How to fix an External Hard Drive that is Corrupted and Unreadable without Formatting

Reassign privileges

Privileges are built into the Windows core functionality. It is a security protocol that was incorporated into Windows from Windows 2000. It ensures that users have access to files and folders for which they have security clearance.

So why is Windows reporting that you don’t have access to this drive, even though you’ve been using it on your PC? This is because the security descriptors have been revoked and cleared, and you have to reinstate yourself as owner with full privileges.

Please follow the next steps carefully. This is very important to avoid making mistakes.

First of all, open Windows Explorer. Right-click on the problem drive and select Properties. Next, click on the Security tab. Next, click on Advanced. Then click on Change.

A panel pops up. Under “Enter the object name to select“, type Authenticated Users. Click OK. Next Click Apply. An alert pops up with some bla bla bla (If you have just taken ownership of this object, you will need to close and reopen this object’s properties before you can view or change permissions). Just click OK and then OK again to close the Properties panel.

Windows is just saying you have to close the Properties panel and reopen it again before you can make further changes.

Next right-click inside the Window and select Refresh.

So what do we do next? Please follow patiently.

Next, right-click on the drive again, select Properties, then Security. Click on Edit. Next, click on Add. Under “Click on object names to select“, type SYSTEM, and press OK.

This will close the box. In the previous box, SYSTEM appears under Groups or user names. Make sure it is selected and under Permissions for SYSTEM, make sure you tick all the boxes under Allow. Next click Apply. A box will pop up. Just click on Continue. If any error message appears, click OK.

Next, click on Add, repeating the same procedure but this time, type Administrators.

Close the Properties panel again. Refresh your Window once more.

Finally, go back to the drive Properties and select Security once again. Next to “To change permissions, click Edit”, click on Edit. Next, click on Add. Under “Enter the object names to select”, type Authenticated Users, and click OK.

Click on Continue for the pop-ups, close everything out, and your drive should now be accessible. However, if this doesn’t still fix it, you will have to re-format the drive.

Try to recover the drive contents

It is advisable to try recovering the contents of the drive before formatting it. There are a couple of file recovery apps out there, most are paid but some are free.

There are some points to note when using recovery apps. Here’s a quick list.

  • It is not guaranteed that the app will recover all your files.
  • Your folders may not appear in the original structure before the problem.
  • You should install the file recovery app to a different drive other than the one you are trying to salvage.
  • You should save the recovered files to a different drive other than the problem drive.

File recovery is a very time-consuming process, depending on the size of your drive. It can take days to fully recover terabytes of data off of a failed external hard drive, but it’s worth it.

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Format the drive

This step should be a last resort when dealing with this kind of problem. Personally, I don’t recommend re-formatting a hard drive for no good reason. This is because frequent formatting reduces the lifespan of your drive.

However, formatting recreates the drive’s partition table using a specific file system, such as NTFS or FAT. This way, Windows is able to access and utilize your hard drive once again. Otherwise, it is just a dead brick.

If you followed the file recovery process through and are sure your files have been recovered, open up Windows Explorer, right-click on the problem drive, and select Format. Under File System, select either NTFS or FAT. Click on OK to format the drive.

After formatting, the drive should open in Windows Explorer easily. In some cases, the formatting process returns the following error:

Windows cannot format this drive.

If this is the case, then the drive likely has hardware problems which means that the drive is physically defective (bricked) and needs to be replaced. Alternatively, you may have to send the drive to experts who have the capability to repair the drive, if at all it’s worth the trouble.

Replace the drive

You can easily replace your external hard drive by purchasing another one. Some good brands include Seagate, Western Digital, Sandisk, Toshiba, Silicon Power, Lacie, and other less visible brands.

Here’s our recommendation if you want one. Please understand that buying through these links would earn us a small commission, at no extra cost to you. This is to support our work.

How to fix an External Hard Drive that is corrupted and unreadable – Final thoughts

External hard drives make our digital life easier, but at the same time, they are not reliable because they are prone to fail. That’s why it is advisable to use them as temporary storage to move heavy files between devices.

Always make it a habit to not keep files you don’t have a copy of elsewhere on an external hard drive, to avoid falling victim to file system corruption and the drive becoming unreadable.

If this article helped you in some way, consider sharing it using the share button on this page to your left. Don’t forget to check out our DIY PC build guides for help on building your own PC.

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