How do you fix corruped data?

Answer 1

You did not specify which medium the data is on so I'll go with hard drive data.

First we need to clarify a misconception, you cannot 'fix' corrupted data. You can only attempt to recover the uncorrupted data within a file and restructure it so that the file is readable again.

This point is important because the useability of the recovered data depends on what kind of data it was. If the data belongs to a picture, sound or some other media file, then these types of file are fault tolerant (You can put up with corrupted data in a picture depending on its severity), but corruption in data belonging to a program file is another matter. Program data is generally not fault tolerant, a single error in program data will generally result in the program failing.

The cheapest method of doing this is to purchase one of the various data recovery programs available. It is possible to learn how to do this procedure manually using a disk editor but it's long and involved. (Memory formatted on or for PC's have the same protocol structure as hard drives so usually hard drive recovery programs will work on these and other forms of flash memory).

Depending on what the data is worth you may consider sending the media to a professional recovery company, however this is usually a very expensive option, costing thousands with no guarantee that any data will be recovered.

The most cost effective solution is not to get into the situation of loosing data in the first place. If the data is critical always make regular backups, consider investing in mirror RAID systems.

Chris Neary Bsc hons FdSc