How to Fix Corrupted Photos – Files Recovery Software
It may have happened to you during your use of computers when you are unable to open certain files or the files appear incomplete or messy. These are the signs of a corrupted file. Corrupted files are not a major concern if you have backup files stored away that you can easily recover data from. But if the only copy of file or directory becomes inaccessible, it could mean trouble.
What Is File Corruption?
If you break down any computer file, you will have a sequence of binary numbers. These zeros (0) and ones (1) have different structures and combinations to represent different content. If any part of the sequence is changed, the original file may become broken or incomplete, leaving you with a corrupted file. A corrupted file may not open at all, or produce unexpected results when accessed by the system.
Causes of File Corruption
Logical damage. A file typically becomes corrupted when unexpected problems occur during saving or processing. If a sudden power outage or a computer crash happens when you’re saving a file, there’s a good chance that the file will become corrupted.
Virus Infections. Some types of malware may intentionally corrupt files as part of their payloads, usually by overwriting them with inoperative code. Some viruses may manage to alter files critical to the running of the computer’s operating system software or physical hardware, rendering the entire system unusable.
Physical Damage. Bad sectors on your hard drive or other storage media can also cause file corruption, even if the saving process finishes properly. If the storage media is physically damaged, it means these bits of data are physically damaged.
Any signs of file or directory corruption should be addressed immediately to restore the performance and stability of the operating system. If you’re experiencing file corruption, there are several things you can do.
Perform a thorough virus scan. Virus scanners with the latest definition database can detect known viruses that were designed to make files unreadable and may provide a fix depending on the type of virus.
Restore from previous versions. Many software provides built-in recovery function that enables you to restore the corrupted file to its former versions. Different applications may have different approaches to this. Microsoft Word, for example, features a AutoRecover/AutoSave function that enables us to recover Word document easily from the automatically saved versions. Normally, after an unexpected closure, the Document Recovery task pane will automatically open the next time you open the program so you can get your file back. You can choose among the available files and decide which one you would like to Save as, Delete or Open.
Check for bad sectors. Windows has a couple of built-in tools that can check the integrity of a disk and fix any detected problems. This includes CHKDSK. There are several parameters for chkdsk command. Chkdsk /f fixes logical error on the memory cards such as file system corruption, while chkdsk /r fixes logical errors as well as checks for bad sectors. Chkdsk /r analyzes the drive and attempts to relocate data it finds to good sectors. It also marks the bad sectors so that these bad sectors will not be used again, which effectively removes the bad sectors from the system. If used without parameters, chkdsk displays only the status of the volume and does not fix any errors.
Use professional data recovery software. File corruption is often associated with partition damage or data loss. Software like H Data Recovery helps recover damaged, deleted or lost files. It can also recover damaged partitions and restore data. You can download this utility and try the following guide to find and restore your files.
Step 1. Launch H Data Recovery software and select Universal Recovery Module. Click Next to move on to the scan process.
Step 2. A thorough scan will start immediately to locate and reconstitute every lost file recoverable. After it completed, all files found will be listed.
Step 3. Browse and preview the files and select the ones you want to recover. You can use the search bar to pin down the exact files you want. Click Next to move on to the recovery process. The files will be saved to the directory of your choice.
