4 or volume boot record like FAT/NTFS if the file system is not corrupted. When the file system corrupted, PhotoRec will check the device at a sector level, using the first 10 found files to calculate the block or cluster size so as to locate and find more lost files.

# 2. Block or Cluster Level Recovery

This program will read the Mac device block by block, cluster by cluster, checking against different file signatures so as to recuperate available files.

Pros:

• Support data recovery cross-platforms, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, etc.
• 100% open-source program, not only the software but also the source code.
• Nice tool to recover personal files.

Cons:

• Not very user-friendly for ordinary computer users.
• Technical skills required. It uses command lines to operate.

4. TestDisk

TestDisk, like PhotoRec, it's also an open-source, freeware product that allows for multiple file types recovery.

It mainly focuses on partition recovery. It enables users to find deleted or lost partitions by fixing the partition tables due to software crash, virus attack, mistaken formatting, etc.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Partition Recovery

When a partition lost or disappeared on Mac due to corrupted partition tables, Mac users can apply TestDisk to rebuild and repair the corrupted partition table.

# 2. Rebuild Boot Sectors

When the Mac bootable drive fails to boot, it corrects problems in bootable drives that are failing to boot.

Pros:

• Completely free and open.
• Runs on several operating systems, including macOS and Mac OS X versions.
• Recover lost partitions and rebuild the partition table.

Cons:

• Use the command line to make data recovery.
• Not user-friendly for regular computer users.

5. Exif Untrasher

Exif Untrasher is another completely free Mac data recovery tool that mainly restores deleted or JPEG files from digital cameras, external drive, USB stick, SD card, etc. You can easily download and install this software on your Mac running Mac OS X 10.10 and all the later versions.

Highlighted Features:

# 1. Highly Efficient in JEPG Recovery

Exif Untrasher is a tool that mainly designed to locate photos in JEPG formats on any kind of storage device like SD card, CF card, memory stick or Mac hard disk.

External storage device needs to be mounted as a volume on Mac for the utility to access and attempt a restore.

Pros:

• Simple and quick to recover lost images from the memory card.
• Free with no quantity limits.
• It is updated by the developer regularly.

Cons:

Mac Os X Repair Disk

• It only works for JEGP file recovery. It doesn't support extra file formats.

3-Step Tutorial of Free Mac Data Recovery

To help more Mac users to bring their lost files are soon as possible, we are here to show you a 3-step tutorial of free Mac data recovery. If you are eager to bring your lost files back on Mac or external storage devices, apply the brief and innovative EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help.

Remember to connect your USB, SD card, or external hard drive to Mac computer if your lost data were saved on it.

Step 1. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lost data and files. Click the 'Scan' button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scanning results on the left pane.

Step 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) and click the 'Recover' button to have them back.

Conclusion

On this page, you are presented with the top 5 completely free Mac data recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free, Disk Drill, PhotoRec, TestDisk, Exif Untrasher. When you are facing unexpected data loss on Mac, the programs demonstrated above can help you recover lost files effectively.

What's more, if your lost data is less than 2GB, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free is highly recommended as it provides the most user-friendly interface and most powerful data recovery function.

If you simply want to restore JEGP images, Exif Untrasher is worth to try.

People Also Ask

Some Mac users may still have doubts about Mac file recovery. Here we have collected the top frequently asked 4 questions and left brief answers below. Check out and find your own answers here.

1. Is Mac data recovery free?

Best Free Mac Disk Repair Utility

It depends. If you lost deleted files to Trash, you can restore them from the Trash for free.

When you lost files on a local Mac hard drive or an external storage device, if you apply free Mac data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free for help, it's free.

If you take your computer to a local data recovery center, it will charge you a big bunch of money.

2. What is the best free data recovery software?

• For Windows users, you may refer to Top 10 Free SD Card Data Recovery Software.

The Recommended software also works perfectly in Windows OS for data recovery and you can find out the most suitable for you to apply and restore lost files with ease.

• For Mac users, as we recommended on this page, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free, Disk Drill, PhotoRec, TestDisk, Exif Untrasher are all good to help.

3. Is there any free data recovery software?

Sure! Many data recovery software producers all have released their free data recovery software. Here we have collected some of them for you to pick up and apply to guard your own data.

10 Top Free Data Recovery Software for Windows Users:

• 1). EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free
• 2). Recuva
• 3). Stellar Data Recovery
• 4). Disk Drill
• 5). R-Studio
• 6). Acronis Revive
• 7). Remo Recover
• 8). Recover My Files
• 9). Puran Data Recovery
• 10). TestDisk

5 Top Free Data Recovery Software for Mac Users: (We have uncovered on this page)

• 1). EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free
• 2). Disk Drill
• 3). PhotoRec
• 4). TestDisk
• 5). Exif Untrasher

4. How can I recover deleted files without software Mac free?

There are two ways for you to recover deleted files on Mac for free without using data recovery software.

• One way is to undelete files from your Mac Trash bin.

When you mistakenly deleted files on Mac computer to the trash, and you didn't empty the trash, you can undelete them from your Trash for free.

• The other way that you can try is to recover deleted files from your Mac Time Machine backup.

Free External Disk Repair Mac

If you have the habit of backing up files on Mac computer using the Time Machine, congratulations. When you delete some of them, luckily, you can bring them back immediately from your Time Machine backup. You can follow to Recover Files from Time Machine Backup for a detailed guide.