How to Recover Data from Dead Hard Drive for Free

How to Recover Data from a Dead Hard Drive for Free

It is tricky if your hard drive is corrupted or damaged while you need to find back essential files in it. Taking a computer in for repairs is time-consuming, laborious, and expensive. If your computer can still boot normally, but the hard drive is dead, then you can choose to use data recovery software to restore the files inside. Not only is this method convenient and fast, but free software allows you to get back your files without spending a cent. This guide will help you with how to recover data from dead hard drive, including ways to retrieve files from internal and external hard drives. I will walk you through with a step-by-step tutorial.

📌 How to Recover Data from Internal Dead Hard Drive

WorkinTool Data Recovery is a free and effective desktop software compatible with Windows. The prominent advantage of this tool is that it is 100% free to recover files with no hidden catches for all users. New to the market, it makes all features open to the public. You can use it to restore deleted, corrupted, and damaged files from disks, desktops, external hard drives, etc. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that it provides a fast-scanning speed. Unlike traditional data recovery software, which has a long scanning process, WorkinTool explored two scanning modes. As for the quick scan, it allows you to scan and recover data from a dead hard drive in seconds. As for the deep scan, it can deeply explore data on your PC. You can choose the quick scan option and then a deep scan if you don’t find what you need.

Reasons to Have It

• Free and easy to recover files
• Quickly scan and repair data from your PC
• Accurate scan results
• Free of viruses and ads
• Support recovering various kinds of files
• No registration is required

Reasons to Avoid It

• Available on Windows only

How to Recover Data from a Dead Hard Drive with WorkinTool

After learning about the primary product feature, let’s turn to how to use WorkinTool Data Recovery to retrieve files from a dead hard drive.

Step1. Download and install the data recovery software from the WorkinTool official website.

Step2. Launch the software and click Switch to Wizard Mode at the bottom. Select the dead hard drive you want to scan. Then click Next> Quick Scan> Scan Now. (Quick Scan can lead to great scanning results, but if you need a deeper scan, you can select the Deep Scan option.)

Step3. Filter the files by file type, directory, status, etc. Or you can select to recover all the files on this hard drive. Lastly, click Recover and determine the file save path. You can retrieve all the files on this dead hard drive within seconds.

Other Usages of WorkinTool Data Recovery

📌 How to Recover Data from a Dead External Hard Drive

Method 1. Retrieve Files from a Dead External Hard Drive with WorkinTool

WorkinTool Data Recovery can also help you recover data from an external hard drive, like an HDD, USB, SD card, etc. If the disk is empty after connecting to the external hard disk or the contents cannot be moved to the computer, you can choose to scan the disk with WorkinTool and restore the files. See the specific steps to recover data from a dead external hard drive in the following:

Step1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer. Open WorkinTool Data Recovery and select USB/Memory Card Recovery from the user interface.

Step2. Pick the external hard disk and click Scan Now. Then pick the file you want to repair and click Recover. Similarly, if the scan result is not what you want, you can select a deep scan.

Method 2. Restore Files with Backup and Restore in Windows

If you open the backup function on your computer, you can restore files from a dead external hard drive without relying on other software. This method is simple and fast but can only help you retrieve backed-up files. See how to restore your files with File History on the Windows system.

Windows 11:

Connect the external hard drive you saved the files on. Search Control Panel in the search box on the taskbar. Then search File History and select Save backup copies of your files with File History to restore files.

Windows 10:

Connect an external hard drive to your PC. Press the Start button to launch the control panel and select​ Settings>Update & Security>Backup. Then click Add a drive to recover files from it.

How to Avoid Hard Drive Corrupted or Damaged

It is not troublesome to recover data from a dead hard drive with WorkinTool. But it is time-consuming and expensive to repair a dead hard drive or fix an external hard drive. Several reasons can cause our hard disk to be damaged. We can prevent this case by regularly checking. Here are the main factors that make a hard drive dead and ways to avoid it in daily use.

• Avoid Improper Operations

Frequent abnormal shutdowns, power outages, etc., will cause the hard disk to be damaged. In addition, the immediate recovery after a sudden power failure is the most likely to cause system failure, and in severe cases, the hard disk will be physically damaged. Therefore, to protect the hard drive on our computer, we must avoid improper shutdowns, sudden power outages, etc., in daily use.

• Check Viruses Regularly

In addition, viruses also destroy computer hard drives. Some Trojans will delete or format the computer. To avoid this case, we’d better regularly scan viruses to reduce the chance of virus infection.

• Clean Up Dust

Dust on the hard disk is fatal. The magnetic head of the hard disk is in very close contact with the platter. If the dust falls on the platter of the hard disk, it means that the hard disk is not too late for damage. Therefore, cleaning up the dust on your computer is necessary.

Wrapping Up

This post shows you easy ways to recover data from dead hard drives, including internal and external hard disks. Files are critical in the office. It is recommended to check regularly to prevent losing data.