I have a Seagate STGX2000400 hard drive that stored old photos, music plugins, and songs I wrote. It began acting up after a failed game installation: File Explorer started crashing and my laptop became extremely slow whenever the drive was connected. Now it appears as "Local Disk" instead of its usual name, and opening it produces the error "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable." I don't need everything back, but I'm especially hoping to recover the songs and pictures. What is the safest way to proceed?
3 Answers
If you’re willing to risk losing the files permanently, the safer DIY approach is to make a sector-by-sector clone or image onto another drive first, ideally through a direct SATA connection rather than USB. Work only from that clone with recovery software. Do not attempt recovery directly on the original, and do not format it or run CHKDSK.
You could try a simple recovery program such as Recuva, but only if the drive is still stable and you accept the risk. Since it is slowing or freezing the computer, I’d avoid that and prioritize professional recovery. Costs can range from a few hundred dollars to much more depending on whether the problem is logical, electronic, or mechanical.
Those symptoms strongly suggest the drive is failing, not just a normal file-system problem. Check its SMART health with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo, but don’t repeatedly browse the drive or run repair utilities. If the data is genuinely important, stop using it and contact a proper data-recovery laboratory rather than a general computer shop. Continuing to power it on can make recovery harder or impossible.
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