You may want to recover important documents and data from USB flash drive under following circumstances:
- Your computer fails to recognize your USB flash drive;
- The flash drive shows nothing as if no files are stored on it;
- Your computer pops up a message “You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it.” Your computer will not make the flash drive functional till you format it and erase everything.
Resolution
1. Download Test Disk for Windows for free from its official website.
2. Extract the contents of testdisk-7.0.win.zip file to a specific folder using free 7 Zip File Manager or any other file extracting tool.
3. Go to the extracted testdisk-7.0 folder, right click testdisk_win.exe and select Run as administrator.
4. When you’re prompted for administrative privileges, click Yes.
5. The toolkit will load below Command Prompt window. Using your keyboard arrow keys, select Create option, press ENTER.
6. Select the corrupted, unrecoverable USB Flash Drive and press ENTER.
7. Test Disk will automatically detect current partition table type. In most cases, Windows operating system uses Intel/ PC partition system. Select the detected partition table, press ENTER.
8. Select Analyse option, press ENTER.
9. Select the Quick Search option, press ENTER.
10. Select your partition, press ENTER.
11. In subsequent screen, choose Deeper Search option and press ENTER.
12. Wait till all cylinders are analyzed.
13. Select the appropriate USB flash drive partition, press P to list out all files, folders on the corrupted USB Flash Drive.
14. Test Disk will list out your files, folders. Navigate through different folders using the keyboard arrow keys.
15. Press a to select all files.
16. Type C (it must be in the CAPITAL) to copy all files.
17. Select a destination folder where you desire to restore your data. Use keyboard arrow keys.
18. Press C to start the file copying process.
19. The file copying process will begin. Please do not close the window while it is restoring your data.
Bonus Tip: Save 10s of GBs of Space by Deleting Duplicate Files from USB Flash Drive
Dupes waste precious amount of space of your USB flash drive. You might want to recover gigabytes of space using a great program specially designed to find and delete duplicates.
Step # 1: Download a Duplicate Cleaner
Click here to download Clone Files Checker.
Step # 2: Customize the Scan
1. Open Clone Files Checker. Click the Add button on the list box.
2. One by one select the folders you desire to scan for duplicates.
3. Select All Files option, and click Start Search button. The scan may take several minutes.
Step # 3: Process Duplicates
1. Once the scan is completed, choose any of the following options:
Fix Wizard
Takes specified action on all duplicate files. Just follow the simple wizard on screen.
Review & Fix
Displays search results in a list box so that you can process only desired files.
2. Which action do you desire to take?
Permanently Delete
Deletes duplicate files without moving them to the Recycle Bin.
Move to Folder
Moves dupes to a particular folder so that you can review them at a later point in time.
And the best part
It happens to most of us. You delete a duplicate and then realize you need it back. Thanks to the developers, Clone Files Checker supports restoring old, deleted duplicate files.
Here are simple steps to restore deleted duplicates:
1. In the Clone Files Checker window, click the History icon on top.
2. Select a particular scan from the left side panel.
3. Click the Restore button.
4. You’ll be prompted to select files. Select all or individual files and then click the Restore button.
5. Choose a destination folder.
