Disk problems always appear unexpectedly, putting inexperienced users into a state of near panic. If the drive contains important data, this state is quite reasonable. But … Mistakes are different. In our case, with a high probability, the disk, regardless of whether it is an HDD, an SSD or a flash drive, is physically sound. This means that there is a chance to return it to a working state, including without data loss.
How? Read on.
Contents
Reasons for the error
When such an inscription appears, the structure of the section is most likely violated, but the reasons for the occurrence of an emergency situation can be very different:
- most often the message “Unable to check disk” appears due to partial destruction of the partition table;
- the disk becomes inaccessible if the boot blocks of NTFS – the main file system for Windows OS are damaged;
- destruction of the MFT leads to the same results – this is the main part of the NTFS file table;
- it is possible that the disk was a part of a RAID array (they use their own file system formats); after connecting it as an independent drive, Windows will not be able to recognize it;
- the disk driver may simply “fly off”, especially if it is non-standard or you are using an outdated version of the OS of an incomprehensible assembly;
- very often an abnormal shutdown of the PC leads to the appearance of such an error (by pressing the Power button or in the event of a power outage);
- if you started to “mope” USB ports (this is a problem with the motherboard);
- if the drive is not detected by the operating system – external, possibly the reason is the loss of the docking station;
- it is possible that the error occurred after you incorrectly removed the external HDD or USB flash drive. This usually happens if you copied something to the media, and after the progress bar reached the end, you immediately ejected the media. This cannot be done – the fact is that in fact Windows uses the buffer when copying, and the process itself occurs in the background. This means that at the time of ejecting the disk, the operation may not be completed, which will lead to the loss of the copied information in the most optimistic scenario, or to damage to the NTFS file system, which is critical for such errors. That is, in such cases, you should always use the “Safely Remove Hardware” function.
Regardless of the cause of the error, there are several effective ways to fix it.
Solution
If any problems with the disk appear, the standard diagnostic method is to use Explorer: right-click on the failed disk, select the “Properties” menu item, go to the “Service” tab and start the check by pressing the appropriate button. In our case, most likely, you will not find the problem drive in the explorer.
You can use an alternative method – the chkdsk utility, launched via the command line with the parameters / f (attempt to fix detected errors) and / r (detection of damaged clusters with their entry into the table and transferring data to undamaged clusters, if possible). The chkdsk command works with the current disk, so before executing it, go to the failed logical disk with the D: <Enter> command or run the utility specifying this disk (for example, chkdsk C: / f / R).
However, it is highly likely that the built-in diagnostic tool will not work if the error message “The disk cannot be verified because the disk is unavailable” appears. What to do next? There are two ways: formatting the disk or trying to use third-party utilities to work with problem disks.
Formatting the Drive
The most radical and effective way to correct any logical errors in the disk structure. But, alas, with a guaranteed complete loss of information. So, you should resort to this method only in cases where critical data for you is missing on the problem media.
Formatting is recommended not through Explorer, but by the storage manager built into Windows.
Step by step algorithm:
- press the Win + R combination, enter the command diskmgmt.msc in the Run panel, confirm by pressing <Enter> or the OK button;
- in the disk management window in the lower block, right-click on the problem drive and select “Format”;
- if the option is unavailable, that is, the “Format” item is gray, this is corrected by selecting the “Initialize disk” item, after which the media can be formatted;
- the formatting operation begins with the appearance of a window in which you need to set the volume label and determine the type of required file system, usually NTFS. After specifying these parameters, click OK and wait for the operation to complete.
Note that if the formatting of the drive is available, then the problem of its inoperability will be guaranteed to be resolved.
Using the DMDE program
Unfortunately, the situation when important data is missing on an unreadable drive is extremely rare. And very few users use disk backups, at least on a regular basis. So formatting is not an option for them.
Well, in this case it is worth trying to use third-party software, and as a suitable program with a relatively simple interface, we recommend DMDE, which we strongly recommend to download from the official website.
There are versions for all popular operating systems, with a graphical and console interface. Since this article is intended for ordinary users who are not gurus in the computer field, we select the version with a graphical interface (GUI).
The utility is delivered in a portable version, that is, it does not require installation – just launch it and work. The only caveat is that you first need to unpack it, since it, along with the necessary components, is in the archive.
When you first start the program, it detects the language itself, using the system localization data of the operating system, you just have to confirm or make your choice.
When the Recovery Wizard window opens, in the left block, put a checkmark in front of the “Physical devices” item, after which a list of available disks will appear in the right block, from which you need to select the problematic one.
Then the program will start scanning the disk to determine the presence and number of volumes (partitions). If there are several of them, you need to restore them separately, for which we click with the mouse on the next section and press the “Restore” button. The utility will try to use the available data to determine the type of file system used, and then will restore the partition.
We do the same with the rest of the volumes, and without exception – we do not know how serious the failure is.
Of course, it is impossible to guarantee an exceptionally positive result, and if DMDE did not cope with the task, you can try another similar software. This outcome is rare, mostly on computers with exotic drives.
Testdisk program
This is a more functional product than DMDE, but it is also much more difficult to work with it, since the utility has only console execution, which requires great care when typing commands.
We download the latest stable version of Testdisk from the official site, at the time of this writing it was version 7.1, dated July 2019. The program is distributed under open source conditions, that is, free of charge, and, as in the previous case, does not have an installer and is packed into an archive.
Unpack it and run the testdisk_win.exe file.
Note again that this is a console utility, but using it makes it easier to make selections using the arrow keys on your keyboard. But the mouse in the console window will not work.
After starting the program, in the first menu that appears, select the “Create” item and press Enter. A list of disks installed in the system will appear, select the problem drive, move the cursor to the word “Proceed” and press Enter again.
A new menu will appear in which you need to select the type of partition table, which depends on both the computer architecture and the operating system. The program is able to independently determine this type, so if you are not in the know, just press Enter.
And only now a menu will appear with a list of available actions. We select the first option – “Analyze”, and then just press Enter on the “Quick Search” menu item. After the utility analyzes the disk, a list of partitions will be displayed.
Select the desired one with the Up / Down arrows, and then use the horizontal Left / Right arrows to select the characteristics of the section – we need the letter “P” to be the first character, in this case the entire line will turn green. Confirm by pressing Enter.
On the next screen, use the arrows to select the “Write” menu item (writing the partition structure to disk).
After pressing the enter key on the next screen, you need to press Y to start the process of fixing problems and wait for the utility to complete.
You will need to restart your computer for the fix to take effect.
If after selecting “Quick Search” Testdisk does not find any partitions, this is not fatal: just select the disk, press Enter, and then instead of “Write” select “Deeper Search”. This is an in-depth search mode that will last longer than a quick search, but also much better.
In general, Testdisk in the overwhelming majority of cases is able to fix the error “It is impossible to check the disk, because the disk is not available”, but due to the lack of a Russian-language interface and a console version of the execution, you need to work with the program very carefully.
So we recommend that you try DMDE first, and if this utility does not work as expected – only then use a more powerful, but less user-friendly tool.