If the files or folders we want to restore are displayed, click “ Pause” to halt the scan procedure. It will start to display recovered files and directories as the process continues. Wait as Disk Drill scans the damaged pen drive.Click “ Recover” next to it, and Disk Drill will start through its procedures. In this example, the SanDisk USB Device is the corrupted USB drive we want to recover files from, but it hasn’t been assigned a drive letter. Select the USB drive we’re interested in.Click “ show them” and even the hidden partitions will appear: It will list how many item(s) are hidden. If the one we want is not displayed, look at the top right side. Once it’s up and running, it will display all of the drives and partitions it sees. For this example, we’ll be demonstrating how to use a pen drive where the partition was deleted by accident, so Windows doesn’t even recognize the drive. 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. It will display drive partitions even if they haven’t been assigned a drive letter. One way to find out is to launch the program “ Disk Management” which is built into nearly every version of Windows. If the USB drive doesn’t display, it means that Windows doesn’t recognize the drive, or perhaps the partition map has been corrupted. Look at the list of drives in File Explorer.If the computer recognizes it, we’ll see the drive show up in our File Explorer.įor this example, it registers as being drive F: In this example, we have C:, D:, E:, and L: Launch File Explorer and (under Windows 10) click on “This PC.” We’ll be able to see all of the drives in the system.Steps to recover data from a corrupted pen drive by minimizing the physical issues: As always, nothing is guaranteed, but following these tips can increase the odds of victory.īefore 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. It assumes we’re using Windows XP/7/8/8.1/10, but many of the techniques can be used for any operating system. And we need to get those files back.įollowing the tips and tricks below will help recover data from a damaged USB drive. 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. But flash drives? Put it into the USB port, save our files, give it to a friend or coworker, and we’re off. Before people had to use floppy disks which could only hold a megabyte at a time, or CDs that took forever to burn. Thumb drives are probably one of the best things to come along in the realm of computers.

How to clear flash drive