If the drive is broken and the computer isn’t able to detect it, there is no way you can know if the data recovery is possible. However, in cases where you accidently formatted your drive or the drive got corrupted, there are some methods to know whether you can recover it or not.
I am going to give you 3 easy and free methods to check if you can recover your deleted or corrupted data. The same methods can be used to actually recover the data, but that is a topic for another day. Let’s first check if you can recover the deleted data or not.
Make sure the drive is connected to your computer and is being detected. If it is not being recognized by the system, check out this guide to fix that problem first. Now, let’s start with our methods.
1. Use DiskGenius
We can use DiskGenius’s free File recovery option to check and recover the recoverable files even from a formatted drive. This software can sometimes save your life. Just download it from here and install it on your computer.
- Locate your Flash drive and select it.
- Choose the File Recovery option and proceed with scanning.
3. Look at the drive content and see if there is some recoverable data. In my case, there was no recoverable data on the SD card.
2. Use a Hex Editor to check drive content
Many Hex editors allow you to work with Hex files. However, you can use them to open your storage drives and check their content. You won’t be able to understand these hex codes, let alone recover the data from them. But if there is data, you can check for the signs. For example, a secure erased or completely empty drive will have 0s written on all its memory locations. It could be 1s or just gibberish data. But, if the drive has been cleaned completely using the 0s and 1s, these Hex Editors can tell you that. If you just see 0s and 1s on the complete drive, it means there is no data, and you can recover nothing. The tool that I like the most is HxD. It is both a hex editor and a disk editor.
This tool will search for file signatures (e.g., FF and FF for JPEG, 50 4B 04 for ZIP). It directly checks the raw data on your drive, which will work mostly on the corrupted drives as well. However, technical knowledge is required to understand the file headers. Here is the process for you.
- Download HxD and install it on your computer.
- Open the program and go to Tools>Open Disk.
- Choose the disk you want to check and click Ok.
- Scroll through the entire series of Hex numbers, and if the majority of data is 0s, it means there is no data on the drive that can be recovered.
In simple words, if you have data on the drive, it will appear as some kind of big code. On the other hand, if it is empty or completely erased, you will probably see a continuous series of either 0s or 1s. However, some secure erase methods write gibberish, and in that case, the first method (DiskGenius) should work better.
3. Use PhotoRec for photo-specific recoveries
If the files you want to recover are mainly photos, you could also try using the PhotoRec software. I
- Download TestDisk/PhotoRec from here.
- Extract the ZIP file (e.g., to C:\testdisk-7.2).
- Open the program from the extracted folder and run it
- First of all, choose the drive from where you want to recover your photos.
- Now, select the file system and the type of recovery. Then, choose the browser folder where you want to store the recovered photos. After that, you can proceed with search and recovery.
4. Try Free Data Recovery Tools
Instead of paying for tools and then finding out that your data isn’t recoverable is not ideal. Instead, you can use free data recovery programs to see if the files are recoverable. Some of the popular programs are Disk Drill, Wise Data Recovery, Recuva, etc. Try running these data recovery tools to check if there are any chances of data recovery. If it is possible, it can be done with these programs. Otherwise, there is no need to pay for those premium software and later find out you can’t recover the data.
Conclusion
The sure-shot method to know if the data can be recovered or not is to try using some third-party software or look for the raw data. All the methods have been described in this article and should help you know if the data can really be recovered or not.