By Michael | Last Updated
As a portable storage device, USB flash drive is usually used for data backup and transfer. However, once the flash drive is corrupted, all the files in it may become inaccessible or lost. So, is there any way to retrieve the files in the corrupted or damaged USB flash drive? In this post, we will share with you several ways to recover the files from corrupted pen drive in ease.
Step 1: Open command prompt window as administrator.
Step 2: In the popup window, type chkdsk drive letter: /f (The drive letter is the corrupted USB flash drive) and hit Enter.
Step 3: Then type attrib -h -r -s /s /d drive letter:*.* and hit Enter.
Then the system will start to repair the thumb drive and retrieve the deleted files from the flash drive. The process may take much time. Once done, you can open the pen drive to check the files are accessible or not. Actually, this way is not so effective and sometimes the flash drive cannot be accessed due to unauthorized permission. If this way fails, please continue reading the followings to recover the lost files.
If your pen drive is inaccessible or corrupted, it is likely that there are some logical issues in it. To fix it, you can follow the guide below.
Step 1: Open File Explorer and go to This PC.
Step 2: Right-click the USB flash drive and select Properties option.
Step 3: On a popup window, select Tools option and click Check button.
After scanning finished, you can check the pen drive is accessible and the files in it are retrieved successfully or not.
The thumb drive is corrupted and cannot be read by computer, it is probably because that there is something wrong with disk drive. To ensure it, you can try to reinstall disk drive to make pen drive readable so that you can retrieve the data on it. Here is how to do.
Step 1: Press Windows key + X and select Device Manager option.
Step 2: On Device Manger window, expand Disk drives option and right-click the thumb drive and select Uninstall option.
Step 3: Restart your pc and plug the pen drive into your computer and the computer will reinstall disk drive automatically. Go to check the USB flash drive is accessible and the files can be retrieved or not.
If the methods above can't help you recover files from corrupted USB flash drive, a powerful and reliable data recovery tool like iSunshare BitGenius is the only way out. This tool aims to safely and effectively recover the lost data from the hard drive which gets corrupted or formatted. Here is a detailed guide on how to use BitGenius to recover data from corrupted USB flash drive.
Step 1: Download and install iSunshare BitGenius on your computer. Plug your pen drive into your computer.
Step 2: Open this tool and click the USB flash drive and the click Start button on the bottom right of interface.
Step 3: The app will first quickly scan your specified location and then deeply scan the location again, which may take much time. Once finished, all the data in the corrupted pen drive will be displayed in the interface. Then click the checkbox next to the pen drive. Then all the files in pen drive are selected. Click Recover button.
Tips: If you just want to selectively recover the lost data that you want, you can use the features of filtering and searching to find out the files that you want from the scanning result. For example, if you just want to recover photos from the pen drive, you can click Filter button. On the popup window, check the box next to picture and click Apply button. Then all the photos will be shown on the right pane. Finally, you can check the photos that you want and click Recover button to restore.
Step 4: Select a location for the files to be recovered.
Step 5: When the files are restored successfully, a box pops up prompting that data recovery is completed and ask you if open the recovery folder. Click Yes button and you will see all the lost files are recovered from the corrupted USB flash drive successfully.
Related Articles:
