Start by counting. One damaged document on an otherwise healthy machine is a file problem with a straightforward fix. Several failing across unrelated folders is the storage telling you something — and running repair tools on a failing drive is how that gets worse.
$ cdr diagnose /dev/sda → Device: WD My Passport (2 TB) · external → Status: CORRUPT — file system RAW, data intact → Client: confidential · Newmarket CB8 $ cdr engineer-working → Forensic image: taken · originals untouched → File system: rebuilt from NTFS structures → Restored: 2,840 folders · 61,200 files $ cdr verify → ✓ documents — 38,400 files → ✓ photos — 22,800 files → ✓ drive readable again — recovered
Before anything else, establish which of these you have. They are not the same problem.
Four places worth two minutes each before anyone pays for a repair.
Office applications keep autorecover versions, usually in AppData, and they survive a crash routinely. OneDrive, SharePoint and Google Drive all hold version history for at least thirty days, and restoring a version from last Tuesday takes one click.
On Windows, right-click the folder and check Previous Versions — where shadow copies are enabled, an earlier copy of the file may be sitting there. On a Mac, Time Machine holds the same thing.
And on a shared drive, ask whoever runs the server. A meaningful share of the enquiries we take on corrupted files end here, in five minutes, at no cost to anybody.
If several files are affected, stop and check the drive. Multiple corrupt files is usually a storage symptom rather than a file problem. Repairing the files while the disk continues to fail is treating the wrong thing.
Most complex file formats are containers with internal structure — headers, indexes, offsets, checksums and references between parts. When corruption damages those structures the content is frequently still present and simply unreachable, in the same way a damaged partition table hides an intact disk.
Repair means rebuilding that structure until the application accepts the file. Office documents are ZIP containers with XML inside, and a damaged central directory can often be reconstructed from the entries themselves. Databases are repaired until the engine will mount them. Video files are rebuilt from a working file recorded on the same device, which supplies the header structure the damaged one lost.
What repair cannot do is invent content. Where the bytes are genuinely gone, the file comes back with those regions missing — a document short of pages, a video that plays to a point. We will tell you which you are getting before you pay.
File repair starts at £250 +VAT. Where the corruption turns out to be a symptom of a failing drive, the drive recovery is quoted instead and the file repair is included in it rather than charged twice.
No fix, no fee. If the file cannot be made to open, there is nothing to pay.
Check autorecover first, then OneDrive or SharePoint version history, then Previous Versions on the folder. If none of those has it, the document is a ZIP container and its structure can usually be rebuilt.
Send a working video recorded on the same device at the same settings if you have one. Its header supplies the structure the damaged file lost, and that is frequently the difference between repairable and not.
That is a storage symptom, not a file problem. Stop using the drive and get it checked. Repairing files on a failing disk is treating the wrong thing and the rest will follow.
Usually. PST and OST files have well-documented internal structures and repair predictably. Send the file rather than the whole machine if you can locate it.
If the content survived, yes. Where bytes were genuinely lost the file opens with those regions missing. You will be told which before paying.
Two to five working days. File repair is among the quicker work we do, and the diagnostic frequently establishes within hours whether it is viable at all.
A free diagnostic, no fix no fee on most jobs, and corruption recovery from any drive, stick or card. Leave the repair tools alone — start your recovery today.