Know How To Fix Data Error Cyclic Redundancy Check

Cyclic Redundancy check well known as CRC is an error detection code that gives data error cyclic redundancy check if it identifies any changes to the data that is being stored, accessed, or transferred onto a storage device like CD/DVD, SD card, or a hard drive.

In further detail when CRC is set up on a device it forms a codeword for data that is to be stored or sent to another storage media. The code word consists of check values that are calculated block-wise before the storage of data.

While the data is being accessed by computer, the codeword or the check values are compared with current values of accessed data and any mismatch in the values results in data errors. This would mean inaccessible data due to hard drive or SD card corruption.

Read this article to understand how to fix data error cyclic redundancy check on various storage devices, beginning with understanding error, solutions are discussed that conclude with a method that involves the least risk of data loss while solving the CRC error.

Table of Contents:

  1. What is Cyclic Redundancy Check Error?
  2. What Causes CRC Error?
  3. How to Solve Cyclic Redundancy Check Error?
  4. How To Recover Data From Inaccessible Drive?

Event 1: Encountering CRC data error

As shown in the image above an error message shows up when you try to open a file or folder on an SD card, or hard drive. Usually, the data becomes inaccessible due to logical data error (corruption) or physical damage.

In the following sections we will broadly discuss the below errors and solutions to solve data error CRC:

  • CRC error on internal and external hard drives
  • Data error (cyclic redundancy check) on SSD
  • Cyclic redundancy check data error on SD cards
  • Cannot initialize disk: Cyclic Redundancy Check
  • Cannot copy data cyclic redundancy check
  • Data error cyclic redundancy check no drive letter

While it’s common for the CRC error to occur on external hard drives and portable media like SD cards or flash drives, it can also happen to internal drives and their partitions; in cases like these, you will find the drive to be unallocated or not initialized in Disk management.

Even though you try to initialize the disk from Disk management an error “Cannot initialize disk” comes up. The immediate course of action is to understand the causes in order to fix the data error cyclic redundancy check.

Event 2: Learning the causes of error Cyclic Redundancy Check:

As soon as you encounter a CRC error, it becomes very beneficial to learn what causes these errors. Some of the major causes of CRC errors include:

  • Shutting down the computer while the hard drive is connected to it.
  • Ejecting the external hard drive while the writing process is being carried out.
  • Presence of bad sectors on the storage device.
  • Severe virus or malware infection.
  • Cluttered hard drive or registry errors.

The above-listed reasons cause logical errors except for bad sectors. Bad sectors on the hard drive are formed due to physical damage or wear and tear during read/write operations on the storage device like SSD or flash drive.

Did you know?

Bad sectors on a storage device can further harm your drive and Windows data existing on the drive. You can create a disk image that has the contents and structure of all the data existing on the hard disk. Stick to the end of the article to know the safest way to recover data by creating a disk image.

"Remo recover creates a disk image by skipping all the bad sectors that are causing data error. This disk image is saved on a different hard drive or storage location which can then be used to recover data without any corruption or CRC errors."

Event 3: Use free ways to repair data error Cyclic Redundancy check

There are various methods to fix the Cyclic Redundancy Error on External HDD. Here are a couple of handy techniques for resolving CRC errors:

Method 1: Fix data error (Cyclic Redundancy Check) using CHKDSK Utility

The computer has a built-in program to find and fix system errors. Even, this tool helps in eliminating bad sectors from further usage. Let’s see how to use Disk Utility to solve the CRC error-

  1. Connect external hard drive OR to computer and select it using mouse
  2. Right-click on it and select Properties from the context menu
  3. In the properties window, select the “Tools” tab
  4. Then, under error checking, click on the “Check Now” button
  5. From the next window, select both “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” and click on the “Start” button
  6. Wait until you get a dialogue box as seen below:-

Method 2: Removing CRC errors using CHKDSK Command

  1. Run command prompt as administrator by typing in CMD in the search box on the taskbar and right-click on the command prompt suggestion to select the Run as administrator option.Open command prompt to start fixing CRC error
  2. Find the Windows drive letter by opening This PC or File explorer and look for an external drive or partition that has a Cyclic Redundancy Check error to note the drive letter.
  3. In the command prompt window type “chkdsk drive letter: /f” ex: if the drive letter of the storage device or partition that has CRC error is “k” then the command is “chkdsk k: /f

The suffix “/f” is used to fix drive errors. The scan takes a while and fixes any logical errors as shown below
correcting CRC errors using chkdsk

Method 3: How to solve Cyclic Redundancy Check error using SFC scan:

SFC or system file checker is a tool that scans all protected system files of the operating system including registry files and replaces them with a copy from a cached folder. However, this method can cause data loss if the data error is caused due to bad sectors or a virus

Using the steps below SFC scan can solve CRC errors due to registry corruptions as well:

  1. Open command prompt by running it as an administrator.
  2. Type the command sfc /scannow and the file checking process begins as shown below
    correct data error cyclic redundancy check using sfc scan
  3. After a brief amount of time if you see the message “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them”, restart your computer and reopen the drive without any error.
  4. If you see the error message “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them”, you would need a more safer and trusted approach like using a data recovery software capable of creating a disk image.

Event 4: Recover data from the inaccessible drive using data recovery software

Data recovery software, especially Remo Recover can be an excellent workaround to data errors indicated by Cyclic Redundancy Check. When corrupted data is accessed multiple times, there are greater chances of data loss.

Additionally when the memory card, HDD or SSD has bad sectors, continuously trying to read from the sectors can completely eliminate the chances of data recovery as it further damages the sector.

Hence a successful attempt to solve the CRC errors using any of the free methods would still mean that you might not get your hands on your precious data.

Remo Recover is built with a deep scan engine that can rigorously look for lost files beyond file systems to recover data from each sector of the hard drive.
Download and try the tool for free now!!!

The safest way to fix data error (Cyclic Redundancy Check):

  1. Download and install Remo Recover on the computer
  2. Connect the external drive or memory card which has data error to the computer.
  3. Launch Remo Recover, select the drive from the main screen, and hit the Scan button.
    Note: If you are unable to detect the external hard-drive click on the Can’t Find Drive option.

    select the drive from where you want to recover files
  4. The tool will initiate a Quick Scan, Once the Quick scan is completed the tool will automatically start the Deep Scan which scans your drive thoroughly to recover your data. Click on Dynamic Recovery View to view the recovered files as and when the scan progresses.
    click on the scan option
  5. You can make use of Advanced Filter and sort the recovered files according to your preferences.
  6. Preview the recovered files by tapping twice on the files that you want to view.
  7. Browse for a different folder/drive and click on the OK button to start the data saving process. 

Default image
John Harris

Senior Editor, Content Analyst and a fan of exceptional customer service. John develops and publishes instructional and informational content regarding partition management, Windows hot-fixes, data management and computer troubleshooting.

As a tenured data recovery specialist, John shares exceptional insights and blog posts about data loss and data recovery across any storage device. With 8+ years’ experience in writing for Data Recovery for both Mac OS and Windows OS computers, he is an avid learner who always wants to polish and simplify the data recovery process. John passes his free time playing Chess and reading Science Fiction novels.

Articles: 517

Leave a Reply