How to Repair Damaged and Corrupt VHD/ VHDX Files?

  

Rollins Duke   
Published: April 15th, 2023 • 4 Min Read

If the VHD file gets corrupted, you may lose basic data files & folders, including VHD boot files. Let’s talk about what is a VHD file is, the cause of corruption, and how to resolve locally on your computer using the Windows PowerShell commands.

What is a VHD File

VHD file is a virtual hard drive format. Mainly used for system image backup. Data on your hard disk can also be saved to the VHD. However, VHD files are prone to corruption issues and can not be used for virtual machine use.

Reasons for VHD File Corruptions

There are many possible causes of VHD file corruption.

• Virus infection
  It’s a common reason behind VHD file corruption. When the system is attacked by Virus, it will destroy important files and folders on the system including VHD files.
• Suspended Virtual Machine Status
  This will corrupt the VHD file if you do not notice the initial signs of virtual machine failure (virtual machine) or the suspended virtual machine status.
• Storage Media Failure:
  Damaged or failure of the data storage media makes the files inaccessible and VHD files gets corrupted.
• Due to Human Errors
  Deletion / accidental deletion or deletion of save file, registry change error, system shutdown, improper disk management are some of human error which may damage VHD file.
• Sudden Computer shutdown:
  If you have accidentally shutdown the computer or sudden computer shutdown can cause serious damage to your computer software and hardware. Also, if the virtual machine is running at that time, the VHD file may gets damaged.

Use PowerShell Command to Repair Your VHD Files

Many commands to repair VHD files can be performed to restore the default hard disk after corruption problems occur. This section describes, in order, the commands used to scan and restore VHD files.

1. Command to scan a VHD image file for corruption
   Command: Dism /Online /Clean-Image /CheckHealth
   Description: This PowerShell command allows you to scan the VHD file completely for corruption.
2. Command for checking VHD file image for corruption
   Command: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
   Description: This PowerShell command helps users check VHD image file is corrupted or not and also specifies whether same VHD can be repaired or not.
3. Command for repairing VHD files and restoring data from corruption
   Command: Dism /Online /Clean-Image /RestoreHealth
   Description: This PowerShell command performs automatic repair of VHD file, if it finds corruption.

The Easiest way to fix VHD corruption

If we try using above Manual steps to repair corrupt VHD files from damaged or corruption are not so easy; sometimes PowerShell commands won’t work either. In such cases, it is best to use the external tool BitRecover VHD Recovery Wizard. It is a professional recovery tool designed by our data recovery experts to recover VHD files from corruption and severe damage. Important features of recommended software include recovery of lost files and completely deleted files, recovery of data from corrupted VHD partition, quick search of selected files after recovery, interactive GUI, easy to use etc. . Therefore, we strongly recommend our users to use the trial version of our recovery software to experience the features and decide for yourself.

Here are the steps for you to step through the process to better support the tool process:

• Download, Install & Open BitRecover Software.
• Click Select open corrupt VHD file or damaged VHD file, and click on Deleted Recovery mode.Note: You can try Partition Recovery option if in case your VHD files are corrupt or badly damaged.
• Select Virtual Hard Disk  and click Next button.
• Select Partition (0) and click Scan (2).Note: If your VHD file contains multiple partitions then, all available partitions will be displayed in the left section.
• Once the VHD file scan is completed. BitRecover VHD Recovery will display all recoverable VHD files, as shown below.Note: To make sure the integrity of files on VHD and their folder hierarchy, you can preview files by clicking on them.
• Select a location to save and click Ok.
• Wait for the complete recovery process and click Ok.

The tool has finished recovering the Virtual Hard Disk files successfully.

Conclusion

Although the practice of native methods can solve current problems, it does not guarantee a solution; therefore, we recommend using third-party tools with specialized features. BitRecover Software uses advanced file recovery algorithms to overcome these corruption problems.