Safe Ways to Fix Corrupted Flash Drive and Restore Data

Last Updated on January 13, 2023 by Jason Ben

Situations That Flash Drive Asks to Be Formatted for Accessing you can encounter

USB flash drive functions just like a hard drive since it is also able to store all your various data types in it. Moreover, since a USB flash drive is a portable device, it emerges to be the most convenient way of carrying or transferring data. However, one of the main disadvantages of a USB flash drive is that it can become inaccessible as a result of different issues or causes. Here are the different situations that may make your USB drive not to open and thus require formatting for valid access.

1. The flash drive has been infected by virus and the files are corrupted.
2. A prompt windows reads “folder is empty” or 0 bytes when plugging the flash drive.
3. The USB drive has a file system that is not supported.
4. The flash drive holds bad sectors and the “disk needs to be formatted” is displayed.
5. “You need to format the disk before using it”.
6. “USB Device Not Recognized or Malfunctioned”.
7. “Please Insert Disk into Removable Disk”.

Then how to fix the situations mentioned above

You are able to fix the different situations aforementioned without formatting your flash drive, as long as the flash drive is not physically damaged which means your computer is able to detect or recognize it.

First, it is important that you test your USB drive on different computer USB ports. Secondly, you should also assign your flash drive a letter. The reason is that sometimes your computer may not be able to assign your flash drive a letter because of different reasons. For that reason, you have to plug your flash drive into your computer and then allocate a drive letter manually. Below, are the detailed steps on how to accomplish drive letter assigning.

Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run Command and consequently type diskmgmt.msc.
Step 2. Right-click on your USB drive name and then from the context menu choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Step 3. Click Add, and from the drop-down menu select a drive letter and hit Ok.
Step 4. At that juncture, try and confirm if the flash drive can be accessed.

Fix corrupted USB on windows 7/8

Step 1. Connect the particular USB drive to your computer
Step 2. Open This PC or Computer and thus proceed to right-click the Removable Disk and subsequently open its properties.
Step 3. Click on the Tools option and select the option for Check Now. You are given two options which are Automatically fix file system errors and of course, Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. You have to select/check both checkboxes.
Step 4. Click Start for the scanning process to be commenced. After the scanning process is complete, you have to click the Close button.

Fix corrupted USB on Windows 10

Step 1. Follow step 1, 2, and 3 provided above for Windows 7 and 8.
Step 2. Right-click on the Removable Drive and select the option Eject to remove it from the port of the system.

How to Format a Flash Drive without Losing Data (Recover Data with Data Recovery Software)

It is often recommended that you should recover your files first before formatting your flash drive. But, if you happen to have accidentally formatted your USB drive, then it is important to understand that still, you can recover your data.

The data loss issues or deletion can be solved by employing the use of professional USB drive data recovery software. One such popular, powerful and safe program is called Data Recovery.

Step 1. Download Data Recover installation file. Then, install and launch it on your computer.

Step 2. Select/choose the data type/s and the disk drive from the main interface of the program. Using Data Recovery, you are able to recover different data types such as video, audio, and document. You are also required to choose the particular USB drive containing your lost or deleted data.

Step 3. Scan data. There are two options of data scan provided which are Quick Scan and Deep Scan with the latter taking longer and able to recover more lost/deleted files.
Step 4. After the data scan, all the lost/deleted files will be displayed on the interface of the program. You can employ the use of the Filter feature of the program to locate the particular files for recovery in a quicker manner.
Step 5. Recover data. Click on the Recover button for all your selected deleted/lost files to be recovered back to your system.

In conclusion, Data Recovery offers you a data recovery solution which is simple, safe and trusted. The program can help you fix all data loss or deletion troubles with just a few simple clicks and as a result, gets all of your data back.

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