How to Recover Files from a Corrupt or Unresponsive USB Flash Drive

Written By Oliver Powell
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 23 Jan, 2024
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Summary: A USB flash drive may corrupt due to many possible reasons and put your data at risk. However, you don’t need to stress yourself out. You can recover files and folders from a corrupt or unresponsive USB flash drive by understanding the causes and applying the right solutions. To prevent unsuccessful or partial data recovery, use data recovery software.

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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 professional 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]

Stellar — *Image 1: Software Home screen displaying “What to Recover” options to allow selection of specific data*

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!

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About The Author

Oliver Powell

Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.

243 comments

Md. Mahfuzul Haque says:

May 17, 2019 at 7:21 am

I used my external USB hard drive made bootable. But, some very important data was in the USB disk. Now, how can I remove the bootable system without any format, I just want to get back my previous data.

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  May 21, 2019 at 10:12 am
  
  Hello Md. Mahfuzul,
  In this case, we recommend you to use Stellar Data Recovery-Professional software to recover the data from this USB drive. Check whether this drive is listed in our software or not. If yes then select this USB and scan it. If not then select “Can’t Find Drive” option to recover the lost/deleted partition of this USB. Thanks
  
  Reply
Jae says:

May 16, 2019 at 12:34 am

good day, my 4gb USB have a problem. i can easily open it. i can transfer files (pic and videos) to it. after transferring, i can still open the files but the problem starts after i eject the USB. after ejecting i will reinsert the USB and my files are already corrupted 🙁 what can i do?

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  May 21, 2019 at 11:25 am
  
  Hello Jae,
  In case, You go to cmd and types these command
  d: [Select your USB derive. In my case it is d]
  d: del*.lnk [ Enter]
  d: attrib i:*.* /d /s -h -r -s [Enter]
  I hope this command works and it will repair your images and videos. Ans Still if the files are corrupted then you may use the Stellar Repair for Video or Photos to check the possibility of repairing even before purchasing the software.
  Thanks
  
  Reply
Yazmin Bu says:

May 2, 2019 at 12:30 am

How long does the recovery files from logical issues take?

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  May 9, 2019 at 5:08 am
  
  Hello Yazmin,
  If I am right you are telling about manual step to recover file from logical issue. So it depends upon your computer hardware specification. If your computer hardware specification is good processing speed is sufficient so it will take sufficient time.
  
  Reply
ravi says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:07 am

Dear sir,
my pen drive not working and showing below sg.
Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

A request for the USB device descriptor failed.

Please help me

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  April 2, 2019 at 11:16 am
  
  Hello Ravi,
  
  In this case, we recommend installing the Stellar Data Recovery Professional software.
  
  After installing the software, choose the data which you want to recover, after that kindly perform “Can’t Find Drive” option to locate deleted/last formatted partition of the storage device. Once the partitions are located then you can scan these partitions and recover the desired data.
  
  Reply
Dmiller says:

March 5, 2019 at 8:24 am

Hi, I have tried the above-mentioned steps to repair the corrupt USB flash drive. The steps really helps me in recovering my lost files.

Reply
1. manjunath says:
  
  November 4, 2016 at 2:13 pm
  
  sir my pendrive is not detecting in any pc what is problem
  
  Reply
  1. Jyoti Prakash says:
    
    November 10, 2016 at 6:39 am
    
    Hi Manjunath,
    
    After plugging the pen drive in the device, go to Device Manager (In run type “devmgmt.msc”). In the Device Manager, go to “Universal serial bus controllers”. It should list the storage devices that you have connected to your PC. Right click on it and then click “Uninstall. Remove the pen drive and restart your system.
    
    Try connecting the device again. I think this should solve the problem.
    
    Kindly acknowledge your status.
    
    Good Luck!!!
  2. caleb bernardus says:
    
    August 10, 2017 at 2:17 pm
    
    Hi my 8gig USB flash says no media. Please help. I can’t evens format it or update the driver. Tried running data recovery and it says no media found. Last night everything was still working fine
  3. Jyoti Prakash says:
    
    August 24, 2017 at 2:24 am
    
    Hello Caleb,
    
    We recommend you to try the demo version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional.
    
    Kindly install the software from the below-mentioned link Download Link
    
    After installing the software, please follow the below-mentioned steps to perform the scan on your drive:
    
    1. Run Stellar Windows Data Recovery.
    2. From Select What to Recover screen, select the type of data i.e. Everything, Documents, Folders & Emails or Multimedia Files, you want to recover.
    3. Click Next.
    4. On Select Location screen, select Can’t Find Drive from Other Locations
    5. Now click on ‘Scan’ button.
    6. In the Select Drive section, all the hard drives connected to the system are listed with their details. From this section, choose a hard drive you want to scan for lost partitions and click Search. A scan for lost or deleted partitions will be performed in the selected disk or drive.
    7. Any ‘lost partition’ detected, will be listed in the Partition Found section.
    8. From the list of partitions found, select any desired partition and click Scan to continue with the recovery process.
    
    Note: If you can’t find your desired partition in the Partition Found section, you can choose Deep Scan option to perform a comprehensive scan of the selected drive for deleted or lost partition.
2. asad says:
  
  April 6, 2017 at 5:44 pm
  
  thanks alot it really helped me
  
  Reply
  1. Alex says:
    
    November 20, 2017 at 11:04 am
    
    I did all the steps described here above but my Kingston DataTravaller 3.0 USB flash drive of 64GB, formatted NTFS wasn’t detected. In device manager on whatever USB port I insert the stick it will appear as “USB Mass Storage Device” with an yellow triangle with an exclamation mark.
    There any chances to recover my data in a structured way (files & directory)? I had really important and uniqe data, gathered in time. Exist by any means the possibility to recover them like it was before or even partial?
    It was detected in a USB port & scanned by Win 10 Pro and “repaired” at a boot time, but I suppose that it’s chkdsk /F didn’t repaired correctly anything but formatted it, but I don’t understand why it will now didn’t see it.
  2. Jyoti Prakash says:
    
    November 28, 2017 at 9:57 am
    
    Hello Alex,
    
    Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.
    
    Kindly download Stellar Windows Data Recovery Professional from the below mentioned link:
    
    Download Link
    
    Please follow the below mentioned steps to perform the scan on the drive:
    
    1. Run Stellar Windows Data Recovery.
    2. From Select What to Recover screen, select the type of data i.e. Everything, Documents, Folders & Emails or Multimedia Files, you want to recover.
    3. Click on Next.
    4. On Select Location screen, select Can’t Find Drive from Other Locations.
    5. Click on ‘Scan’ button.
    6. In the Select Drive section all the hard drives connected to the system are listed with their details. From this section, choose a hard drive you want to scan for lost partitions and click Search. A scan for lost or deleted partitions will be performed in the selected disk or drive.
    7. Any ‘lost partition’ detected, will be listed in the Partition Found section
    8. From the list of partitions found, select any desired partition and click Scan to continue with the recovery process.
    
    Note: If you can’t find your desired partition in the Partition Found section, you can choose Deep Scan option to perform a comprehensive scan of the selected drive for deleted or lost partition.
3. Nayab says:
  
  May 28, 2019 at 9:25 pm
  
  How?
  I tried . Bus my usb is showing format option only . I have to recover very imp data. Plz help
  
  Reply
  1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
    
    May 31, 2019 at 6:40 am
    
    Hi Nayab,
    To recover data from such kind of drive which is asking for the format, we believe that such a drive does not show in our software. Our software can recover data from the detected hard drive in the system. If the drive is not detecting then you can avail data recovery service. Thanks
Jane Garcia says:

March 2, 2019 at 4:58 am

I’m a student with limited financial resources, and I lost my files, which is very important and found this software very useful. However, to use it, it requires me to buy the full feature, in which i hardly can’t afford. hoping to have a free version for students like me. thanks.. as for the application, it is very useful and i thoroughly recommend it.

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  March 5, 2019 at 3:40 am
  
  Hello Jane,
  
  Sorry to hear that you lost your important files.
  
  You can try Stellar Data Recovery – Free Edition software to recover upto 1GB of lost/deleted files.
  
  Download Link: Download Link
  
  Reply
Reinniel Patrick S. Bayaua says:

February 23, 2019 at 5:14 am

thank you great help

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  February 25, 2019 at 4:49 am
  
  Glad to know that you like the content
  
  Reply
Rachel L says:

February 12, 2019 at 8:14 pm

I found Stellar Data Recovery after having lost about 6 hours worth of my chemistry lab when my flash drive failed. Kept giving the prompt “this disk needs to be formatted” and nothing was showing in the hard drive at all. I got my files back completely. I highly recommend and thanks for the tip.

Reply
Tom Gerrand says:

December 8, 2018 at 10:37 am

This is the perfect blog for anyone who wants to understand this topic.
You know so much its almost hard to argue with you.
Wonderful stuff, just excellent!

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  December 10, 2018 at 2:55 am
  
  Hey Tom,
  
  Thanks for your kind words.
  
  Reply
Musa says:

November 21, 2018 at 1:50 pm

Hi My flash drive automatically corrupt any file sent to it, mostly movies.

Reply
1. Satyeshu Kumar says:
  
  November 23, 2018 at 7:04 am
  
  Hello Musa,
  
  As per this query the USB is corrupted. We would recommend to recover the data and try to check for the preview of these files.
  
  Kindly download the demo version of the software from below link:
  
  Download Link
  
  This software will assist to recover the Video Files and repair them also if they are corrupted due to corruption if the USB stick.
  
  Reply