My external hard disk gets corrupted again for the second time in 6 months. I have some 150-200GB of files on it. The last time I recovered I used EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard, but since I didn't have enough space on any of my drives restored it directly onto the corrupted disk. This made me lose a lot of my data. This time however I plan on restoring on to a friend's disk and then copying it onto mine.

 

The last time I restored, the files that I did get back didn't have their original names. Will that happen this time since I'm copying onto another disk? Or will they have their original names? Is there a way to make sure they retain their original names?

 

EDIT: Also how do I make sure it doesn't get corrupted again?

If it is getting corrupted to a state where you HAVE to use a recovery tool to get the data off you should not really be re-using the drive. It has some sort of fault causing to corrupt and you can't really self-repair them.

If it is getting corrupted to a state where you HAVE to use a recovery tool to get the data off you should not really be re-using the drive. It has some sort of fault causing to corrupt and you can't really self-repair them.

 

It says I need to format before using the drive. The last time I did this and then used a recovery tool to get the data back. It shows 0% used and RAW file system.

Yes if the drive is becoming corrupted to the point where it is unusable (opposed to just a few corrupted files and the rest being fine) it means there is something wrong with the drive, especially seeing as this is a recurring problem.

What do you do when you want to remove the hard drive? Do you just remove it from the USB port or use the safely remove option?

Well, for the files to retain their old filenames the recovery software would need to be able to retrieve the Filename from the file system(or from the file itself in some file systems, which seems unlikely given your previous wiping of file names during recovery), which most likely isn't going to happen as reformatting the drive is used to fix corrupted drives by overwriting the old corrupted File system. The best method to avoid having the data get corrupted again is to always properly eject the drive, and if you do not have a general idea what is causing the corruption you should replace the drive as it may be the hard drive failing.(if you are fairly sure what is causing the corruption you can just fix that instead of replacing the drive.)

I have nearly always ejected it safely. I'll probably get a new one and back up the data on that on to this, just in case.

Thank you everyone.:)

One thing that's important to know with external hard drives is that you have to be very careful with it. Dropping it from even the slightest height can make it go corrupt (and probably break it at the same time). The probability of breaking it when moving it or dropping it is way higher when it's on.