Understanding CHKDSK command
CHKDSK, or Check Disk, is a command used to check the integrity of the computer's disk. It verifies the storage device's logical errors and fixes the bad sectors on various storage media and devices.
CHKDSK might mark some of your files as corrupt or irrecoverable. At times, 'chkdsk' also deletes corrupted index entries; it might also remove disk sectors that are unreferenced or unassigned. Since we just talked about sectors. In case your disk has gotten physically damaged, CHKDSK marks some of the sectors as bad and stops them from being used, if the data is stored in these sectors, it might get lost.
Hence, you are advised to know the parameters you use with the command and close all the programs, folders, and files before running CHKDSK to avoid data loss.
If CHKDSK has deleted some or all of your files or data and you are searching for ways to restore them, this article will help.
Can I recover CHKDSK deleted Files?
Fortunately, the answer is Yes. You can recover the lost files after running the CHKDSK command. But you need to act quickly. Any delay can result in data overwriting, which leads to permanent loss of data.
How To Recover Files Lost After Using CHKDSK?
You can try undeleting files deleted by CHKDSK using professional data recovery tools, or in case, you have enabled File History option, you can try that. The last solution in this list talks about utilising the Backup and Restore option in Windows.
Method 1: Recover Data Deleted After Using the CHKDSK Utility Using Yodot Data Recovery Tool
Yodot Hard Drive Recovery is designed to scan the entire internal or external disk to find, identify, and recover data and files of various file formats from any healthy or corrupt drives or even bad sectors and partitions.
Tools like Yodot are built to work in severe data loss scenarios such as data lost after running the CHKDSK scan, or while performing the disk error repair process, or in other severe or extreme scenarios.
Additionally, the tools has been tested to work with all types of storage devices, file systems, computers and laptops, as well as all versions of Windows OS.
Steps to Recover Deleted Files or Data Deleted by CHKDSK Using Yodot Hard Drive Data Recovery Software
Step 1: Download and install the software on your computer.
Step 2: Launch the Software and click on Hard Drive Recovery option from the main screen.
Step 3: Click on Formatted/ Reformatted Recovery.
Step 4: Select the drive or the original location from which you lost the data after running the CHKDSK command and click on Next.
Step 5: You can choose specific file types to recover, which can significantly reduce the scan time.
Step 6: Once the scan is completed, view the recovered data in both the File Type View and Data Type View.
Step 7: Select the data and click on Next to save it in your preferred location by clicking on the three dots next to the Output folder box.
If you did not want to try disk recovery tools to restore lost files. You can try other backup systems or methods, including the Windows backup tools such as the ones mentioned below, can be used to restore files lost from Windows computers or copies of your data, given that you enabled these features early.
Method 2: CHKDSK Deleted File Recovery Using the File History
File History when enabled, take automatic backups of important files, folders, and other important data that was saved in user-specific locations like the libraries, desktop, documents, contacts, favorites, and others to an external drive or a network location.
These options were developed by Microsoft as part of its "data protection and data safety" strategy.
This tools creates and maintains multiple versions of the original files. You can restore any specific version of the files or the entire folder in case you encounter data loss scenario or corruption.
Step 1: Open the Control Panel and click on System and Security.
Step 2: Click on File History and Restore personal files.
Step 3: Select the file you want to restore and click on the Restore button.
The next solution in this list talks about using the backup and restore option.
Method 3: Recover CHKDSK Deleted Files Using the Data Backup And Restore
If you have used the Backup and Restore option to take comprehensive backups of entire system drives, including specific files, folders, and configurations to the selected location such as external hard drive or a network drive, or cloud storage. If you have these backup copies or the lost CHKDSK data, you can try the following steps to restore these files.
Step 1: Open the Control Panel and navigate through System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
Step 2: To restore particular files, click on Restore my files. You can also click on Restore all users’ files to restore all the files.
Step 3: You can browse a location to save the backup; after this, select the files and click on Restore.
If you were not able to recover even after trying all of these methods, then the data must have been overwritten by other data, CHKDSK might have marked most sectors in the hard drive, or the entire hard drive is physically damaged.
In case of physical damage, you need to take your hard drive or other storage device to a nearby data recovery specialists or hard drive recovery services to recover data from it.
In case your files have gotten corrupt. Then, you can try file repair tools offered by Yodot to fix the corrupted files.
Finally:
CHKDSK (Command Prompt) is a very useful utility, but if it misfires, it can cause you more harm than good, like permanent data loss. This article discusses all the possible ways to recover files after CHKDSK. We hope the methods in this article helped you in getting your valuable data back.
