The fact that even information disappears from ordinary flash drives and memory cards has been said a lot. The reasons can be as many as you like: from physical damage to devices to exposure to virus codes. But you don’t want to lose important information. It is further proposed to consider how flash drive recovery is performed. Along the way, we will touch upon the reverse process related to how to recover data on a computer from a removable drive. But the priority will be the first option with a description of the necessary programs and tools for this.
Flash drive recovery: general directions of action
To begin, consider a few main reasons why data on removable media may be lost. This is most often associated with physical damage, which affects the operation of the built-in controllers. Such situations are indeed very common, but the reasons may be even more commonplace. Often, data loss occurs when the device is removed from the port incorrectly, due to accidental or intentional deletion of information, exposure to viruses, etc. But the file system “flies” most often due to incomplete formatting, after which the operating system simply does not determine the connected drive how such. Another problem is the impact of cryptographic viruses. Files on the media seem to be there, but it is not possible to open them. Thus, if symptoms of viral exposure are observed, immediately check the drive, and use additional utilities for encryption. We will not dwell on these aspects, but consider the main programs for data recovery, assuming that everything is in order with the media.
Recovering Windows from a flash drive and any other information on the hard drive
If you digress a little from the main topic, you should pay attention to recovering from a removable drive of the operating system or deleted files.
In the first case, you will need to create a bootable USB flash drive, for example, using the Rufus program, and when booting from removable media, select the system recovery partition, and then perform the appropriate actions. Usually there are no problems with this. In the same way, you can simply write some portable data recovery program to a USB flash drive and use it by running it from a removable drive.
How to find an application for a specific device?
However, in this case, we are more interested in how to bring the removable drive to life. And here you need to clearly determine what needs to be done: restore information or perform similar actions with the file structure so that the flash drive becomes readable. Usually, any program for recovering a flash drive with all the information previously present on it is suitable for removable media. However, it is worth noting that many manufacturers of such devices on their official Internet resources post specialized resuscitation utilities designed for specific device models for free use. Therefore, sometimes the best option for recovering data from a deleted USB flash drive is just their use.
If the necessary software cannot be found, it is recommended to download the small ChipGenius utility. With it, you can find out the PID and DIV identifiers that exactly match the memory controller used in your device. According to this information, you can find the necessary software product for recovering flash drives or memory cards, which can also be classified as flash drives.
Best data recovery software on USB sticks
Now we will pass directly to the most frequently used utilities, allowing to reanimate both the file system of the medium and deleted files. Recovery of files deleted from a flash drive and resuscitation of the entire file structure can be performed using such programs:
- HDD Low Level Format Tool;
- Recuva;
- Unformat;
- CardRecovery
- Recover My Files;
- PhotoRec
- File Scavenger;
- Undelete 360;
- Hetman Partition Recovery;
- JetFlash Recovery Tool;
- D-Soft Flash Doctor;
- F-Recovery SD;
- Flash Memory Toolkit;
- Storage Format Tool;
- R-Studio;
- R.Saver.
Next, we briefly consider each program in terms of the main features, without particularly delving into the processes and principles of recovery, since the average user does not need this at all. As a derogation, you can add that when deleting files from removable media, as well as from the computer’s hard drive, the objects themselves do not disappear. Their names simply change (instead of the first letter in the name, the $ symbol is set, as a result of which the files become invisible and unreadable). But even after quick formatting of the media, information can be restored.
HDD Low Level Format Tool
So, let's start with a utility that is able to reanimate the drive both in terms of restoring the file system, and in terms of eliminating errors or reanimating bad sectors. Many users know that the most powerful HDD Regenerator utility is used for hard disks in such situations , but not everyone realizes that it can be used for removable devices.
The presented program is like a daughter of the main package. Basically, it is used for low-level formatting, but it allows you to tidy up the drive itself so that the data on it can be read. After its application, you can use other applications and restore the necessary information.
Recuva
This flash drive recovery program is not considered narrowly targeted, since it can also be applied to hard drives. The application is completely simple. It is enough for the user to select the types of objects to be restored or indicate scanning of all files, after which the program will show the found files in the results, indicating the possibility of their regeneration (objects will be marked with different colors). Immediately, we note one main condition for all utilities: the recovered data must not be saved on the media itself, but in another location on the hard drive or in a logical partition.
Unformat
Before us is a powerful program of its kind for recovering content deleted from a flash drive.
All use of the utility comes down to selecting your connected device in the Physical Devices section, clicking on the Continue button Next to start scanning, waiting for it to finish, marking objects that need to be brought back to life and, in fact, activating the recovery process with choosing a new location for saving the content (Recover To ...).
Cardrecovery
This free flash drive recovery program, as you probably already understand from the name, is designed more for working with removable memory cards, but it is designed only for the resurrection of multimedia files that might be present on the drive. After starting the program, you need to select your device, mark the necessary file types, start scanning and restore information. It is noteworthy that this utility allows you to recover data recorded using cameras and camcorders, in which the cards were used.
Recover my files
This program for recovering files from a flash drive that disappeared due to incorrect user actions is, although a very powerful utility, but paid. And it costs quite a lot. But its functionality is simply amazing. Not only does it easily recover information and reanimate file systems of removable media, it can even work with disk images and entire RAID arrays.
PhotoRec
Recovery of files from a flash drive deleted accidentally or intentionally can be done with the help of such a simple program. As already clear, it is designed exclusively for working with graphic and video formats. It will be somewhat problematic for an ordinary user to deal with this utility, because to use a text interface you must have at least basic command line skills. But all this is more than blocked by the huge number of supported formats, speed and recovery even of those objects that other applications ignore or mark as those that cannot be resurrected.
File scavenger
This flash drive recovery program is not very well known even among professionals.
However, its main advantage is that it can work with NTFS, FAT file systems of all types exFAT, ReFS, as well as with virtual disks of all formats. To restore the flash drive, you can use two scan modes: fast (Quick) and long (Long). In this case, it all depends on how deep the verification of deleted content should be.
Undelete 360
Before us is a simple program for recovering a flash drive that is suitable for a novice user. It is designed solely to recreate files, if only after removal with a removable drive no actions were performed (copying new contents to it, formatting, etc.). In other words, if you accidentally delete a file or folder, you can recreate them immediately. After formatting, alas, the utility will not find a single remote object.
Hetman partition recovery
Restoring a flash drive using this application looks very promising. The program allows you to regenerate information of any type, even if the file system was damaged on the drive.
Moreover! Even after formatting, the application will be able to retrieve deleted files with a 95% probability. And the most important advantage is that it can work not only with almost all known types of file systems, but also with unplaced RAW formats that Windows systems cannot read. Finally, the recovery result can not only be saved to the hard disk, but also immediately recorded, for example, on an optical disk.
JetFlash Recovery Tool
This flash drive recovery program is one of the easiest among all presented. But this absolutely does not mean that she does not know how. This utility finds and recovers information from all well-known brands of drives. And the simplicity of management is to activate scanning with subsequent regeneration (Start button) and exit the program when all processes are completed (Exit button).
D-Soft Flash Doctor
This free utility is primarily designed to recover non-working drives and is a portable modification that does not require installation on a hard drive (can be used from another USB device). The main distinguishing feature is a high scanning speed with subsequent recreation.
F-recovery sd
This small application is designed to recover data from removable memory cards, shows excellent speed and can be used for resuscitation of multimedia or any other content. It is enough to indicate your drive, set the location for saving information and activate the scanning and recovery processes
Flash memory toolkit
This multi-purpose utility can be used to restore files, and to determine the identifiers of controllers, and to test the drive for errors or damage, and to diagnose read or write speed indicators. In general, it can be attributed to all-in-one programs.
Storage format tool
This application is a powerful tool for reanimating flash drives with complete regeneration of the file structure and the correction of possible errors or bad sectors. The program also has tools for fast low-level formatting and history of the restored information.
R-Studio and R.Saver
Finally, two are considered to be the most powerful programs that are perfect for recovering information even from damaged drives.
The scanning in them is so deep that many can only wonder how these utilities could find information that was deleted years ago, and then formatting was also done. Applications may seem a little complicated to master, but they restore everything and everything, although deep scanning can take quite a lot of time.