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Black and white photo of a slim metal external drive enclosure lying on a grainy surface, its USB port facing the camera, with a coiled white USB cable unplugged in front of it

FeaturedHard Drive2026-10-08

Data Error (Cyclic Redundancy Check) on an External Hard Drive: What to Do First

Windows shows Data error (cyclic redundancy check) when a block read from your external drive fails its integrity check. The cause is either the path (cable, port, enclosure) or the disk surface. Here is how to tell them apart, why the files come off before any repair, and when chkdsk is the wrong first move.

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Hard Drive

2026-09-265 min

Hard Drive Beeping: What the Sound Means and Whether Your Data Survives (2026)

A beeping hard drive has no speaker. The sound is the motor failing to spin the platters, usually because the heads are stuck or the spindle is seized. Here is the one safe check you can do yourself, what makes it worse, and how to decide between recovery software and a professional lab.

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Hard Drive

2026-09-047 min

Reallocated Sector Count: How to Read Your Own Numbers (100, Worst, Threshold)

Your SMART report shows 100, worst 100, threshold 36, and a raw value. Those are four different numbers measuring different things, and only one of them counts sectors. How to read them in the right order, why 100 is not reassuring on its own, and what to do before the count climbs again.

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A data centre aisle: perforated black server cabinets on the right, a blue mobile workstation cart with a monitor on the left, wire mesh partition at the back

Hard Drive

2026-08-153 min

We Measured Which Recovery Tools Ship With Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch (2026 Data)

When a disk is failing, the question is not which tool is best but which one you can install right now. We queried the official APIs of three distributions for 12 recovery tools: Ubuntu 12/12, Fedora 9/12, Arch 8/12. Open data, DOI included.

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An open photo album showing two entirely blank pages on a white background

Hard Drive

2026-08-054 min

Repair a corrupted JPEG: what is actually recoverable, and the thumbnail almost nobody tries

Before paying for repair software, check three things: whether the file still starts with the JPEG marker, whether it is truncated rather than destroyed, and whether an embedded EXIF thumbnail survived. That last one saves photos people had given up on.

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A printed report showing a bar chart and a table of figures, with a scientific calculator resting on it beside a laptop keyboard

Hard Drive

2026-08-055 min

Repair a corrupted Excel file: the four free steps before you buy anything

Excel refuses to open your workbook. Before paying for repair software, check the version history, use Excel's own Open and Repair, and remember that an .xlsx is a ZIP archive you can open and inspect yourself.

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Hard Drive

2026-07-316 min

badblocks: The Disk Test Its Own Manual Tells You Not to Run

badblocks scans a device for bad blocks, and one of its options erases every byte on the disk. What the manual actually recommends, which mode is safe, and when testing is the wrong move entirely.

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Hard Drive

2026-07-307 min

smartctl and Bad Sectors: What It Really Tells You, and the 23% It Misses

smartctl reports bad sectors, it never repairs them. Which SMART attributes actually predict failure, how to read them, and why Backblaze found 23.3% of failed drives gave no warning at all.

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A Samsung Portable SSD external drive box held in two hands

Hard Drive

2026-07-035 min

Windows 11's Disk-Eating Bug (CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal): What It Is and How to Fix It

A Windows 11 bug let the CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal file balloon and never flush, eating tens of gigabytes of disk space. Here is what it is, how to tell if you are affected, and how to fix it with the official KB5095093 update.

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An opened hard disk drive showing its mirrored platter, central spindle hub, and actuator arm

Hard Drive

2026-06-297 min

GNU ddrescue: Clone a Failing Drive Before You Lose the Data (2026 Guide)

How to use GNU ddrescue to clone a dying hard drive to a healthy disk or image, why it beats dd, the exact commands with the mapfile, and how to recover files from the clone with testdisk and photorec.

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Hard Drive

2026-06-288 min

How to Recover a Deleted or Lost Partition (2026 Guide)

A partition that vanished - deleted, showing as unallocated or RAW - usually still holds your data. Learn why, the one rule that protects it, and how to recover a lost partition with recovery software, TestDisk, or a lab.

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Hard Drive

2026-06-265 min

Drive shows as RAW? Recover a RAW drive without formatting (2026)

Your drive shows as RAW and Windows asks to format it? The data is usually still there. How to recover a RAW drive without formatting - TestDisk, PhotoRec and recovery software, step by step, recovery first.

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A USB flash drive on a desk next to a computer

Hard Drive

2026-06-224 min

How to Fix a Corrupted USB Drive (and Recover the Files) 2026

A corrupted USB drive that won't open, shows as RAW or asks to be formatted is often fixable - and the files recoverable. Step-by-step: safe checks, chkdsk, drive letter and format fixes, and recovery software before you reformat.

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