How to Fix & Recover Corrupted Files on Windows 10

If your file opens with an error, has issues displaying the content, or won’t even open at all – it’s probably corrupted. This is common, and it can be caused by a lot of things that are out of our control. Fortunately, corrupted files aren’t always totally lost.

What is a Corrupt File & What Does Corrupted Data Mean?

You’ll know a file is corrupted if: (1) it won’t open or it opens with an error, or (2) the file opens but doesn’t appear correctly. What exactly is happening?

PNG file with one altered bit. (source)

Files are made up of bytes of information structured in a specific way. If this structure gets disrupted and/or the information being written to the file is incorrect, it gets corrupted. The data’s “integrity” becomes compromised, preventing it from being accessed the way it was intended. As you can see from the above image, just one bit out of place can be super disruptive.

What Causes File Corruption & How Can Files Get Corrupted?

File corruption can come from all sides. It can be an OS problem, a third-party application tampering with system files or even hardware failure. See below for more details.

How to Recover Corrupted Files

Corrupted file recovery depends on how your computer is set up. While some methods allow you to uncorrupt a file, others try to restore a working version from a backup or directly from your file system. See which method applies to you.

Method 1: Restore Previous Versions Using File History or a Restore Point

If you enabled File History or created a Restore Point, Windows 10 should be making incremental saves of your files and folders. We can use these saves to retrieve the previous version of a file – specifically, the version of it before it got corrupted.

Here’s how to check if you have Previous Versions available:

• File History (Settings > Update & Security > Backup)
• Create a Restore Point (Start button > search box > type “Create a restore point”)

You’ll need to have set up one of these backup systems on your PC to open a corrupt file with this method. To access the previous versions of any file or folder, simply right-click it and click “Previous versions.”

Method 2: Restore Files From a Backup (From Windows 7 Backup)

If you enabled Windows backup you can try to use it to restore the backup version of your files on Windows 10. Here’s how:

1. Make sure the hard drive or USB that contains your backup is securely connected to your computer or laptop.
2. Click the Start button > Control Panel > System and Security
3. Under Backup and Restore (Windows 7), click “Restore files from backup.”
4. Under “Restore”, click “Restore my files.”
5. In the new window, click “Browse for files.”
6. Navigate to the folder that stores the backup file. Click it, then click “Add files.”
7. Back in the Restore Files window, select the file you want to restore and click “Next.”
8. You can choose to restore the file in its original folder, but we suggest using the “Browse” button to save it to a new location – specifically, on a different storage device. Then, click “Restore.”

Method 3: Use the SFC Scannow Command in Command Prompt

The SFC Scannow command will check for corrupt files and replace them. It’s a super simple command, so you can do this easily even if you never touched code before. Use the Start menu to search for Command Prompt or “CMD” and run it as administrator.

Then, type the following command and hit enter:

sfc /scannow

Method 4: Use the CHKDSK Command in Command Prompt

Chkdsk is another command that fixes file system issues. It’s also super easy to execute. Simply run Command Prompt as administrator, then type the following command and hit enter:

chkdsk c: /f /r

Method 5: Change the File to Another Format

Try converting your file to another format. Most apps are capable of doing this through the “Save as” dialogue. We’ll demonstrate this below using Microsoft Word.

1. Open the document using its original app (we’re using Microsoft Word).
2. Click File/Office button > Save as…
3. Use the dropdown menu to select a new format (for ex. HTML or PDF) for your document, then click “Save.”
   ⚠️

   Make sure to choose a format that best preserves your content. For example, our Word document only contained text, so we chose HTML. If your content is an image or photo, try saving it from PNG to JPG or vice versa.

   

Method 6: Open and Repair (Microsoft Office)

Microsoft Office has a built-in autorepair tool called “Open and Repair” that can scan for and fix corrupted files as it opens them. It doesn’t require any setup beforehand, so all Microsoft Office users can give this a try.

1. In Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint, click File/Office button > Open.
2. Find the folder where your damaged file is stored.
3. Click your file, then click the arrow beside Open > Open and Repair.

Method 7: Use a Repair Tool

If none of the above methods work, try using online file repair tools. These are browser-only file fixer and file opener apps that can repair corrupted files through the website, without having to download anything. You just upload your broken file(s) to the website and let them do the rest.

Do be aware that all of the best tools (as in, reliable tools that real users can vouch for) are paid. We can’t vouch for any free tools. Here are a few good ones:

• Onlinefile.repair – $10 for files under 100 MB
• https://online.officerecovery.com – $59 for up to 30 jobs in 48 hours (better for high volume tasks)
• https://onlinefilerepair.com/ – $5 for files under 100 MB

How to Recover Multiple Corrupted Files/Files That Keep Getting Corrupted

If your file keeps getting corrupted, multiple files have suddenly become corrupted at the same time, or your files have gone missing, you’re most likely dealing with a corrupted drive – not a corrupted file. In this case, use trustworthy data recovery software to recover your corrupted files.

For this article, we’ll be using Disk Drill. It has an excellent success rate and it’s easy to use, so you should have no problems following along with the steps. Even better, Disk Drill Basic for Windows offers 500 MB of free data recovery – more than enough for most non-video files.

1. Download and install Disk Drill, then launch it.
2. On the left sidebar, click “Drive Backup.” Then, select your drive in the middle pane and click “Byte-to-byte backup.”
3. In the dialogue box that appears, name your backup file and click “OK.”
4. Once Disk Drill completes the backup process, click the back arrow button to return to the main Disk Drill window and click “Data Recovery” on the left sidebar. Click “attach disk/image…”
5. Navigate to the location where the backup file is saved, then click “Open.”
6. We’re back to the main window. Select the backup image from the list, then click “Search for lost data.”
7. Wait for Disk Drill to complete its scan, then click “Review found items.”
8. You can quickly find your file by using the search bar or the filters in the left sidebar.
9. You can check if you got the right files by previewing them. Hover your mouse pointer to the right of any file and click the eye button that appears. We have had some success previewing corrupted video files and image files during our other tests.
10. Use the boxes in the left-most column to select the files you want to restore. Then, click “Recover.”
11. Select a location that is not where the original file is located. For example: if it’s on your computer, save the recovered file to a USB device. If you are trying to recover files from a corrupted SD card, save the restored data to your computer. This will help us avoid overwriting the data. Then, click “OK.”

FAQ

sfc /scannow

chkdsk c: /f /r

Sfc /scannow

Chkdsk c: /f /r