What Is File Corruption?
If you break down any computer file, you will have a sequence of binary numbers. These zeros (0) and ones (1) have different structures and combinations to represent different content. If any part of the sequence is changed, the original file may become broken or incomplete, leaving you with a corrupted file. A corrupted file may not open at all, or produce unexpected results when accessed by the system.
Causes of File Corruption
Logical damage. A file typically becomes corrupted when unexpected problems occur during saving or processing. If a sudden power outage or a computer crash happens when you're saving a file, there's a good chance that the file will become corrupted.
Virus Infections. Some types of malware may intentionally corrupt files as part of their payloads, usually by overwriting them with inoperative code. Some viruses may manage to alter files critical to the running of the computer's operating system software or physical hardware, rendering the entire system unusable.
Physical Damage. Bad sectors on your hard drive or other storage media can also cause file corruption, even if the saving process finishes properly. For HDDs (Hard Disk Drives), data are represented by magnetized and demagnetized tiny magnetic domains on the platters, while for SSDs (Solid State Drives) by the presence and absence of electrons in NAND flash memories. If the storage media is physically damaged, it means these bits of data are physically damaged. The typical physical damage is scratched platter on hard disk drives.
Any signs of file or directory corruption should be addressed immediately to restore the performance and stability of the operating system. If you're experiencing file corruption, there are several things you can do.
Perform a thorough virus scan. Virus scanners with the latest definition database can detect known viruses that were designed to make files unreadable and may provide a fix depending on the type of virus.
Restore from previous versions. Many software provides built-in recovery function that enables you to restore the corrupted file to its former versions. Different applications may have different approaches to this. Microsoft Word, for example, features a AutoRecover/AutoSave function that enables us to recover Word document easily from the automatically saved versions. Normally, after an unexpected closure, the Document Recovery task pane will automatically open the next time you open the program so you can get your file back. You can choose among the available files and decide which one you would like to Save as, Delete or Open.
Check for bad sectors. Windows has a couple of built-in tools that can check the integrity of a disk and fix any detected problems. This includes CHKDSK.
There are several parameters for chkdsk command. Chkdsk /f fixes logical error on the memory cards such as file system corruption, while chkdsk /r fixes logical errors as well as checks for bad sectors. Chkdsk /r analyzes the drive and attempts to relocate data it finds to good sectors. It also marks the bad sectors so that these bad sectors will not be used again, which effectively removes the bad sectors from the system. If used without parameters, chkdsk displays only the status of the volume and does not fix any errors.
Use 3rd party utilities. File corruption is often associated with partition damage or data loss. Software like H Data Recovery helps recover damaged , deleted or lost files. It can also recover damaged partitions and restore data.
Start to make backups. File backup is not as difficult as you may think. Windows has its own backup tools for you to choose. Whether it is system image backup or File History, you can make copies of your important files easily and store them away in case anything bad should happen.
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