Repairing unreadable files after recovery from a crashed hard drive.

Question

Hello everyone,

My computer apparently crashed, as you can see in the photo. Windows tried a repair at startup, but since then, the computer remains on a black screen and won't boot. So I removed the hard drive to extract the data, but I found nothing in the Users folder. I thought it might be deleted or damaged, so I bought a Wondershare Recoverit license and ran a scan and file recovery.

The problem is that now I can't open any of the files—no Word documents, no photos, no videos. Everything I try to open is either said to be unreadable or the application doesn't support the file type.

I'm asking for your help to find out:

1. What is the cause?
2. How can I repair the files?
   Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer 1

If the recovered files are unreadable, it usually means parts of the original data were already damaged or overwritten before recovery. Recovery software can sometimes rebuild the file structure, but if some sectors are missing, the file may not open properly.

A couple of things you can try:

Run a Deep Scan or Raw scan and recover the files again.

Save recovered files to a different drive, not the same one.

Try opening the file with another program (sometimes VLC works for videos).

Also, avoid using the original drive until you finish recovery attempts, because new data can overwrite the remaining recoverable parts.

Answer 2

Hi Paul B. Jonathan Simon,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A!

I’m sorry that you have to deal with this after a system crash — seeing Windows attempt repairs, then finding that your files are unreadable is definitely frustrating. I know you’ve tried your best to save the data, however, the situation is not ideal.

To answer your first question: Your hard drive suffered severe file‑system damage when the PC crashed. Windows (CHKDSK) was able to partially rebuild the file listings, but the actual file data was already damaged or overwritten. Recovery software can restore file names and folders, but not missing or corrupted content. That’s why the files exist but won’t open.

That leads us to the unfortunate answer for your second question: It’s likely impossible to repair your data, either with Windows or normal software. The realistic options you can consider are:

1. Try another recovery tool: different tools sometimes recover small numbers of usable files, but if all files are unreadable, success is unlikely.
2. Restore from backups: Check OneDrive, external drives, USBs, email attachments, or older PCs.
3. Professional data recovery service: They may recover some usable files at the hardware level. However, note that this can be expensive, and not guaranteed.

I know this isn’t the answer anyone hopes for, but I think it’s better to be honest so you know the situation and don’t waste time on things that cannot work.

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Answer 3

1. Cause of the problem

• The screenshot shows CHKDSK repairing an NTFS volume (“inserting data attribute into file …”, “resetting USN information”). This indicates serious file‑system corruption on the crashed drive.
• When a disk has heavy corruption or physical damage, the file system metadata (MFT, directory entries, allocation tables) can be partially rebuilt, but the actual file contents may be incomplete or overwritten.
• Recovery tools like Wondershare can often reconstruct file names and types, but if the underlying sectors are damaged or reused, the recovered files will be structurally corrupt. Applications then report them as unreadable or as an unsupported file type.

In short, the crash and subsequent disk/file‑system damage mean that many of the “recovered” files no longer contain valid data.

2. What can be done to repair or recover There is no Windows feature that can repair arbitrary user files that are already corrupted on disk. Options are limited:
3. Stop writing to the damaged drive

• Any further writes can overwrite remaining recoverable data. Only access it in read‑only mode from another PC.

2. Try alternative recovery approaches

• Different tools use different algorithms. If Wondershare produced only unreadable files, another tool might reconstruct some files better, but success is not guaranteed.
• For NTFS volumes, recovery is generally more successful when the disk is logically corrupted but still readable; if there is heavy physical damage, software tools will not be able to repair the content.

3. Check for other copies or backups

• Look for previous copies of the same files on other drives, external disks, cloud storage, email attachments, or OneDrive if it was used. Windows guidance is always to keep backups because some recovery scenarios (including severe corruption) can result in permanent data loss.
• See the guidance on choosing and using backup solutions in Windows: Choose a backup solution in Windows.

4. Consider professional data‑recovery services

• If the data is critical and no backup exists, a specialized data‑recovery lab may be able to image the failing disk at the hardware level and reconstruct more usable files than consumer software can. This is often the only remaining option when recovered files are consistently unreadable.

5. For the Windows installation itself

• If the goal is also to get the PC booting again, the recommended approach after a severe crash and file‑system repair is usually to reinstall Windows on a healthy disk.
• If Windows cannot start reliably from this drive, use the recovery options table:
  • If System Restore and Startup Repair cannot fix it, reinstall Windows using a recovery drive or installation media as described in the recovery options article.

Because the recovered files are already corrupted, Windows tools like System File Checker (SFC) or DISM cannot repair them; those tools only repair Windows system files, not personal documents, photos, or videos.

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References:

• Recovery options in Windows
• Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files
• Windows File Recovery
• Find lost files after upgrading Windows