How to Recover Corrupt VHD files?

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When your VHD or VHDX disk becomes inaccessible or unreadable abruptly or if you have a query “how to recover corrupted VHD Files”. Then relax! Here you will get the effective solutions for this VHD corruption issue. 

Any type of corruption or damage in VHD files puts their users in a nightmare situation. Where they may face severe data loss of crucial files and folders including boot files. So, here we came with this article discussing the VHD file along with its reasons and solutions. We will discuss  solutions to recover data from corrupt VHD files. But before we get to the solution it is important to take an overview of VHD or VHDX Corruption. Let’s discuss the quick overview in the below segment. 

Overview of VHDX/VHD Corruption:

VHD file is a file format that is used for Virtual Hard Disk Drive. It is the main function of the backup system image. The data stored on the hard drive can also be saved or kept in VHD. The VHD and VHDX files are known as two major virtual disk image file formats which are used to generate a virtual environment of a Windows system. Like other physical hard disk drives, a VHD/VHDX file is also prone to corruption. A corrupt VHD leads the entire virtual machine file data to become inaccessible. Therefore, here we will discuss how to recover a corrupt vhd file. But before that let’s discuss the responsible reasons that lead to corruption in VHD files. 

Factors Responsible for Corruption in VHD Files:

There may be the numerous reasons behind the corruption in VHD File, major of them are mentioned below: 

  • Malicious/Virus Attack: It is the most common reason responsible for the corruption of the VHD file. If the system is attacked once, it destroys all the files on the machine along with the VHD files.
  • Failure of storage media: When storage media failure occurs, the files become inaccessible, and it results in corruption in the VHD file.
  • Abrupt closing of System: Accidental or unexpected shutdown or closing of the computer also leads to corruption or damage in the hardware as well as software of your system. And if the Virtual Machine is active at that particular time interval then it damages the VHD file. 
  • Paused state/ failure of Virtual Machines: If we fail to understand the initial symptoms of Virtual machine failure or paused state of Virtual Machines, it results in corrupt VHD files. 
  •  Human errors: Accidental or Intentional deletion or removal of stored files, registry modification errors, forcefulness closedown of the computer or PC, and inappropriate disk management are main human errors that result in damage in VHD files.

So here, we discussed the main reasons behind the corruption in VHD Files. Now, Let’s move towards the solution. 

 How to Recover Corrupted VHD files with Top Two Manual Methods?

There may be several methods for VHD repair methods that will help you to recover and repair the corrupt virtual hard disks. Let’s discuss them as below: 

Method 1: Repair VHD file using Windows PowerShell Command

When it comes to dealing with the corrupt VHD file the Windows PowerShell Command is always the first choice of users. You only need to execute the below command on Windows PowerShell to move up the VHD file in the root folder.

1. Execute the below Command to scan an image for corruption

Command: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Description: This command will scan the whole file in order to find out the corruption.

2. Perform the Command to find out the image corruption

Command: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Description: This command is executed to find whether an image file is corrupt or not and also finds out is it recoverable or not. 

3. Command to repair and restore from the corruption: 

Command: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Description: This command directly repairs the damage if it finds. 

Here we discussed the Powershell command to recover data from corrupt VHD file. Now let’s move towards the next effective solution i.e, recover VHD File by making or generating a Virtual Server.

Method 2: Recover VHD File by generating a Virtual Server

You can also get rid of the corrupt VHD file by generating a new virtual server. To do so go as per the below instructions: 

  1. First, make a new virtual server and connect it to the new hard drive.
  2. Secondly, move to Settings, and add a hard drive.
  3. Thirdly, after the hard drive gets added, navigate the VHD file in it.
  4. Now, press on Virtual Disk Wizard and select a Compact. Remember to put the check on check-box states as move it to a defined size virtual hard disk.
  5. Finally, save the VHD file at the specific location.

So above are the top two manual methods to resolve the issue of how to recover corrupted VHD files. But like other manual methods, these also have some limitations. Let see the limitation in the below segment. 

Consequences/Limitations of Manual Methods:-

Manual method is the overtiring approach and below are some of the consequences that you have to deal with: 

  • In some cases, the Powershell commands fail to work.
  • You require to have the technical expertise to work with the commands successfully. 
  • Consumes a lot of time to recover the damaged VHD files.
  • In severe cases you may face data loss and alteration. 

Above are some limitations of these manual or native approaches. So for such corruption issues  the professionals always recommend using automated tools. One such tool is VHD Recovery tool, the tool easily resolves the issue to recover corrupted VHD Files. The tool executes the safe recovery of a VHD file without any data loss and in no time. The tool is embedded with an easy to use GUI that does not need any technical knowledge. 

Conclusions: 

Here, in this write-up we discussed different solutions to the issue of how to recover corrupted VHD files. I hope after reading this write-up you will successfully resolve your issue. 

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