Quick Ways to Recover Data From Corrupted Pen Drive

Pen drives or Flash drives act as a savvier for us, when it comes to carrying or accessing our important data. It comes very handy in terms of backups, transfer and access our important documents, photos, videos and any other files.

But what will happen, if the data got accidently deleted or corrupted or infected by a virus?

It comes as a shock to us….

But now you don’t have to worry, because here we are going to teach you how you can get back your deleted files from pen drives. The recovery methods provided here works in cases of data deletion, lost, inaccessible due to any error or virus infection.

What you first need to do is, connect your Pen drive to the computer/laptop.

In case the pen drive is corrupted or the computer is not able to access it-”it will prompt you to format the Pen drive” or other similar warnings.

Pen Drive Errors

Pen Drive Errors

Once you connect the device, we recommend you first scan it with the Anti-virus program. Because if it is infected, then it can further spread the infection to your computer/laptop.

If you don’t have any active anti-virus program, then click here to download and scan the Pen drive.

Scan Your Device with ESET  Secuirty Program 

Possible Reasons Of Data Corruption or USB Not working.

Before, actually heading to solve the issue, lets check out quickly what can be cause behind your pen drive got corrupted or not working.

There can be various reasons your pen drive or USB drive may get corrupted or you are unable to retrieve your data.

  • USB not inserted properly: In this case, you should first try ejecting it and then insert once again.
  • PC gets suddenly shutdown while your USB drive is attached: As sudden power failure or any system error can cause your drive not showing any data. In this case, restart your PC and then try using the drive again.
  • Pen drive gets infected with any virus: This can be one of the obvious reason, you are not able to access your data. If your system is already infected with virus or you are using a virus- infected drive. In this case, the data may get corrupted.
  • Files got accidently deleted: It often happens, we accidently hit the delete button while trying to do other actions on the drive.
  • The USB drive can’t be recognized or data is not readable: There are often times, the USB got corrupted or having some fault due to its hardware parts. So, in this case, you may see this error while using the drive.
  • System asks you to format the USB drive to use it: Again, this error can show up, if your disk is infected or the present file system is not compatible.
  • Please Insert Disk into Removable Disk: In this case, you should try inserting the drive once again.
  • Pen drive shows blank: This can occur due to file is not in readable format, bad sectors or nay human errors.

So, if these are the cases, then here is the quick and effective fixes to retrieve your lost data from pen drive.

How to Recover Data From Corrupted Pen Drive Using CMD?

In this guide, we will discuss, all the possible steps which will help you to recover data from corrupted pen drive. So, firstly, you need to insert your pen drive or USB drive to your PC.

Check Drive For Errors And fix Them

Next, we will run the “chkdsk” command for the drive your USB or pen drive is inserted.

The command is "chkdsk F: /f /r", where “F” is the drive you may have inserted your pen drive. You can change as if it is some other one.

Command “f” is used to scan and check for any errors in the drive;

While, “r” command will help you locate any bad sectors of the drive. After running the command, your pen drive data may be recovered.

However, if this process does not works for you, then you should try recovering through the following command.

This method works when the pen drive is corrupted.

  1. Connect the Pen drive to the PC which you want to recover.
  2. Now click on the Start button on the bottom-left corner of the desktop screen and then right click.
  3. Click Command Prompt (Admin) in windows of earlier version for win 10 and above you will see “windows Powershell(Admin)”. Then the “CMD” will open.
  4. Type the drive in which the pen drive is connected like letter, E.g. > F: , and press Enter.
    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive Using CMD

    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive Using CMD

  5. Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.*, press Enter. Do not quickly close the window or do any other thing, just wait for a few seconds.
  6. Now, check the pen drive to see whether the files have been restored.

If this manual solution has not helped you to recover the files, then we have the automatic recovery solution for you. This will help you to recover any of your files like documents, photos, videos and any other. 

Automatic Solution:

Recover data from Pen Drive using Stellar Data Recovery software

Manual methods often fails due to various possible reasons. So, before you get frustrated, why not try out recovering your corrupted data from pen drive using a software.

Although, there are various data recovery tools available, but we recommend Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool.

As it is user-friendly and does the task well.

Download Stellar Data Recovery Professional tool. 

  • After downloading the software, click to install it on your system.
  • Next, Click ‘ Select What To Recover‘ Like Photos, Audio and video.
    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 1

    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 1

  • Next, ‘select the drive’ from which you want to recover the photos or other media files.
    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 2

    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 2

  • Click on ‘Scan’. The scan will show the all the files that can be recovered. Preview the files.
    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 3

    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 3

  • After previewing the files, check-mark the files from the list you want to recover.
  • Select the location to which you want to save the recovered files. (it is recommended to choose a different location to save the data).
    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 4

    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 4

  • Click on ‘Restore‘.
    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 5

    Data Recovery from corrupted pen drive step 5

Now that you have successfully recovered your data, then you can try out fixing your corrupted pen drive.

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