10 Best Hard Drive Repair Tools in 2025

What should you do if your hard drive suddenly stops working as expected? How can you figure out whether it’s a simple file system error, a failing sector, or something more serious? And, given the amount of software out there claiming to be the best hard disk repair tool, how can you tell which ones are genuinely reliable?

Rest assured that some software solutions do work and can address many hard drive problems. While none can fix severe physical damage, the right tools can repair corrupted file systems, recover lost partitions, restore access to unbootable drives, repair bad sectors, and even help safeguard your data for the future.

10 Best Hard Disk Repair Software Tools For Monitoring and Recovery

Our list below includes options that are suited for both Windows and macOS, so you can use them to analyze, avoid, and solve virtually all common hard drive issues.

1. Disk Drill – Best for Hard Drive Data Recovery

Disk Drill is a professional and user-friendly hard drive recovery tool designed to recover lost or deleted data from even the most problematic drives. It can restore lost partitions, recover files from corrupted, unbootable, crashed, or RAW drives, and handle RAID arrays or NAS devices.

It uses an all-in-one scan that utilizes metadata and signature-based scanning to uncover as much data on your problematic drive as it can, and includes a one-of-its-kind Advanced Camera Recovery (ACR) module for the reconstruction of fragmented video files from damaged media. You can even add virtual drives and disk images, allowing for recovery without the physical drive. And, it supports cross-platform scanning across Windows and macOS.

Beyond recovery, Disk Drill comes with some free features to protect and manage your drives. It includes active S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, which will run in the background and alert you to anticipated failures. The advanced byte-to-byte backup module uses a multipass backup algorithm to work effectively with failing drives, and visually maps out and highlights damaged sectors.

👤 User experience:

“Definitely get the DiskDrill software. I have gotten files back from damaged hard drives that even repair shops said they couldn’t fix without sending it to a lab and doing the $10k full physical procedure.”
–@Quincinerate, X user

✅ Pros:

• Provides access to data on or recovers data from problematic drives, including those that are corrupted, unbootable, crashed, or RAW drives.
• Works with all drives, including internal, external, RAID, NAS, and virtual drives.
• Features an advanced byte-to-byte backup module to work with failing drives.
• Allows users to add virtual drives and disk images for recovery without needing the physical drive present (both created by the tool or created on other systems).
• Ability to pause and resume scans, useful for larger drives or interrupted sessions.
• Offers complimentary tools like active S.M.A.R.T. monitoring.
• Includes file previews, filtering, sorting, and search options during recovery to locate essential files.
• Offers a free version for small-scale recovery of up to 100 MB.

🙁 Cons:

• Does not include partition management and bad block repairing functions.
• No phone support is available.
• Does not offer built-in video or photo repair. Only available separately.
• The scanning process can be time-consuming for large drives.

2. DiskWarrior – Best Diagnostic Tool for Mac

DiskWarrior is one of the most trusted diagnostic and hard drive recovery tools available for Mac. Unlike standard utilities, it focuses on rebuilding and repairing the directory structure, which is often the source of file access issues, slow performance, or unbootable drives. It can fix corrupted directories, improve drive performance, and also recover any data that has been lost due to the damage.

The non-destructive approach it takes protects data while it’s scanning, repairing, and rebuilding directories. What’s more, it creates clear, visual reports of your drive’s health to make identifying and addressing potential problems easy. While the tool doesn’t offer complete support for APFS at the time of his edit, its reliability on HFS and HFS Plus-formatted drives has made it a trusted choice for decades.

👤 User experience:

“DiskWarrior is absolutely worth the money if you have to deal with damaged/corrupted HFS+ filesystems on anywhere near a regular basis.”
– kramer314, Reddit user.

✅ Pros:

• Specialized for macOS HFS+.
• Rebuilds directories without overwriting lost data.
• Can recover lost or inaccessible files from damaged drives.
• Optimizes the directory structure, improving drive performance.

🙁 Cons:

• Exclusively available on Mac.
• No free or trial version available.
• Limited support for APFS in the latest version (5.3).

3. Clonezilla – Best Disk Imaging Tool

Clonezilla is one of the best options out there for creating backup images of your drives or partitions. When you experience any problem that has affected your drive and caused data loss as a result, creating a byte-to-byte backup of the drive is your first step. Why? Because it preserves your disk’s current state, preventing further loss and allowing for recovery at a later time.

The tool supports a wide variety of file systems, including those used by Windows, macOS, and Linux. You’ll find it can also compress disk images and perform basic repairs to restore unbootable systems. But we decided on Clonezilla for this spot because of its unmatched flexibility and reliability compared with similar open-source tools. It’s particularly useful in scenarios where multiple machines need to be cloned, when migrating to new hardware, or when creating a secure backup before attempting risky system changes.

While it does have a steeper learning curve compared to similar alternatives, its robust capabilities make it one of the most effective free options out there.

👤 User experience:

“Clonezilla is free (as in Open source). Most of what Macrium and TrueImage can do can also be done with Clonezilla.”
–Splendid, Tomshardware forum moderator.

✅ Pros:

• Completely free and open-source.
• Supports a range of file systems for Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, and VMware.
• Ability to encrypt and compress backups.
• Can restore boot loaders, handling both MBR and GPT partition schemes.

🙁 Cons:

• Requires external boot media (CD/DVD/USB) to operate.
• Steep learning curve for non-technical users.
• Partitions must be unmounted to be imaged.

4. DiskGenius – Best Basic Bundle

DiskGenius is an all-in-one disk repair tool that combines aspects of data recovery, partition management, and basic disk utilities into a single package. While it may not go as deep into specialized features as other tools we’ve mentioned, its strength lies in its versatility. For users who don’t want to juggle their own tech stack for disk repair, DiskGenius provides a straightforward way to handle common disk-related problems without switching between different programs.

The software can recover lost files and partitions, repair certain disk errors and bad sectors, resize or clone partitions, and even back up data. It also supports hex-level editing for advanced troubleshooting, making it a surprisingly flexible option for a general-purpose tool. And, if you have a damaged RAID array, it can virtually reconstruct and rebuild it on the fly.

Overall, DiskGenius is best suited for users who want a little bit of everything. It might not match the raw recovery depth of Disk Drill or the deployment power of Clonezilla, but for everyday disk repair and management, it’s a convenient and reliable choice.

👤 User experience:

“In my experience, not only is Diskgenius free, but it works consistently and correctly where other companies fall short.”
– Linkticus, Reddit user.

✅ Pros:

• Combines aspects of recovery, partition management, and backup into one.
• Supports RAID reconstruction and virtual disk management.
• Securely erases all data from the hard drive.
• Works outside the operating system (OS).
• Includes a built-in hex editing feature.

🙁 Cons:

• Requires external boot media.
• Cannot wipe solid-state drives.

5. CrystalDiskInfo – Best Health Monitoring Tool

CrystalDiskInfo is an extremely handy disk monitoring utility that’s best used as a preventative measure rather than a last resort fix. It can read S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data from hard disks. S.M.A.R.T. data includes things like the read error rate, seek error rate, or spin-up time. Your S.M.A.R.T. values service as an indicator that can warn you about impending failure, which makes CrystalDiskInfo almost an essential companion for everyday use.

It also allows you to set up custom alerts so you’re warned when thresholds are exceeded. Because it focuses primarily on monitoring, it doesn’t have a lot of additional features like the other solutions we’ve mentioned. That said, it does offer historical temperature graphs, AAM/APM control for turning noise and power settings, and a portable version to run without installing.

👤 User experience:

“I’d suggest that you check on your NVMe or SSD storage using Crystaldiskinfo. It’s good, I use it frequently to monitor my hard drive’s health from time to time”
– @404Usernam, X user.

✅ Pros:

• Can be configured to send event-based alerts.
• In-depth overview of your hard drives.
• Completely free and open-source.

🙁 Cons:

• Cramped interface may be confusing.
• No clear instructions or guides.

6. GParted – Best Partition Manager

GParted is a free, graphical partition editor that you can use to resize, copy, and move partitions without data loss or file corruption. This makes it an excellent option to shrink a partition to create space for another OS, a backup partition, or to simply reorganize your disk layout without wiping your drive.

Part of the reason we chose GParted is that it’s fully cross-platform. It can be run on Linux, macOS, and Windows-based systems by booting from a USB stick or CD/DVD. It’s known by many IT professionals as one of the best HDD repair software options since it can be used to recover partitions that have become inaccessible, repair boot issues by managing partition flags, and check file system integrity with a built-in repair option.

GParted is already included in popular tools like Partclone and the aforementioned Clonezilla, or you can download it as a lightweight bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86-based computers. Its ability to queue multiple changes before applying them makes it both flexible and forgiving, marking it as a clear upgrade from Windows’ built-in Disk Management tool and similar third-party counterparts.

👤 User experience:

“I tried MS DISKPART first, but found that I was unable to extend my primary partition into unallocated space. GParted did the job fast and efficiently and saved me many headaches. I thank everyone involved for a marvelous utility.”
– prlwtski, SourceForge user.

✅ Pros:

• Queues changes before applying them.
• Works outside the OS.
• No reboots required to commit changes.

🙁 Cons:

• Requires external boot media.
• Large download size.

7. HDD Regenerator – Best Ability to Repair Bad Sectors

While Windows comes with a built-in hard disk repair tool capable of fixing logical file system errors, it doesn’t attempt to address physical defects. HDD Regenerator, on the other hand, is a specialized HDD repair tool designed to detect physical bad sectors on a hard disk drive surface and attempt to repair them using its proprietary Hysteresis loops generator technology, developed by Dmitriy Primochenko.

The latest version of HDD Regenerator supports Windows 10/11, as well as modern storage devices like SSDs and NVMe drives. The tool can be launched from bootable media, allowing it to be used on any system regardless of the OS. Outside of repairing bad sectors, the latest version includes full S.M.A.R.T. support, real-time hard drive monitoring, and corrupted data recovery

👤 User experience:

“I used HDD Regenerator in the past and it fixed something that wasn’t solved before by other programs.”
–  muchmore777, Reddit user.

✅ Pros:

• Quick bad sector detection.
• Has a chance to restore functionality by fixing some bad sectors.
• Real-time hard drive condition monitor.

🙁 Cons:

• Slow on very large hard drives.
• Fairly expensive.

8. AOMEI Partition Assistant – Best Hard Disk Manager

Despite its name AOMEI Partition Assistant isn’t yet another tool for moving, resizing, and creating partitions. It’s actually a feature-packed hard disk manager capable of solving virtually all commonly encountered issues related to hard drives. You can use it for external hard drive repair, OS migration to a new drive, or the conversion from MBR to GPT without data loss. Included is the ability to securely shred sensitive files, preventing their recovery, even by Disk Drill.

Its queue system lets you stage multiple changes before applying them, minimizing the risk of mistakes during complex operations. AOMEI Partition Assistant can be set to run before your OS boots, making it possible to work on drives that are otherwise inaccessible, including recovering data from an external hard drive. The interface is straightforward and contains all the information you need without taking away from being able to perform detailed disk management and repair tasks.

✅ Pros:

• User-friendly interface makes it easy to use.
• Can run before Windows boots.
• Can queue changes before committing them.

🙁 Cons:

• Cannot convert dynamic disks to basic.
• Fairly expensive paid licenses.

9. SpinRite – Best for Older Computers

Considering that the last version of SpinRite, an application for recovering lost files from magnetic data storage devices such as hard disks, was released back in 2004, you might be surprised to see it featured on this list. The reason why we decided to include it is simple: it remains the best hard drive repair tool for older computers. SpinRite works at a low level, accessing the magnetic data on the disk rather than relying on the file system. This lets it recover data from drives that are unreadable, have intermittent errors, or are failing slowly over time.

Since it runs inside a live version of FreeDOS, you can use it to scan just about any computer – even one that doesn’t work properly anymore. The tool supports not only Windows file systems but also DOS FAT, all Linux file systems, Novell, Macintosh, and more. Beyond recovery, SpinRite can detect weak sectors before they fail so you’re aware they exist. While its text-based interface may be reminiscent of Windows XP, its low-level scanning and repair capabilities make it a unique solution.

👤 User experience:

“Spinrite and Zero Assumption Recovery have been my best duo if the drive responds.”
–  flunky_the_majestic, Reddit user.

✅ Pros:

• Works on computers running older hardware.
• Doesn’t require an OS.
• Claims to recover data and refresh the hard drive surface.

🙁 Cons:

• Some users find the software doesn’t live up to its claims.
• Can wear solid-state drives with excessive writing.

10. Victoria for Windows – Best for Remapping Bad Sectors

Victoria for Windows is a hard disk drive information and diagnostic utility that allows users to view detailed information about their hard drives and troubleshoot hard drive-related issues. One of its most useful features is its ability to scan hard drives for bad sectors and remap them to working ones. Since bad sectors are a sign of hard drive corruption, remapping them may allow you to restore the hard drive to a working state to recover all of your remaining data. Although its outdated interface may deter some, there’s no doubt that it is an impressive tool with a lot of practical uses. And, best of all, it’s completely free.

✅ Pros:

• Provides detailed information about your hard drives.
• Review S.M.A.R.T. data.
• Shows a colored overview of sectors for easy identification.

🙁 Cons:

• No clear instructions.

Are there Alternative DIY Solutions to Repair a Hard Disk?

Not every hard drive problem you run into will require professional repair or costly software. Before you send your drive into a lab or invest in specialized tools, there are several practical DIY steps you can try. These methods will help you address common logical errors, check hardware connections, and restore access to files, often without spending a dime. While they cannot fix serious physical damage, trying these alternatives first can save time, money, and a lot of frustration.

Run Antivirus

Many strains of malware exist on the web. Some forms of malware can mimic a hard drive failure, making files disappear or preventing your system from booting properly. The good news is that Windows comes with a capable antivirus called Windows Defender. Scan your PC with Windows Defender (or another antivirus software) and remove any potential threats.

Check and Repair Hard Disk Errors

Modern file systems are robust and reliable, but they’re not entirely immune to data-loss-related errors. Built-in tools, namely CHKDSK, can scan your drive for logical errors and fix them, helping to restore normal operation without third-party tools. For Mac users, First Aid is the equivalent of CHKDSK.

Re-Install Hard Disk Drivers and Update Firmware

Sometimes, hard disk issues are caused by outdated or faulty drivers and firmware. Reinstalling or updating your drives or firmware can resolve compatibility issues, return performance to baseline, and prevent unexpected drive failure.

Format the Disk

Formatting a hard drive can fix persistent errors and corrupted file systems by giving the disk a fresh file system. A Quick Format is usually what you need, which only erases the file references and adds a new file system. However, if you want to address bad sectors, a Full Format is what you want.

Check Physical Hard Disk Connections

Your hard drive connects to your motherboard via two cables: a power cable, for electricity, and a SATA cable, for data transfer. Loose or damaged cables can cause a wide range of issues, so a quick inspection will help to avoid unnecessary troubleshooting. External drives are a little different, and you will need to inspect the USB ports, cables, and any adapters or enclosures. If it’s still not recognized, see our guide on recovering data from external drives that are not recognized.

Connect the Hard Disk to a New Computer

If none of the above-described fixes have worked, try connecting your hard drive to a different computer. If the drive works like normal on another system, the problem is likely with your own PC rather than the drive itself. See our guide on how to recover data from an external hard drive that isn’t detected for more information.

When Should You Contact a Professional Repair Service

If the drive fails to respond and isn’t showing up in Device Manager or BIOS/UEFI, or if it’s making unusual scraping, clicking, or grinding noises, DIY methods are no longer safe or effective. In this case, you should send your drive to a data recovery professional.

Other obvious signs of impending drive failure include repeated S.M.A.R.T. errors, constant disconnections, or a lack of access, even through data recovery software. Trying to fix these issues yourself will lead to further damage and likely permanent data loss.

Conclusion

Hard drive issues may be stressful at times, but the right software tools can help you recover data, repair errors, and manage your drives safely. Of the options we’ve discussed in this article, we’ve selected the top three tools in their respective categories. For a broader list of recommended Windows recovery software, see our list of the best data recovery software for Windows.

• Disk Drill for data recovery. Disk Drill’s streamlined user interface and powerful recovery features make it an excellent option for any user. It’s capable of restoring lost partitions and files from corrupted or unbootable drives, supporting RAID and NAS devices across Windows and macOS.
• DiskWarrior for diagnostics. DiskWarrior’s ability to repair and rebuild directory structures using a non-destructive approach makes it a reliable option to recover lost or inaccessible files and improve drive performance.
• Clonezilla for disk imaging. Clonezilla remains one of the best in terms of creating complete byte-to-byte backups of drives or partitions. Its flexibility and support for multiple file systems make it invaluable for secure backups, system migrations, and, most importantly, recovery preparation, in cases of data loss.

You can find a brief breakdown of each tool in the table below.

FAQ