A USB flash drives stores all the data in its memory similar to a hard drive. The operating system can, later on, fetch this data when required to be accessed. There can be various issues that may turn your USB drive data inaccessible such as if the drive is unmounted improperly from the port then it can lead to data corruption. Another reason for the stored data corruption can be invalid data in the Master Boot Record (MBR) or Partition Boot Record (PBR) or directory structure on the USB drive.
There can be various other reasons also that may make your USB corrupt or unresponsive. This may happen either due to logical corruption or physical corruption. Some common physical corruption issues are broken stems and connectors, dead drives (no power supply), broken circuit or NAND gate, not recognized, RAW, need to format, not accessible, and Dead Drives, etc.
How to Recover Data from an Inaccessible USB Drive?
To recover data from an inaccessible USB or Flash drive, first, you must be able to identify the exact reason leading to the problem while reading the USB drive.
Reasons of USB corruption or inaccessibility can be because of:
- Logical Issues
- Physical Issues
Recovering Files from Logical Issues
If there are some logical/ software errors with the USB drive, you can easily fix it. You need to repair the file structure so that the USB flash drive can be used again.
This is how you can scan for logical issues using Windows:
- Insert the USB drive into the USB port of your system.
- Go to This PC or My Computer>Removable Disk icon.
- Right click the Removable Disk Icon and open its Properties.
- Click on the Tools tab.
- Click Check Now button.
- You will be given two check disk options “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”.
- Check both checkboxes.
- Click Start. This will initiate the scanning process.
- Click Close after the scan process is completed.
If you are using Windows 10 or a lower version then carry out the following steps to repair the USB Flash Drive:
- Insert the USB drive into the USB port of your system
- Go to This PC or My Computer>Removable Disk icon.
- Right click the Removable Disk Icon and open its Properties.
- Click on the Tools tab.
- Click “Rebuild” button
- Let the scan process get completed. Close the scan window once it’s completed.
- Right-click the icon of the USB flash drive and “Eject”. Then remove the drive from the USB port.
Hopefully, this would help you solve the problem else you can try recovering your USB data using a professional usb drive data recovery tool.
Most data loss issues can be solved by using a professional USB flash drive data recovery software. You can free download such program and install it on your PC to begin scanning the device and recover data. Try Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows that supports scanning of large capacity USB drives and traces inaccessible or formatted files with their attributes and size intact.
How to Recover Files From a Corrupt USB Flash Drive using Stellar Data Recovery Professional?
You may restore your important files, documents, pictures, and more from a corrupt USB flash drive easily with the help of the best data recovery software i.e. Stellar Data Recovery Professional. This DIY software can retrieve all types of files from a corrupt, inaccessible, or formatted USB drives.
You just need to follow the given steps to get back your data:
1. Download & install Stellar Data Recovery Professional on your Windows PC.
2. From the ‘Select What to Recover’ screen, click Everything or select specified data, and click Next. [See Image 1]
3. On Recover From screen, choose the drive and click Scan. [See Image 2]
4. The scanned results will show on the screen. You may preview the files before recovering them.
5. Select the files you want to restore and click Recover. [See Image 3]
6. Browse and choose the desired location to store your retrieved data. [See Image 4]
[Caution: Do not save the recovered data in the same USB drive. Always use another drive or storage media to save this data to avoid data overwriting.]
7. Click Start-saving and wait till the process is complete. [See Image 5]
Now that you have safely recovered the files from the corrupt USB flash drive, proceed further to fix USB drive corrupt due to logical reasons with the following methods:
Recovering Files from Physical Issues.
If you have a physical error such as a broken connector, circuit board, NAND memory chip of the drive, then the hardware needs to be replaced or repaired. Doing-it-yourself can lead to even worse situations. Better you get help from the experts in this area. You can hire any trusted data recovery company like Stellar Data Recovery which is specialized in recovering data from a physically damaged USB drive.
Below we have mentioned solutions to some common causes of physical issues with your USB drive.
a. Broken Stems and Connectors, & Dead Drives (no power to the USB):
A common indication of the physical errors is some kind of error messages or troubles that you see after connecting the USB. Common error messages are “Please Insert Disk into Removable Disk” or “USB Device Not Recognized or Malfunctioned”, “you need to format the disk before using it”, RAW partition, dead or unresponsive drives, and damaged controller chips and/or circuit boards.
If the silver USB connector is broken or the circuit board is damaged it leads to power supply cut-off to the USB. In such case, soldering and circuit repair is required. It’s not advised to do it yourself as if anything goes wrong, you may permanently lose access to your USB and also it’ll reduce the chances of getting your data successfully recovered or sometimes impossible. To deal with above physical errors, specialized equipment and expertise are required. So better you hand over it to some professional and let them deal with the scenario.
b. Error: “Please Insert Disk into Removable Disk”:
This error occurs when the flash drive controller software becomes corrupt. It can also happen if there are some issues with the NAND memory. The above error can be caused by low grade or generic NAND memory chips. With a frequent number of reads and writes, the state of the drive turns worse.
The error indicates that there is some issue with the NAND memory chips. Most probably the metadata stored in the NAND memory is corrupted or wiped and it can’t be mounted then, thus turning the drive unreadable. Whenever you try to read the drive, you will get the error message “Please insert a disk into Removable Disk”. Also, if you try to check the drive size, it usually shows its capacity as 0 MB. As the device cannot be mounted on windows, if you check Device Manager under Disk drives, a different name for the USB drive will be listed. Also, the Disk Management shows a drive letter with No Media.
In such case, you need to search for manufacturers that perform USB data recovery or flash drive data recovery.
c. Undetectable USB Flash Drive:
You may not be able to use your USB drive because of some problems with the USB port, not with the USB drive. So, before performing any repair of the USB drive also make sure that the USB port is working fine.
To test the USB Port remove the USB drive, reboot your computer, and test the USB drive again. See if it works. It is possible that one port may not be working but all others are working fine. So try each port of your computer. If this doesn’t help, try the USB drive on some other computer.
Sometimes, the Installed copy of Windows OS may not be able to recognize your USB drive due to some USB version limitations.
You can fix an undetectable USB Flash Drive by drive recognition:
- Go to Start> Control Panel> Device Manager.
- Expand the list next to “Disk Drives” option.
- You can see a down facing arrow over your USB drive. Double click it and choose the option to “Enable Device“.
- Click Next.
- Click ‘Next’ again.
- Finally, click Finish.
After this, you need to assign the drive letter. To do so follow given steps:
- Go to Start>Control Panel>System and Security>Administrative Tools then choose “Computer Management”.
- Right, click the USB drive. Select the option to “Change Drive Letter and Paths”.
- Click ADD and then click OK.
- Now, assign any available drive letter to the USB drive by clicking it.
- Right, click the USB to designate it as “Online”.
If this fails, Windows automated “Fix it For Me” service can resolve the issue. If this also doesn’t help, then modifying the system registry will help you tackle the issue. We wouldn’t suggest you go for this option as it may harm your OS.
Conclusion
A USB Drive can become corrupt or unresponsive by any way of Logical or Physical issues. However, you can always securely use a professional USB data recovery tool like Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows to recover files after your USB Drive becomes Corrupt or Unresponsive.
In case of any query, do let us know in the comment section below!
— Update: 10-02-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How To Recover Files from a Corrupted Flash Drive from the website www.cleverfiles.com for the keyword recover corrupted files from usb.
Thumb drives are probably one of the best things to come along in the realm of computers. Before people had to use floppy disks which could only hold a megabyte at a time, or CDs that took forever to burn. But flash drives? Put it into the USB port, save our files, give it to a friend or coworker, and we’re off.
Until the day when we put the flash drive into our media device to watch a movie, or get a file from a client for an important project and discover that the drive can’t be read. We insert it and – nothing happens. And we need to get those files back.
Following the tips and tricks below will help recover data from a damaged USB drive. It assumes we’re using Windows XP/7/8/8.1/10/11, but many of the techniques can be used for any operating system. As always, nothing is guaranteed, but following these tips can increase the odds of victory.
Causes of Flash Drive Corruption
USB flash drives can become corrupted for multiple different reasons, and it helps to understand them to determine the best data recovery approach.
Restoration Process
#1 Fix Physical Issues
Before we stick the damaged pen drive into the computer, we should take a look the flash drive itself to see what can be done to prepare it for insertion.
Steps to recover data from a corrupted pen drive by minimizing the physical issues:
If the partition map is still corrupted or isn’t recognized by the computer, then we’ll need to try fixing it at the software level.
#2 Fix Software Issues
If the flash drive connects, the light comes on (if it has a light), but we still can’t read from it, then time to get out some software tools.
As a Windows user, you can use the CHKDSK utility that comes with your operating system to verify the file system integrity of a volume and attempt to fix logical file system errors.
CHDKS is a command-line tool, which means that it doesn’t have a graphical user interface, so it has to be invoked from Windows Terminal, PowerShell, or CMD. Here’s how:
Follow the instructions below to discover which letter has been assigned to your flash drive:
- Launch File Explorer and click on “This PC.” We’ll be able to see all of the drives in the system. In this example, we have C:, D:, E:, and L:
- Plug the drive into the computer. If the computer recognizes it, we’ll see the drive show up in our File Explorer.
For this example, it registers as being drive F: - Look at the list of drives in File Explorer. If the USB drive doesn’t display, it means that Windows doesn’t recognize the drive, or perhaps the partition map has been corrupted. One way to find out is to launch the program “Disk Management” which is built into nearly every version of Windows. It will display drive partitions even if they haven’t been assigned a drive letter. It’s one way to verify that Windows recognizes the drive:Note: Do not select the partition in Disk Management and attempt to reformat it – this can cause the files we are trying to restore to be lost forever.
#3 Recover Your Files
Now that your flash drive is accessible, you can use data recovery software to recover your files. We recommend Disk Drill, made by CleverFiles. It works on both Windows and macOS systems to recover a corrupted flash drive. We can download it and try it for free.
How to recover files from a corrupted USB drive using Disk Drill:
Other Ways to Recover Files from a Corrupted Flash Drive
Data recovery software like Disk Drill can deliver excellent results in a short amount of time, which is why we recommend you always start with it. That said, there are other ways to recover files from a corrupted flash drive. Let’s take a closer at three of them.
#1 Recover from a Backup
Have you recently created a backup of your USB flash drive? If so, then you’re in luck because recovering your files from it shouldn’t be a problem.
Unfortunately, it’s beyond the scope of this article to describe all popular backup methods, so let’s focus on the byte-to-byte backup tool that’s included for free with Disk Drill and makes it possible to create a full backup image of any storage device:
#2 Use the ATTRIB Command
Flash drive corruption can have many different forms. For example, it can cause file attributes to change, which can result in the affected files becoming invisible. The good news is that this problem is fairly easy to fix:
#3 Use the File History Feature
The Windows operating system comes with a local backup tool called File History. In Windows 10 and earlier, it’s possible to tell File History to backup a custom folder, including one that’s located on a USB drive.
Unfortunately, this option was removed in Windows 11, making File History much less useful. The Windows 11 version of File History only backs up the following locations: Libraries, Desktop, Contacts, and Favorites.
If your lost files were at some point located in the locations backed up by Windows 11 File History, or if you’re a Windows 10 user and have manually added your USB drive as an additional File History backup location, then you can follow the instructions below to recover them:
#4 Try Windows File Recovery
Windows File Recovery is a new data recovery tool developed by Microsoft, and it works on Windows 10 2004 and above.
Windows File Recovery is still in its early stages, which is clearly evident from the lack of a graphical user interface. The tool also doesn’t support nearly as many file signatures as leading commercial data recovery products, such as Disk Drill.
That said, Windows File Recovery is available for free directly from the Microsoft Store, and you can use it to recover an unlimited number of files from all kinds of storage devices, including USB drives.
Windows File Recovery supports two main modes of operation (Regular and Extensive) as well as a number of advanced switches, and they are all explained well on its official support page.
#5 Pay for Professional Data Recovery
Sometimes, the best solution is the let professionals recover your files for you. This is especially true when dealing with physical damage, which can hardly ever be successfully repaired at home without the necessary experience and equipment.
Professional data recovery services do charge quite a lot of money for what they do, but some files are so important that spending a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars beats losing them forever.
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How Flash Drives Get Damaged
1 Flash drives are pretty hardy. Because they don’t have moving parts, they’re more likely than their hard drive siblings to survive being dropped, handle extreme ranges of heat and cold – some have even survived being swallowed by people. (Note: Don’t swallow flash drives.)
That doesn’t mean they’re invulnerable to physical damage. Left out in salty air and the contacts can become corroded. Expose them to too much heat, and even the electronics can melt. And like the fabled gremlins from the movie of the same name, they really don’t like getting wet.
2 The other way a flash drive can become corrupted is via software. Some operating systems, such as Mac OS X or Linux, require that a drive is “ejected” before it’s removed. Taking it out without ejecting it can cause file corruption.
Even on Windows, if large files are being transferred to a flash drive and it’s pulled out before it’s complete, it can cause the drive to have partition error. This is where the data for the files may be on the thumb drive, but the drive itself doesn’t know how to find them because the mapping is damaged.
3 Other ways a flash drive can become damaged is by being overloaded. Trying to copy too many files at once can overwhelm an operating system, and slowly grind it to a halt. Imagine 20 people all trying to squeeze through a doorway at the same time instead of taking turns, and we can see how things can go horribly wrong.
4 And the last way that a flash drive can lose its files is through simple user error. Accidentally deleting the file on a pen drive, or when selecting what drives to format picking the wrong drive. It happens to everyone at some point, but there are still ways to get those files back.
Closing Out
A damaged or corrupted USB flash drive is not the end of the world, but it can feel that way. Using the tips provided, there’s a good chance that a damaged USB drive can be restored to being a working USB pen drive. All of the tools here, like Disk Drill, are free to download, so give them a try and best of luck.
FAQ
— Update: 10-02-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to Recover Files from Corrupt USB Drive? from the website www.remosoftware.com for the keyword recover corrupted files from usb.
As soon as the pen drive is corrupted, files become inaccessible on the pen drive leaving you with no clue about how to recover files from a corrupted USB.
Table of Contents:
- How Does USB Flash Drive Get Corrupted?
- Can A Corrupted USB Flash Drive be Fixed?
- How To Fix Corrupt USB Flash Drive?
- Can you Recover data from Corrupted USB Flash Drive?
- How To Recover Files From Corrupt USB?
- Few Ways To Fix Physical Damages on USB Drive
Source: Quora
How Does USB Flash Drive Get Corrupted?
There are various reasons behind a USB flash drive getting corrupt or damaged or even inaccessible. Some of the most common reasons are as mentioned below:
- Abruptly ejecting the pen drive from your laptop or PC without using the “Safely remove option”.
- Sudden system shutdown or any interruptions while transferring data from a flash drive to another storage device or vice versa.
- Malware or corrupted files present on the pen drive make the data inaccessible.
- Firmware issues on a pen drive or operating system malfunctions might also lead to data corruption or data loss.
What are the Signs of a Corrupted USB Flash Drive?
Here are some of the signs that show your USB is corrupted.
- Sometimes if your USB drive is corrupted then your files might randomly disappear.
- Sometimes when you are trying to open the USB drive, your files might not get recognised.
- You might receive errors like “Please insert a disk into USB Drive (X:)” or you might receive an error that you need to format the USB drive.
Can A Corrupted USB Be Fixed?
Yes, you can fix a corrupted USB drive but before you go ahead and repair a corrupt USB drive, you need to understand what is the issue you are trying to fix. If you are trying to fix corrupted files on a USB drive, it is quite hard as you will have a wide variety of files. If you have corrupt or damaged files on the USB drive with files like videos, office files like word or rar. You can refer to this article on repairing damaged files.
However, if you are trying to recover data from a corrupt USB flash drive, you can make use of the methods mentioned in this article to easily repair a corrupt USB drive and recover data from a corrupt drive.
Note: Before trying any of the below-mentioned methods, make sure your device drivers are up to date. Try connecting the flash drive to different ports or computers to confirm the corruption in the USB drive.
How to Fix Corrupt USB Flash Drive?
- Check for Any Debris
- Assign a New Drive Letter to Your corrupt USB
- Update Device Drivers
- Enable USB Drive in Device Manager
- Fix File System Errors on USB Flash Drive
- Restore Missing Files From Corrupt USB Drive Using Command Prompt
Solution 1: Check for Any Debris
First check if your USB drive is properly connected, else try to connect your USB drive to the other USB port. If the issue still persists then you can connect your USB drive to the other computer and see if it is working properly.
Else check if there are any foreign particles stuck in the USB port or in the USB drive. Take a cotton swab and gently try to remove any debris stuck.
Solution 2: Assign Drive Letter
When a USB drive gets corrupt usually they become unrecognizable or inaccessible. You can fix this inaccessible USB drive issue by making use of Disk Management to assign a drive letter. Follow the below-mentioned methods to assign a drive letter to a corrupt USB drive letter:
- Right-click on Disk Management, open disk management
- In Disk Management, right-click on the USB disk number and click on the Change Drive letter and Paths
- Select the drive letter that’s already assigned and click on Change
- Choose a drive letter from the dropdown list and assign it to the corrupt USB drive
- Now try accessing the USB drive from Windows Explorer
Solution 3: Update Device Drivers
Sometimes outdated device drivers can also be a reason behind USB drives not being recognized or corrupt. Follow the below-mentioned methods to update the device drivers and fix corrupt USB drives.
- To update device drivers, you need to get to Device Manager by right-clicking on the Start button
- In the Device Manager Window, click on Disk Drives, select the USB drive and Uninstall the device.
- Once you uninstall the device drivers and connect the USB device again, the new device drivers will be automatically updated. The USB device will be recognizable after this.
Solution 4: Access the Flash Drive by Enabling the USB Drive in the Device Manager
Sometimes, Flash drives can get disabled automatically due to driver installation errors too. Follow the steps mentioned below to access the flash drive and get back the data present within.
- Open Control Panel, go to Hardware and Sound, and click on Device manager
- Expand the Disk Drives list
- Double-click on your USB drive and click on Enable device
- Click Next and finish
Solution 5: Fix File System Errors on USB Drive
The file system on a USB drive helps in organizing data and maintaining a directory that will be referred to for any data transaction. Any errors in the file systems also lead to corrupted flash drives and result in data loss. Here’s how to fix file systems errors in pen drives on Windows 10 or Windows 11.
- Go to This PC and right-click on the inaccessible pen drive and select Properties
- Click on the Tools tab and select the Check option
- Check both the Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors boxes
- Click on Start and the scanning process will start. Wait till the process is complete and click on Close
Note: If your system is running on any previous version of Windows like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, etc. Follow these steps to fix your file system errors on the USB drive.
- Go to My Computer and right-click on the inaccessible pen drive and select Properties
- Click on the Tools tab and select Rebuild
- Once the scanning process is started, wait for the scan to complete and click on Close
- Eject your pen drive using the Safely Remove Option and then plug it in again.
If you are being prompted to format your corrupt USB, do not format. Instead, know how to fix flash drive issues without formatting with free methods given in the highlighted informative write-up.
Solution 6: Restore files from corrupted USB by using Command Prompt
Command Prompt could be a quick yet effective resolution to recover corrupted USB. Follow these steps carefully to fix errors and recover files from the corrupt USB drive.
- Insert your pen drive into the computer and press the Windows button on the keyboard
- In the Type here to search box, type cmd and click on the Command Prompt app
- In the Command window, type or copy-paste chkdsk G: /f. Replace G: with your USB drive letter,
- Once the process is complete, eject your pen drive using the Safely Remove Option and plug it in again.
In case you are unable to fix the corrupted USB drive, then the only option left is to format the USB. Formatting the flash drive using Disk Management might result in the data loss. In case you have formatted the drive accidentally then don’t worry you can still recover the data if the USB drive is not overwritten with the new data.
Can you Recover data from Corrupted USB Flash Drive?
Yes, you can recover data from the corrupted USB. The data on a USB will no longer be accessible if the entire USB becomes corrupted. This does not mean that the files have been corrupted; rather, it means that the USB has been physically or logically damaged, preventing you from accessing your files.
If you have tried the above method using chkdsk, then the ability to recover data from a corrupt flash drive by using chkdsk is very less. The chances of damaging the files are also high. Hence, we recommend you to make use of an effective USB Recovery tool by Remo.
How to Recover Files from Corrupted USB Flash Drive using USB Recovery Software?
To Recover files from corrupted usb flash drives, make use of a powerful professional USB recovery software. Speaking about professional tools, we recommend you make use of a USB recovery software by Remo Recover.
Source: Trust Pilot
So, what are you waiting for? Quickly download Remo Recover now to recover files from your corrupted USB effectively.
Steps to Recover Files from Corrupt USB Drive
- Download, install and launch the Remo USB data recovery tool.
- Select your corrupted USB drive and click on Scan to start the process of recovering data from the corrupted flash drive. If you are unable to find your USB, click on the “Can’t find the drive?” option.
- The tool starts scanning the drive to recover files from corrupt USB. Remo Recover lets you have a look at the files recovered even when the scan is in progress, simply click on the Dynamic Recovery View.
- Once the Deep Scan is complete, you can Preview your recovered files from the corrupted USB. Just double-click on the file that you want to view.
- Now navigate to the Lost Partition folder and select the files that you want to recover. Click on the Recover button and select the location where you want to save the restored data.
Once the data-saving process gets successfully completed. You can view the recovered files in the location which you have selected.
The time duration for the scanning process depends on the amount of data present on your pen drive.
How to Fix USB Drives with Physical Damage?
If you think your USB drive is not showing up or not getting recognized due to physical damage, then you have to try these quick fixes.
- Try and plug USB drives onto other USB ports
- Remove debris from the ports that might be potentially blocking your USB connection
- If none of the above methods works you might have to contact a professional recovery service
Final Words:
All the above-mentioned methods are most likely going to help you fix corrupt or damaged USB flash drives. However, it is recommended to be prepared for future data loss scenarios by taking regular backup of data. If you liked the article, do make sure you share the word and comment below if you have any queries.
Frequently Asked Questions
— Update: 11-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to Recover Corrupted Files from a USB Flash Drive from the website www.easeus.com for the keyword recover corrupted files from usb.
User Case: How Can I Recover Corrupted Files from USB Drive
“Please help me to recover corrupted files from an external USB hard drive (USB Buffalo). I have important documents and photos on them, and I need them very badly. Your help is highly appreciated. Thank you.”
The USB storage media is prone to corruption/damage due to virus attacks, abrupt removals, or sudden power outages, leading to data corruption and file loss. To recover corrupted files from USB and repair the USB drives without formatting, follow the methods below.
1 – Recover Corrupted Files from USB with Data Recovery Software
Whether you want to recover corrupted files from USB or retrieve files from a corrupted USB flash drive, you can use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. This data recovery tool enables you to recover more than 1000 file types from corrupted, damaged, or formatted HDD, SDD, USB flash drive, external hard drive, pen drive, SD card, CF card, etc. And, it can repair corrupted files automatically after data recovery. You can repair corrupted videos, photos, Word, Excel, PDF, and other document files.
If your USB flash drive gets corrupted, and you can’t open or access files in it, you can use this reliable third-party data recovery program to recover files with ease. Download this USB repair tool to recover files from corrupted USBs as long as your device can still be recognized by your computer.
Take the following steps to recover files from a corrupted USB flash drive:
Step 1. Choose the USB drive to scan
Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose your USB drive where you lost important files. Click “Scan” to start.
Step 2. Check and preview USB drive data
When the scanning is finished, you can quickly locate a specific type of file by using the Filter feature as well as the Search option.
Step 3. Restore flash drive data
After checking and finding lost USB drive files, click “Recover” to restore them. You shall save the found files to a safe location on your PC rather than to your USB drive.
Don’t miss: USB Drive Not Showing Up in Windows 10
2 – How to Recover Corrupted Pen Drive by Fixing File System Errors
Use the Windows Disk Check tool to check your USB flash drive for file system errors. When the fixing is finished, you can retrieve corrupted files on USB.
Step 1. Connect the USB to your computer. Go to My Computer/This PC and find your USB drive.
Step 2. Right-click the USB drive and click “Properties”.
Step 3. Click on the “Tools” tab.
Step 4. Click the “Check” button under Error checking.
Step 5. Windows will fix any disk error it finds. After the process, try to open your USB drive and restore your files.
3 – How to Recover Corrupted Files from USB Using CMD
If your USB file system is corrupted, your USB cannot be opened and accessed. In addition to repairing damaged file systems with the Windows Disk check tool, you can also use the CHKDSK command lines in Command Prompt to fix the corrupted USB drive and recover files.
Don’t miss: CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives
4 – Recover Corrupted Files from USB with a Free USB Repair Tool
If command line is not your ideal choice, you can apply this command-line alternative tool – EaseUS CleanGenius. Use this one-click tool to fix the file system error on your hard drive.
Step 1. Download EaseUS CleanGenius on your computer for free.
Step 2. Run the software. Click “Optimization” on the left panel, and then choose “File Showing” .
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Step 3. Go to “Choose drive” and select the drive with a file system error. Check the “Check and fix file system error” option and click “Execute”.
Step 4. Wait the EaseUS CleanGenius completes the repairing process. After that, click the “here” to view the result.
Bonus Tips – How to Fix a Corrupted USB Flash Drive
You can tell that your USB is corrupt according to the error messages below:
- USB Device Not Recognized
- USB Drive Not Formatted
- USB Drive Is Not Accessible
If you receive any one of the errors above, you can follow these USB fixes to repair a corrupted USB drive.
Fix 1. Check and Fix the Error on the Damaged USB Drive
If your USB can still be detected or recognized by your PC, you can try these methods to fix the corrupted USB flash drive.
- Repair corrupted USB flash drive using CMD
- Fix file system errors with the Windows Disk Check tool
- Repair damaged USB drive with the EaseUS USB repair tool
Fix 2. Reinstall USB Driver to Repair Damaged USB Flash Drive
If Windows cannot recognize the corrupted USB drive, you can fix it by reinstalling the USB driver.
Step 1. Press the Win + X keys and click “Device Manager”.
Step 2. Expand Disk Drives, right-click on the name of your USB flash drive, and click “Uninstall”.
Step 3. Click “OK”. Disconnect the USB drive from your computer.
Step 4. Restart your computer. After a minute, connect the USB drive to your computer again. Windows will automatically install the latest driver and make the USB flash drive detectable.
If your USB drive still fails to work, you can send it to experts for a manual USB drive repair. If you find this post useful, share it on your Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
How to Recover Data from Corrupted Pen Drive FAQs
If you want to know more about dealing with a corrupt flash USB drive or corrupted USB files, you can read the questions and answers section below.
1. Can a corrupted file be recovered?
Corrupted files are files that suddenly become inoperable or unusable. There are several reasons why a file may become corrupted. You can recover a corrupted file by using the EaseUS data recovery program. If the lost and corrupted files are photos or videos, EaseUS data recovery can also repair corrupted JPEG and video files during the recovery process.
2. How do I fix a corrupted and unreadable flash drive?
Follow these steps to repair a corrupt hard disk without formatting it, and get back the data:
- Run an Antivirus Scan.
- Run a CHKDSK scan.
- Run an SFC scan.
- Use a data recovery Tool
3. How can I recover my USB?
To recover files from a USB flash drive, EaseUS data recovery can help you do it in three steps.
- Run USB data recovery software.
- Scan all lost files from USB.
- Restore all lost files from USB.
4. How do I recover files from a corrupted flash drive?
To recover files from a logically damaged USB stick:
- Insert the USB stick into the computer’s system port.
- Launch EaseUS USB data recovery software on your PC.
- Click the USB and click Scan.
- After the scan, choose the target files and click “Recover” to save them to a secure location on your PC.
5. How can I recover files from a corrupted USB for free?
You can use free drive recovery software to recover files from a corrupted USB for free. EaseUS free data recovery software is a great choice to recover photos, videos, documents, and other files from a USB drive in simple steps.
— Update: 19-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to Recover Corrupted Files From USB on Windows 10 from the website www.pandorarecovery.com for the keyword recover corrupted files from usb.
Is it possible to recover important files from a corrupt flash drive?
Yes, it is 100% possible to recover files from a corrupted flash drive. The most important thing you can do if you discover that you have a corrupted USB flash drive is to stop using the device immediately. This gives you the best chance of successfully recovering the missing data from the device. Continued use of the drive exposes it to further corruption or overwriting the data that you intended to recover. Shut it down if you want your files back.
Data loss can strike at any time. It’s never a pleasant experience and can be devastating depending on what kind of data is lost. You may have just lost the only videos of your child’s first steps or some files that contain other irreplaceable memories. If you use portable storage devices, the time may come when you have to retrieve files from a corrupted flash drive. Remain calm and you have a good chance of successfully restoring the lost data.
Recover Corrupted Flash Drive via Disk Drill
Disk Drill data recovery software can recover corrupted files from USB drives.
To recover files from a corrupted flash drive you need to:
- Download and install Disk Drill for Windows.
- Connect the thumb drive to your computer and launch the application.
- Select the drive from the list of disks in the app’s window.
- Click theSearch for lost data to start scanning the drive.
- Preview the files that Disk Drill can recover.
- Choose the files you want to restore and click Recover.
These simple steps enable you to recover corrupted flash drive files like your valuable photos and videos. You cannot actually uncorrupt the drive, but recovering its data is the next best thing.
Remember to stop using the flash drive as soon as you suspect that you have lost data or it has become corrupted. If you do that, you have a great chance of recovering the files with Disk Drill.
Try to Recover Corrupted Files From USB Using CMD
You may be able to use the Attrib command to recover corrupted USB drive files with your Windows computer.
Follow these easy steps and see if this method can get back your data:
- Open a command prompt on your Windows system.
- In the prompt, type chkdsk H: /f where H is the drive letter of the corrupt USB drive and hit Enter.
- Use this command to recover the lost files on the drive: ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D “drive letter”:*.*
When the process is complete, any deleted files that were found will be located in a newly created folder on the flash drive. You will need to change their extensions to make them usable with their applications.
Common USB Problems Caused by Physical Issues
Here are some issues that you may face when using USB flash drives along with a solution that might help you resolve the problems.
Tips to Protect Your USB Flash Drive from Damage
Taking the proper precautions to protect your flash drives can minimize the possibility that you lose data from them. Standard portable USB drives are not particularly durable and can easily be damaged if not treated correctly. Here are some tricks that can help you preserve your USB flash drives and the data they contain.
- Store your flash drives in a container to protect them from being dropped or broken in your pocket or bag.
- Avoid extreme heat or moisture as both of these conditions can lead to drive failure or data corruption.
- Remove the drive from your computer or mobile device when not in use and cap it or close it to protect the connector and contacts.
- Eject the drive to safely remove it from your computer. Do not simply pull it out of the USB port.
- Stay clear of malware and viruses by limiting the computers to which you attach the drive to ones that you know are free of malicious programs.
- Don’t edit files directly on the USB drive. USB drives can also be damaged by defragmentation and do not receive any benefits from this process.
Following these practices can help keep your flash drives safe.
Disk Drill – Powerful Flash Drive Recovery Software
Disk Drill offers users a comprehensive data recovery and protection application which can repair corrupted flash drives by restoring their data. It uses sophisticated scanning techniques that can efficiently recover files in over 400 different formats. This includes all the audio, video, and image formats that you’re probably using with the USB drive. In addition to helping you restore files from flash drives, Disk Drill can recover data from virtually any disk-based storage media. You can use it on your computer’s internal hard drive, external drives, and memory cards from mobile devices.
Disk Drill’s intuitive and user-friendly interface enables anyone to quickly and easily perform data recovery. You can preview recoverable data before committing to recovery. With a few clicks, files that you thought were lost forever can be recovered and used again. No experience with data recovery is required to use this tool effectively to recover from a corrupt flash drive or other data loss scenario.
There are additional data protection features provided at no cost by Disk Drill’s developers. The Recovery Vault feature enables you to select important files and folders for extra protection against inadvertent deletion. Create byte-level backups of a failing drive to be used for future recovery without inflicting further damage on the device.
Disk Drill handles all types of data loss scenarios from an accidentally emptied Recycle Bin to a formatted flash drive. It’s a versatile recovery tool that deserves to be in your software toolbox.
Why You Should Use USB Recovery Software
USB recovery software is often the best way to restore files from a corrupted flash drive. In many cases, it is the only way to recover files that have suddenly disappeared or been accidentally deleted. When faced with the prospect of losing important or personally valuable files, data recovery software is a cost-effective alternative to sending the disk to a professional recovery service.
If you suddenly find yourself with a flash drive data loss situation, give data recovery software a shot at saving the day. You can go online and download Disk Drill for free and use it to recover up to 500 MB of data before you upgrade to a paid version. Take advantage of this trial offer to see how Disk Drill can solve the problem of a corrupt USB flash drive.
Did You Know?
SanDisk has a prototype flash drive that has a 4 TB capacity and fits in your pocket. The drive uses a USB Type-C interface and SSD technology. The company has no plans to market the device at this time and presented the drive at CES 2019 to demonstrate advancements in flash storage. With the price of 2 TB drives coming in at over $1,000, if these devices were made commercially available they would be too expensive for most users.
See also: Wondering how to recover deleted files on Windows 10? Check out our list of 100% working solutions.
FAQ
— Update: 19-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to Fix a Corrupted Flash Drive and Recover Data from the website recoverit.wondershare.com for the keyword recover corrupted files from usb.
How Do I Fix a Corrupted Flash Drive Without Losing Data?
When the USB flash drive becomes corrupted or inaccessible in Windows computer, it shows the drive is not accessible, the files or directory is corrupted and unreadable. But no worry, you can follow this page and fix the USB drive using CMD and recover your data with Recoverit Data Recovery software.
What Cause the Flash Drive Become Unreadable/Corrupted?
The USB flash drive is like the hard drive to store all data files on it. There can be many reasons that make the USB flash drive got corrupt or unreadable, and the data on the drive can not be accessed. Improperly plug out the drive from the USB port, it can lead to data corruption, the directory structure on the USB drive, MBR or PBR can because of the data corruption.
The common logical and physical corruption issues may make your USB data corrupt or inaccessible. Some logical errors with the drive, you can easily fix it, repair the file structure, and reuse the USB flash drive. The physical corruption issues are dead-driven broken stems, RAW, format error and accessibility, etc.
How to Fix Corrupted USB Flash Drive using CMD?
Follow the next steps to fix the corrupted USB drive with CMD. On this solution, you need to enter the CMD commands and Windows will format the corrupted USB flash drive.
Step 1.Connect your corrupted/ unreadable USB flash drive to the computer.
Step 2. Right-click on the Start button, and click Command Prompt(Admin), then go to the CMD window.
Step 3. Type the code diskpart and press Enter. All your device connected to your computer will be displayed.
Step 4. Then type select disk(The number of your USB drive) and Enter. Make sure you selected the right USB drive, or you would format the internal hard drive.
Step 6. It will take a while to finish, please do not close the CMD.
After repair the flash drive using CMD, the drive must get formatted. Now the USB drive as a new drive can be used. But if you want to restore your data, you should not save any new data on the drive. Follow the next solution to recover data from USB flash drive after corrupted with Recoverit USB Data Recovery software.
How to Recover Data from a Corrupted Flash Drive?
Recoverit Data Recovery software is a powerful flash drive recovery program, it helps you access the corrupted drive and retrieve your data back. It can easily and effectively recover lost data from corrupted or damaged USB flash drive, download and install the USB drive data recovery on the computer and follow the next steps to retrieve your data back.
Step 1. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery, select your drive which is detected on the program, and next.
Step 2. The flash drive recovery software will start scanning the device to searching your lost data which will take minutes.
Step 3. In the end, you can check all recovered files. Preview files like photos, videos, music, audio, and office file document.
Tips for Prevent Corrupted Files from USB Flash Drive
Here are the suggestions that can help your drive from not becoming corrupted:
- Make a habit of ejecting the flash drive through the “˜safely remove’ option. Do not simply pull out the flash drive as this is one the most common ways of your flash drive becoming corrupted.
- Always eject the flash drive when the file transfer is complete. If the ejection is done during a file transfer, it can lead to a corrupted file, and eventually, a corrupted hard drive.
- Using reliable flash memory, like SLC Flash for storing your important data and applications is highly recommended.
- Store your flash drive in stable weather conditions. Do not have them exposed to great heat or cold. The easiest way to a corrupted flash drive is not having any consideration for its hardware.
- Using an anti-virus program on your system is a must. While this helps to remove the corrupted files on your flash drive, it can also save your data stored on the system from becoming corrupted.
Video Tutorial on Corrupted USB Drive Recovery:
Source: https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/how-to-recover-files-from-a-corrupt-or-unresponsive-usb-flash-drive/