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.

246 comments

Kim says:

October 3, 2018 at 9:19 pm

Hi< I have a usb memory stick that was bent when the laptop it was in was knocked of the desk, you mention that youcan fix these types of issues and recover the files. What is the cost to do this and where do I send the usb stick?

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  October 9, 2018 at 12:00 pm
  
  Dear Kim,
  
  Please try to check if the memory stick is getting detected if yes you can try Stellar Windows Data Recovery Professional Edition. This application will cost 99 USD.
  
  Link for the demo version is given below:
  
  Download Link
  
  Free download is used to scan and preview his lost data. If you will be able to see the files listed inside the application after scan then recovery is possible.
  
  If the memory stick is not getting detected then recovery by using application is not possible and you need to take the help of our data recovery services.
  
  Reply
Srikanth says:

August 27, 2018 at 6:28 pm

Hi My 64gb pendrive is corrupted and says that it need to be formatted then, i formatted my pendrive still it does not work, any time when i insert the pendrive into USB port it’s appear in my computer for some time but when I try to copy data in that drive its not work .plz help me to solve this issue thanks

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  August 29, 2018 at 10:41 am
  
  Hi Srikanth,
  
  We have software’s to recover data from corrupted pen drive. We recommend you to try the Professional version of Stellar Windows Data Recovery software which have the feature of image creation. The drive have corrupted or bad sectors. You are advised to make an image of the pen drive through the software. The image files need to be scanned in order to recover data.
  
  Reply
Silen says:

August 24, 2018 at 4:55 pm

While I was transferring a 2GB file from pc to USB pendrive, appeared a strange error saying like “resource is no more avaliable” and transfer was abruptly aborted; I couldn’t safely expell so I shut down before removing pendrive, but after rebooting and reinserting appeared a message asking to format the drive; I did not and this time I could have safely expell. After then, not only laptop doesn’t recognize pendrive anymore, tablet too. At first Device manager lists pendrive as it should work, but then appears yellow question mark and drivers details reports error code 10 “device not started/failed to load” therefore Disk manager too doesn’t see it and I can’t assign a letter at all. I reinstalled all USB drivers already removing USB controller on both devices, in both there is Win10 1803 latest build with all cumulative updates and all drivers up-to-date. As a side-note Surface Pro 3 is from 2015 so there are no really new chipset or any other kind of drivers to download from Microsoft, but DELL Inspiron is new, bought a couple of months ago, and its update software keeps everything always up-to-date to the latest new version.
I am taking it is a hardware failure, but before I cry all my files out, I ask if there might be any minimal chance to have them recovered in some way. I really appreciate any kind of suggestion, even just a symbolic pat and a virtual tissue to wipe my tears off (LOL).

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  August 27, 2018 at 8:40 am
  
  Hello Silen,
  
  We recommend using our Stellar Windows Data Recovery- Professional Version software. The software have a feature to create image of the corrupted drives. Kindly ensure that the drive is getting detected by the Stellar software and gets listed in the drive list. Once the image is created then the image file needs to be scanned to recover data
  
  Reply
rashid says:

August 6, 2018 at 5:26 am

sir,
I tried to convert my usb to boottable and cancelled the process while it is running. after that the usb is not working and shows insert a disk in to the drive. what should I do?

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  August 7, 2018 at 8:11 am
  
  Hello Rashid,
  
  We recommend you to use our Stellar Data Recovery applications and check whether the drives are getting detected by the software or not. If the software detects the USB drive it lists it in the drive lists. You can then run the deep scan over the corrupted USB drive and check the possibility of recovery. Once the scan gets completed you may check the preview of the files. If the preview is available recovery is possible else not.
  
  Reply
Ryan says:

August 3, 2018 at 5:39 pm

I have a USB thumb drive that randomly has been unrecognizable on my laptop. I’ve plugged it into other desktops and other laptops and it is unrecognizable on those devices too. I have Windows 10 and I went into the device manager after I’ve inserted the USB drive, and unable to locate or recognize the drive within. Physically the thumb drive is in perfect condition and I haven’t had issues with it previously. Not sure if it’s a internal issue or a pin out of whack. Would your data recovery software be able to assist on recovering the thumb drives data, if it’s not being recognized when plugged into USB drives?

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  August 8, 2018 at 4:26 am
  
  Hello Ryan,
  
  If the software is not able to detect the USB drive and lists it in the drive lists, then recovery is not possible.
  Alternatively, you can contact our data recovery experts for USB diagnostics.
  
  Reply
Antonio Halpin says:

July 11, 2018 at 6:12 am

Hello,

I have 128 GB USB external which HFS+ file system not showing on Mac Finder/Desktop. This USB SSD became unresponsive and I can’t repair it in Disk Utility. I have Windows 10 on my BootCamp Partition. I am wondering if I can repair this USB SSD via Windows Disk Management but I don’t know how to do it exactly. There are important data stored on this USB which I need to recover urgently. Please help.

Reply
1. Vishal says:
  
  July 11, 2018 at 8:32 am
  
  Hi Antonio
  
  Thanks for sharing your query.
  
  I advise you not to repair your corrupt SSD via Windows on BootCamp Partition since it looks like the partition map is damaged. I recommend you recover your data from the corrupt USB SSD with Stellar Mac Data Recovery tool. After recovering the data from the SSD you can format the drive with a new partition map. Hope this helps.
  
  Regards
  Vishal
  
  Reply
Jason D says:

July 4, 2018 at 10:27 am

Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, thankyou .

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  July 5, 2018 at 3:18 am
  
  Glad that you like our post, Jason. Thanks
  
  Reply
Esha says:

June 28, 2018 at 1:48 am

Hi, I have followed all the steps but at last it is asking for key and register to recover the data not any other option . Now what to do?

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  June 29, 2018 at 4:36 am
  
  Hello Esha,
  
  Thanks for using the software.
  
  You need to purchase the software from the official website, once you are done with that, we provide with register key to save the recovered files. Below is the Buy Page Link
  
  Read More
  
  Reply
Joe Ventress says:

June 22, 2018 at 11:11 am

Hello. I have some questions. I started using your utiity to recover mu usb stick. First it appeared to halt after completing 25% of scanning. I terminated it then started again. It appeared to halt again after scanning 25%. I left it and after about 30 minutes, returned to the computer and found it had progressed, to phase 6 of 7. Good news, however it says time left 43 hours! Is that correct?

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  July 2, 2018 at 6:45 am
  
  Hello Joe,
  
  We would like to inform you that we believe there are bad sectors available in the drive due to which our application is showing a long time to complete the scan. In case you are not ready to wait for such a long then we recommend you to create an image of the drive. You may open the below link to download the user manual and follow page number 38 to create an image of the drive:
  
  Read More
  
  Kindly reply to us if you need any further assistance
  
  Reply
Christopher Riley says:

June 1, 2018 at 5:41 pm

Hello,
I took my flash drive out of my laptop without ejecting it and thought it would be ok taking it to school with no problems. I went to use there and whenever I try to use my drive, it keeps asking me to format it. I didnt want to at first because I knew Iwould lose all my data on it. When I found out how to format it without losing any data, the computer at school told me that it was unable to format. When I read this article, I tried your method of going to device manager and trying to enable my device. But unfortnetly, the computer at my school won’t allow me to do it because it’s not on the microsoft admin account. Only teachers are allowed to access the admin account. So, my only question is, how can I enable my flash drive while being on a guest or student account? Whatever helps is suggested of me. Thank you and have a blessed day!

Reply
1. Isha Rikhi says:
  
  June 5, 2018 at 4:39 am
  
  Hello Christopher,
  
  This seems to be an administrator rights issue on your school’s computer. You don’t have sufficient rights on the computer system to enable the flash drive.
  
  We suggest to login to your laptop with an administrator account and then try to enable the flash drive. Alternatively, you can connect the flash drive to the laptop and can use the demo version of the Stellar Windows Data Recovery Professional to perform a scan. If the application can find the files and if you can see the preview then you can purchase our application to recover the data.
  
  Reply