- An unreadable hard drive may be caused by file system corruption or errors. Such file system issues may prevent the system from being mounted, or accessed, via the computer's main or host operating system. Repairing the file system may enable hard drive data to be recovered. File system repair software, such as Ontrack Data Recovery, may often be used to salvage data.
- A data transfer may be used to recover unreadable hard drive data. A disk that includes a bootable operating system, called a live CD, may be utilized to transfer data from the hard drive. Live CDs can be managed via the computer's file manager application to allow the hard drive files to be copied.
- File or system corruption or other damage can make a hard drive inoperable. Under such circumstances, the hard disk drive may need replacement. The data contained on the drive should be copied, or backed up, on a media used for storage, like a live CD. The unreadable hard drive should then be uninstalled and a new hard drive installed on the computer.