how to recover files from corrupted/damaged/not formatted usb drive

USB drive such as external usb device, usb hard drive, usb pen drive, usb stick, usb flash drive helps us transfer data easily between computers. However, different rasons may causes usb drive corruption, or usb drive error like not formatted, or even turns usb drive into shortcut. So how do we recover data such as photos, videos, documents such as Microsoft Word docx files, Powerpoint Presentation ppt files, Microsoft Excel files, pdf data, and folders on damaged usb drive? If we are not able to open usb drive, or usb drive asks to format when we try to open it, how can we access data on the usb?

First of all, let's see what could causes usb drive to be corrupted. 

- Virus infection could causes files and folder to be hidden, or becomes shortcut, or usb drive not accessible 

- File table corruption could damage the usb drive 

- Unplug usb device from computer without ejecting or safe remove 

- Reset usb device which causes data loss 

- Accidentally deleted some system files and make usb drive unreadble by computer 

- Usb drive not recognized, or not detected by computer for unknown reason 

- and many other reasons

How to recover data from corrupted or unrecognized usb drive

First connect USB drive to computer, and then in Computer (i.e. Windows Explorer), see the drive letter assign to usb device. If it is not shown in Computer, you may follow this guide if you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista, or this one for Windows XP.

You will also need to use a usb drive recovery tool, download this one 

download USB device recovery

Run USB drive recovery software Asoftech Data Recovery, and then select USB drive letter (e.g. E:), and then press button "Next" to start scan the usb device.

You will see files shown one by one. Select the ones you want, and click "Recover" to save them.

If steps above does not work, you can do a quick format of USB device in computer (in comptuer, right click the USB device, and then choose format... and in the format settings dialog, check "quick format" option). After format complete, you can run again Asoftech Data Recovery and use it to scan the USB and recover files. Steps will be same as above.

Download Asoftech data recovery and recover lost files from USB device.

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