There are many reasons why files get damaged, become illegible and therefore I can no longer be opened by the predefined programs used on the computer. Possible causes of a corrupt file include: the effect of a malware or virus modifying the files, unexpected application errors, computer crashes, network errors or manual tampering with the contents of the file. No program can open a file if it is damaged so this error, especially if it happens to very important files, can bring us close to frustration. We must not despair: for each category of files ( documents, texts, images, music, videos or other) there are recovery tools that attempt to restore the file or at least their partial content.
Let's see together how to recover damaged and corrupt files in a simple and safe way, also showing you a method to avoid losing a file for this type of error.
READ ALSO -> Find the program to open an unknown file that is not recognized by Windows
1) File Repair
File Repair is a suite of free programs for Windows that can repair all these types of corrupt files and thus becomes one of those first aid tools that should never be missing on your computer.
Specifically, File Repair (downloadable as a trial version for all 32 and 64 bit Windows computers) tries to restore access to all the files that no longer open on the computer including:
- Word documents: doc, docx, docm, rtf
- Excel tables: xls, xlsx, xla
- Zip Archives, Rar
- Videos: AVI, MP4, MOV, WMV, ASF, MPG
- Images and photos: jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp, png, RAW
- PDF documents
- Access database: MDB, MDE, accdb, ACCDE
- PowerPoint presentations: ppt, pps, pptx
- Music and audio files: mp3, wav
File Repair should repair the damaged file if it no longer opens with the default program (for example a .doc file with Word); clearly miracles are excluded so it depends a lot on how damaged or compromised the starting file is; for example, a file with a size of 0 bytes that has lost all its contents, will certainly be irreparable. To use File Repair just select the right version based on the type of file to be recovered from the main site, start the program and try to open the damaged file, so as to start the attempt to correct and restore. The file will be saved in the same folder with a different file name than the original corrupt file which is left intact. File Repair attempts to read the document and recover data that is no longer readable.
2) Lazesoft Recovery Suite
Another program that we can use to recover corrupt documents and files is Lazesoft Recovery Suite, downloadable for free from here -> Lazesoft Recovery Suite .
Once installed on the PC, simply select Data Recovery, indicate the folder where the corrupt file is located, select it and let the recovery system start, which will restore the correct operation and correct opening of the file. Obviously not all files can be recovered, but the beauty of this program is that it attempts recovery by reading also any "ghost data" present on the disk and concerning the file, so as to restore an outdated but functional version if possible.
3) MiniTool Power Data Recovery
Another program that we can test to recover damaged and corrupt files is MiniTool Power Data Recovery, available for free download from here -> MiniTool Power Data Recovery .
Once the program has been downloaded and installed, simply open it to immediately see all the disks and partitions on the PC; to recover corrupt or damaged files, all we have to do is open the path of the file, select it and finally start the scan, so as to restore working versions or attempt recovery on the file directly.
4) Recoverit
If we are looking for a very effective tool on corrupt and damaged files we can try the Recoverit program, available for free download from here -> Recoverit .
As soon as installed, a window will open where you can select the most suitable recovery functionality for the type of error generated by the corrupt file; normally we will have to use Virus Attack Data Recovery or System Crash Data Recovery, but to be on the safe side we can try to recover the corrupt file with the All-Around Recovery function .
5) Repair Toolbox is a set of 22 disposable utilities, each designed to recover a certain type of file. Therefore, if a Word file is corrupt, download the tool for Word, if it is a PDf there is another tool and so on, for Excel, Zip, Rar, Photoshop, Illustrator, Outlook, Onenote and many others . RepairTolbox repair tools are not, unfortunately, free and although they can be used to understand if a file is recoverable or not, for the actual recovery it is necessary to buy the license.
6) Hitman File Repair is a program designed to repair damaged photo and image files, therefore Jpeg, Tiff and png files. It is not a program that recovers files from damaged memories or USB sticks, but it only works if you have a JPG file on your computer that you cannot open, to try to view it anyway. Also this program can be used to know if one or more photos can be recovered, but it requires payment of a license to restore the files and save them.
7) To repair a video that is not seen we have seen several programs, including Digital Video Repair, a free tool that allows you to recover MP4, MOV and AVI videos if they are encoded in Xvid, DivX, MPEG4, 3ivx or Angel Potion.
The tool can correct a video by skipping any missing frames, trying to make the file playable with a Media Player program anyway.
8) System File Checker
We wrote a guide to this tool in the article on how to fix the "file not found or corrupt" error if Windows is not working .
In a nutshell, it just requires you to be started from a dos prompt using the sfc / scannow command and let it do all the error recovery work automatically.
9) Preventing every problem: automatic copies of files
The motto says that "prevention is better than cure" and is also valid in the world of information technology: better equip ourselves to save automatic copies of the files at intervals of time, so that we can always recover a previous version of the files that is always functional.
If we have Windows 10 we can program the system to always generate new copies of personal files by going to Settings -> Update and security -> Backup .
We click the Add a drive button and select an external hard drive, a USB stick or better yet a disk or a network resource that is always active (a NAS for example).
Once the drive to save the backups has been added, we click on More options to manually add the folders we intend to save, so as to also save the files inside them.
Basically backups are made automatically every hour, but we can also set a lower time by adjusting the drop-down menu that will open under the item Back up files .
If the file we were using has become corrupt, just right click on it, select Properties and finally open the Previous Versions tab.
We will see all the saved copies of the file, including those for the various changes we have made in the meantime.
To restore a file just select the right revision and click on Restore at the bottom.
If we have Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 the procedure is very similar, just open the Start menu and type Backup to open the right screen of the Control Panel ( Backup and Restore ).
We click Configure Backup and choose the drive where to save the backup (such as USB flash drives, external hard drives and network paths first), then choose manual selection in the following window and indicate the folders to be backed up. When finished we click Save settings and back up, not before setting the automatic backup schedule ( Change schedule ).
In case of problems we will have to right click on the corrupt file again, click on Properties and finally on Previous versions to recover a working revision of the file.
To conclude, I invite you to read our guides on how to recover the contents of Word documents and Office files that are no longer readable and how to extract files from a damaged Zip or RAR archive .
READ ALSO: Recover deleted files and deleted data on the PC (Hard Disk)
