Repair Corrupted USB Drive And Recover Files From It | Proven Methods

Is your USB drive inaccessible? Are there any crucial files on it? Then check out this article for five quick ways to fix corrupt or inaccessible USB drives and recover files from it. Remo Recover is advised if you are looking for hassle-free solution.

USB drives are portable drives that store data. The portable property of USB makes it the most preferable storage drive for transferring data, Since the flash drive gets connected with a different computer for transferring files, it usually gets vulnerable to corruption.

While accessing the files from corrupted USB, you will receive an error “File or Directory is corrupted and inaccessible” or “The disk is not Formatted, Do you want to Format it now ?”.

Sometimes you will get a pop-up to format your disk. In such a situation, you should not format the USB drive and stop using the drive else it results in overwriting of data.

You will be anxious if you are unable to access your data; however, not to worry you can safely retrieve files from corrupt USB drives. In this post, we’ll go over the causes of USB drive corruption and how to restore files from a corrupted USB drive.

Can  Corrupted Flash Drive Be Fixed?

Yes, you can easily fix your corrupted USB drive and retrieve files from it by using the following free methods mentioned below:
Method 1: Repair corrupted USB drive using cmd
Method 2: Recover files from Corrupted USB drive by resolving file system error
Method 3: Recover files from corrupted USB by Enabling the USB drive in the device manager
Method 4: Reinstall USB driver
Method 5: Format Flash Drive Using Diskpart
Method 6: Recover Files From a Corrupted USB drive using Remo Recover

Method 1: Repair Corrupted USB Drive Using Cmd

You can repair corrupted USB sticks with the CHKDSK command, it is a simple yet effective solution to fix your corrupted USB flash drives. Follow the steps below to repair the damaged USB.

• Insert your USB drive to the PC and in the search bar type Cmd double click on the Command prompt and RUN as Administrator.
• Now on the display screen, type the command CHKDSK G: /f ( Here G is the USB drive letter, replace G with your drive letter).
• Press Enter, then wait for the operation to finish before ejecting the USB drive.

Note: Now you will be able to fix the corrupted USB drive with the chkdsk command. Although the CHKDSK command is useful for minor corruption, there is a risk of damaging files if you don’t do it properly. Remo Recover is recommended for retrieving files from a broken flash drive since it is a self-explanatory tool.

Method 2: Fix Files System Error to Regain Access From Corrupted USB Flash Drive

The file system on the USB drive will assist in organizing the files and directories for easy transactions. Sometimes you will get an error thumb drive not showing on the computer; it might be because of file system corruption and you will be unable to access your data. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can follow to fix file system errors.
Note: If your system is running on Windows 10 then use the following steps:

• Insert USB drive to your computer, and navigate to This PC and then right-click and select Properties. 
• Click on the Tool tab and select the Check And then you will have two check options: Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for an attempt recovery of bad sectors. 
• Check both the checkboxes and click on Start, this will begin the scanning process.
• Wait till the scanning process is completed and then click on close.

Note: If your system is running on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows  7, etc then use the following steps mentioned below:

• Insert USB drive to your computer, and navigate to This PC or My Computer check for Removable disk icon.
• select Properties by Right-clicking on the Removable disk icon.
• select the Rebuild option by clicking on the Tools
• Wait till the scanning process is complete, then click on Close

The above troubleshooting steps will help you fix file system errors on Windows 10, and other versions like Windows XP, Windows 7, etc., and now you will be able to access the files from a corrupt USB drive. If the problem still persists then move to the next section of the article.

Method 3: Enable USB Drive in Device Manager

Sometimes a driver installation error can automatically disable your USB drive making your data inaccessible. Follow the steps described below to enable the USB stick.

• Control panel app > Hardware and sound > Device manager.

• Select your USB drive by expanding the Disk drive list and click on Enable device.
• Click on Next and close.

Method 4: Reinstall USB driver

If your USB drive is not getting detected then you can also try reinstalling your USB drivers by following the steps below.  

• In the Search Bar type Device Manager. 

• Now go to your removable disk and right click and select Uninstall.

• Now disconnect your USB drive and again connect your USB drive to the computer (Windows will automatically install the respective drivers). 

The above methods like: fixing corrupted drive using Cmd, enabling USB drive, and resolving file system error will help you with fixing your corrupted USB drive, if still, the problem persists then you need to format your USB stick. However, Formatting will result in data loss. In such a case it is recommended to use Remo Recover a self-explanatory tool, a reliable professional USB recovery software.

This tool is built with a deep scan engine that can scan every sector of the drive to recover data. It can recover more than 500 file types like images, audio, video, Office files, etc. Additionally, it supports recovery from Transcend Jet Flash, Sony Micro Vault, Kingston, and other popular USB flash drives. Download and try the tool for free now.

Method 5: Format Flash Drive Using Diskpart

Note: Before formatting the flash drive it is recommended to recover data using Remo Recover now go ahead and use diskpart to format your drive.

• Connect your USB drive to the computer type Cmd and select Command prompt as Administrator. Type Diskpart and hit Enter.
• Type List, you will have a list of drives and select the drive from the list example to select the disk type Disk 1 and hit Enter.
• Type Clean to clean your disk and hit Enter and
• Finally, type Quit to quit the command prompt window and hit Enter.

Note: If your flash drive is showing the wrong capacity here is an article on a quick and easy way to Format a USB Flash drive showing the wrong capacity.

Method 6: Recover Files From a Corrupted USB Drive Using Remo Recover

• Download and install Remo Recover on your Windows computer and connect your USB flash drive to it. 
• From the main screen select the flash drive from where you want to recover data. If your drive is not getting detected then you can click on the Can’t find the drive option. 
• To start the scanning process click on the Scan option.  

Note: Once the Quick Scan is completed it directly initiates the Deep Scan option. You can now navigate to the Lost Partition. Now you can also click on the Preview option to verify the recovery results.   

• Finally, click on the Recover option to save the recovered files to the desired location.

Reasons For USB drive become Corrupted

• Virus intrusion will cause your files on the USB drive inaccessible.
• File system corruption will make your files on the USB drive inaccessible.
• Improper unplugging of the USB drive will make the drive Corrupt.
• Interruption while transferring the data will corrupt the drive.
• Repeated system shutdown while transferring the data will corrupt your drive.

Tips to Protect USB drive from Corruption

• Always take a backup of your important data.
• Avoid downloading any files from suspicious websites.
• Avoid abruptly removing the USB flash drive when it is still performing reading/writing action.  
• Make use of Antivirus software to protect the flash drive from getting corrupted.