Does Chkdsk Fix Corrupt Files?

Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDF documents, image files, and even Windows system files are not immune to corruption. When this occurs, an error message stating “The file is corrupt and cannot be opened” or “The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable” will be displayed. Another message you will observe is, “Word discovered unreadable data in [filename]. Are you interested in getting this document’s contents back?”

These errors will appear either when you try to open the file from within an application or when you open it by double-clicking on it. Windows support neither of these methods. Here are some ways to resolve the issue if you see one of these messages.

How to Fix Corrupted Files

Run a CHKDSK command. This is the command-line equivalent of the tool disk check. It is worth a shot if the disk check tool fails.

It’s also a good idea to use SFC /scannow. This command will look for damaged Windows system files and attempt to fix them.

Modify the file format. Use a free application to convert files, or open the file with any program that can automatically perform conversions from different file formats. You can trigger the app’s built-in file-conversion tools by opening a damaged Word file in a PDF reader. A file conversion is frequently the only way to fix a corrupt file.

Make use of file repair software. Try using a file repair utility if you are desperate to fix the file and retrieve the information contained within it. There are tools available, such as Hetman, Repair Toolbox, or FileRepair, that cost money in addition to those that are free. If you have corrupt video files, try Digital Video Repair; if you have corrupt ZIP files, try Zip Repair; if you have corrupt Microsoft Office files, try OfficeFIX.

Conduct a disk check on the hard drive. When you run this tool, the hard drive is analyzed, and an attempt is made to recover damaged sectors. After the sectors have been fixed, you should reopen the file you were working on to check and see if it is still corrupted.

Errors with corrupted files are unpredictable and can occur unexpectedly. Fixing a corrupted file is possible approximately fifty percent of the time. There’s no harm in giving them a shot to see if they can help you repair the damaged file.

Causes of Corrupted Files

Several factors can lead to file corruption. One of the most common explanations for this issue is that the hard disk sector where the file is stored suffered some physical damage. A bad sector has sustained physical damage.

A corrupted file error may also occur when multiple files are allotted to the exact memory location. The memory is organized into clusters, where the files are stored. You can still assign two files to the same cluster if the computer crashes or the operating system contains a bug.

Files can also get corrupted when viruses mistakenly mark bad sectors on a hard drive.

Protect Files From Corruption

There are many potential causes of file corruption, so it’s crucial to back up your files regularly. You should use a backup program to ensure that all of your important files are protected. Thus, you can restore a corrupted file from the backup if necessary.

Will CHKDSK recover data?

It’s not a file restoration program, so you can’t use it to get back anything you accidentally deleted or accidentally deleted. CHKDSK will verify that the disk’s information is consistent and secure. The CHKDSK utility tries to isolate damaged files and save the remaining fragments as Filenn.chk if files are damaged. 

Further issues may result from this restructuring of problematic sectors. People have complained about how CHKDSK has worsened files in numerous discussions and forums instead of fixing them. The best advice we can offer is never to run CHKDSK with automatic repair.