Recover deleted files from flash drives. How to recover deleted files from a flash drive or memory card

Clicked past, distracted by a cat, a child playing with a computer - these are just a few of the reasons why important files for you can “fly away” into the trash. But one thing is a basket, from where you can always recover accidentally deleted files, and quite another - a flash drive from which data is deleted once and for all.

What to do if important to you the file has been permanently deleted from the flash drive? The most important thing is not to be nervous, and start reading this article, where it will be detailed the process of recovering files deleted from a flash drive.

File "purgatory"

To begin with, it would be nice to figure out where the deleted files go and how can special “wonder programs” recover them?

In fact, everything is quite simple. When you delete a file, only the record about it from the file system disappears, and the data itself remains in place until it is overwritten in this place new file.
From this follows almost the main rule that must be observed in order to be successful: in no case do any operations with the media after deleting the file, because any action will reduce the chance of successful recovery!

By the same principle, you can, but today we will talk about a flash drive.

Accordingly, "wonder programs", in this case, are software that restores the file record back. In this article, we will analyze two such programs - Recuva And Restorer 2000. The first is distributed free of charge, the second, respectively, is paid. Which one to use is up to you.

How to recover deleted documents from a flash drive for free

REanimate files with Recuva

Let's start with a free program Recuva, and let's look at her example, how to recover deleted files from flash drive. The application is very easy to learn, and even a child can deal with it.

First of all, you need to download the installer from the official site: piriform com/recuva.
Install the program in a folder convenient for you ( just not on the flash drive itself!), launch and proceed to recovery!

First, you should select the type of files to be recovered (it is recommended to choose "Other"), specify the path to your flash drive, and check the box " Enable in-depth analysis».

It remains only to wait a few seconds and you're done! All your deleted files are found and recovered.

How can I recover deleted photos and documents from a flash drive

REwe put withrestorer 2000

Now let's deal with the paid and more complex Restorer, which will also help you recover deleted files from a flash drive. You can buy (or try a demo version) on the official website of the program: restorer-ultimate.com

What actually differs restorer from Recuva? The answer is quite obvious: functionality and capabilities. The paid file saver is for those who need recover deleted data from flash drive .
But since you can "hunt the elephant with a toothpick", then we will "hunt the mouse with a gun",
as a cannon Restorer 2000, in the role of the mouse - deleted files.

Working with the program is quite simple, specify the location of the deleted files, then select the type of data you need from the list, and then turn on the “ Recovery».

Within a few seconds, your files will be ready for recovery.

Data saved!

Of course, no one gives a 100% guarantee that your files will be restored safe and sound, but reading this material can greatly increase your chances of saving them "from the other world." If you have any problems using the programs described in the article, then it is better to contact specialists than to try to solve the problem on your own, otherwise you risk losing all the necessary files, this time forever.

How to recover deleted files from flash drive

Have you ever accidentally deleted documents from flash drives? Have you lost photos from your camera's memory cards? If not, you are a lucky person!

This manual will tell you how to recover deleted files from flash drives, memory cards of phones and cameras with minimal effort.

1. Introduction

First things first, remember that if you delete a file, not write nothing else to the flash drive before restoring the files. Create folders too it is forbidden. delete something too it is forbidden. The more operations performed on the flash drive, the less chance of successful file recovery. The fact is that in fact, when deleting a file is not deleted (such a pun), only the record about the file from the file table on the flash drive disappears. In the future, another file (or part of it) may be written to the location of the file, as a result of which the contents of the file will be lost. This is how information is stored both on the hard drive and on flash drives - nothing is deleted immediately, only overwritten.

Deleted data recovery programs will help you get back a deleted file or part of it if it was overwritten by another file.

2. Checking the flash drive for viruses

Perhaps your files were not deleted from the flash drive - they were "hidden" by a virus. That is, the deletion did not occur and you just need to make the files on the flash drive visible.

To clarify this, you need to look for the presence of hidden folders and files on the flash drive.

How to view hidden files: click Start - Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization(there may or may not be such an item, depending on appearance control panels) - .

In the window that opens, select the " View”, uncheck the box Hide protected system files and folders, set active item Show hidden files, folders and drives:

Then open the Computer folder, there is a flash drive in it. If you see translucent icons, including your deleted file, then simply copy it to a safe place, then check your computer for viruses (you can use a one-time antivirus) and install antivirus for flash drives, which will instantly return you all files and folders hidden from the flash drive. Also, take care of the anti-virus protection of your computer - it is possible that your computer is infected.

Don't forget to revert the Folder Options options so that you don't get in the way of hidden system files in your computer's folders (such as desktop.ini files) that you don't want to delete.

3. Recover deleted files with Recuva

Did you accidentally delete or an evil virus cleaned the USB flash drive - there is a way out in the face of the program Recuva. It will help you recover deleted files from a flash drive (from other drives too).

In fact, there are a lot of such programs and each has advantages, but I settled on Recuva as the simplest and most versatile, suitable for recovering all types of files from flash drives - documents, photos, music, videos, and more. It pleases that it's free for home use.

You can recover data from USB flash drives, memory cards, hard drives, even old floppy disks.

You can download the program for recovering deleted files from the direct link: Recuva(2 MB). The program's home page is located at .

By the way, its authors have developed a program for cleaning up unnecessary files CCleaner (I recommend!) And Speccy, which will show what parts your computer consists of.

After a simple and understandable installation of the program, you need to take a few steps.

We start the program:

We choose what we want to restore. Best to choose "Other" to restore all types of files:

Then press "Overview" and choose a flash drive.

"Deep Analysis" allows you to detect more deleted files, even completely overwritten ones. Unfortunately, overwritten files cannot be recovered, but in general this option improves the result, so I always turn it on:

We reserve patience and wait while the program scans the flash drive for deleted files:

After we will see the result. Not all of these files can be recovered - look at the color of the circle to the left of the file name (this is the state of the file).

If the circle is green probably, the file is not damaged, then it will recover completely and open without errors.

Yellow circle — only part of the file will be restored. If you need to recover a deleted term paper or diploma, then this result may be acceptable - pieces of text are better than nothing.

The circle is red - there used to be such a file, there are “mentions” about it, but it will not be possible to restore it (instead of the contents there will be a mess of data that is not related to the desired file).

To select all files, just check the box indicated by the red arrow.

You can sort the results by "Status" or other parameters, mark the necessary files with checkmarks manually.

Click "Reestablish" and specify the folder where we want to restore deleted files. The folder where we want to save the recovered files must be located on any drive, but just not on a flash drive, the files from which we are restoring.

Depending on whether it was possible to restore the files completely (without damage) or only part of them, the report will be different:

4. About partially recovered files

Fully recovered files will open correctly. Partially recovered files - from case to case, depending on the file type. For example, there is a chance to extract several files from damaged archives.

Partially recovered documents most often contain part of the text, which is quite logical. If the document is badly damaged, then there is a chance to pull at least something out of it using special programs. Which ones - see the descriptions in the list. Some programs from that list are designed to “repair” damaged files, some are analogues of Recuva.

When recovering deleted photos, you may encounter a nuisance: corrupted (partially restored files, indicated by a yellow circle in Recuva) image files of the viewer refuse to open. In this case, try opening them in the standard Paint and save through it again (preferably to a new file through "Save As"). Often this helps to restore at least part of the photo, because Paint is able to "digest" partially damaged image files.

Damaged video recordings can be viewed, but with strong artifacts (noise). I recommend using the VLC player as the most unpretentious to the contents of the files.

5. Questions and answers

Question: I want to restore X from device Y. Will Recuva help?

Answer: Until you try, you won't know. Please do not post this question in the comments.

Question: Nothing appeared on the flash drive after the restoration. Did the program not work?

Answer: You didn't read the instructions carefully. All files detected by the program have been restored to the folder you specified on the computer, not on a flash drive.

Question: The program did not restore anything or did not restore all important information. What to do?

Answer: Make sure you did everything right - read the article again. If Recuva does not display a single file found after scanning - either you have chosen the wrong drive for scanning, or the flash drive (or hard drive - depending on what you are recovering data from) has been completely formatted - in this case, there is still a chance to recover files, but for To do this, you will have to contact specialized data recovery companies.

Question: The flash drive asks for formatting or you need to restore data after formatting. What to do?

Answer: If the flash drive opens through Recuva, try to restore through it. If it requires formatting, don't format it! Better use other, more "powerful" (and complex) programs like the free PhotoRec. Such programs ignore the file system, which allows you to find data on a disk with deleted partitions.

Question: Is it possible to recover files from a flash drive that were deleted 2 (3, 4, 5 - whatever number you like) years ago?

Answer: Time doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the fact that the files are overwritten "over" with new data. Those. if something was recorded after deleting the files you need, it may not be possible to restore the files (or partially). You won't know until you try to fix it.

Question: If a file was deleted to the Recycle Bin and then the Recycle Bin was emptied, can the deleted file be recovered?

Answer A: Yes, there is a chance to recover such a file. The Recuva program, which I talked about above, can do this. But there are nuances (applies to all programs for recovering deleted data):

1. If you have deleted a file from the Recycle Bin, remember: on the hard drive (especially the one where Windows is installed), files are constantly being written and overwritten, so there is a very good chance that your file will be overwritten in the near future and its contents will disappear forever. Act fast. If you download Recuva from the Internet, it is better to download it to a USB flash drive - this way there is less chance that the downloaded file will end up exactly on the disk location where the file deleted from the Recycle Bin is located.

2. If you have a second operating system on the wrong disk (or on the wrong computer) where the file was deleted, boot into it and restore the file from there.

3. If the data deleted from the Recycle Bin is really valuable, you should immediately turn off the computer and take its hard drive to a specialized data recovery company. The longer the operating system runs, the less likely it is to recover a valuable file. So it's better to be sure.

Question: Can I use Recuva to recover recordings from a camcorder's hard drive, phone memory, or other devices?

Answer: If the device's memory appears as a hard disk or flash drive when connected, then there is a chance to recover data. Try it - it might work. If you need to recover data from memory cards phone or camera, it is better to connect the card through a card reader. The fact is that when connecting cameras and phones to a computer by wire a flash drive is often defined not as a flash drive, but as a media device that no data recovery program will see. The card reader will allow the card to work like a regular USB flash drive.

Question: Is it possible to recover deleted contacts, SMS from phone using Recuva?

Answer: Not.

Question: Only photos (music, documents - i.e. files of the same type) were recovered from the flash drive. How to restore everything else?

Answer: Make sure you select "Other" in the "File Type" window. Also read the answer to the second question (see above).

Question: The program recovered the files, but some do not open. Is there any way to open them?

Answer: So the files were too badly damaged. As I said in the previous chapter, there are programs for repairing (or rather, “fixing”) damaged files, but the chance of successfully repairing a damaged file is small. So nothing can be done at home.

Question: The program restored the document, but it turned out to be empty. What to do?

Answer: Most likely, the file was too badly damaged. But there is a chance that your document was restored under a different name. In the "File type" window, select "Other", then further check the box "In-depth analysis" and restore all the files that were found, then open all the documents in a row and see their contents. One more thing: if there is no text in the document, but the file is not of zero size, see the previous chapter “About partially restored files” - perhaps the text is still in the document file and it can be restored with programs specially designed for this.

Introduction

Have you ever accidentally deleted documents from flash drives? Have you lost photos from your camera's memory cards? If not, you are a lucky person!

Important! If you deleted a file and want to restore it, do not write anything else to the USB flash drive before the recovery procedure. You can't create folders either. You can't delete anything either.

The more operations performed on the flash drive, the less chance of successful file recovery.

The matter is that actually at deletion the file is not deleted (such here a pun), only its record from the file table disappears. In the future, other information may be written to the location of the file, as a result of which the contents of the file will be irretrievably lost. This is how information is stored both on the hard drive and on flash drives - nothing is immediately deleted. Therefore, the fewer operations performed with a flash drive, the higher the chance to return, it would seem, irretrievably lost.

For fans of video tutorials

At your request, I made a video on how to use the Recuva file recovery program. After viewing, please leave a comment - whether you liked it and whether you should continue to create video versions of your articles.

Check flash drive for viruses

Perhaps the files were not deleted - they were hidden by a virus. That is, the deletion did not occur and you just need to make the files on the flash drive visible.

There are many programs for recovering hidden files from flash drives. I prefer USB Folder Fix.

Download it from the link above, run it as administrator (right-click on the program icon - "Run as administrator"), select the disk in the program (button Browse). Files from the flash drive will appear in the list, among which there may be your "lost". If this is the case (to the right in the file properties column there will be the words "Hidden" and / or "System"), click Yes! Unhide the folders!" And hidden files will appear. The program can be closed, the files are "recovered".

How to recover deleted files: Recuva

Did you accidentally delete or an evil virus cleaned the flash drive - there is a way out in the face of the program Recuva. It will help you recover deleted files from a flash drive (from other drives too).

You can recover data from USB flash drives, memory cards, hard drives, even old floppy disks.

After a simple and understandable installation of the program, you need to take a few steps.

Modern Recuva is slightly different in appearance. For aesthetes, the updated instructions for recovering files with Recuva are here: The instruction below is still relevant, it's just that new version Some of the inscriptions have changed.

We start the program:

We choose what we want to restore. It is best to choose " Other» to recover all types of files:

Select "Other" to find all files

Then press " Overview” and select a flash drive.

« Deep Analysis” allows you to detect more deleted files, even completely overwritten ones. Unfortunately, overwritten files cannot be recovered, but in general this option improves the result:

If you enable "In-Depth Analysis", more deleted files will be found

We reserve patience and wait while the program scans the flash drive for deleted files:

After we will see the result. Not all of these files can be recovered - look at the color of the circle to the left of the file name (this is the state of the file).

If the circle is green - probably, the file is not damaged, then it will recover completely and open without errors.

The circle is yellow - only part of the file will be restored. If you need to recover a deleted term paper or diploma, then this result may be acceptable - pieces of text are better than nothing.

To select all files, just check the box indicated by the red arrow.

You can sort the results by "Status" or other parameters, mark the necessary files with checkmarks manually.

Press " Reestablish” and specify the folder where we want to restore deleted files. The folder where we want to save the recovered files must be located on any drive, but just not on a flash drive, the files from which we are restoring.

Depending on whether it was possible to restore the files completely (without damage) or only part of them, the report will be different:

About partially recovered files

Programs for repairing damaged files Tips there.

Fully recovered files will open correctly. Partially recovered files - on a case-by-case basis, depending on the file type. For example, there is a chance to extract several files from damaged archives.

Partially restored the documents(for example, those created by the Word program) most often contain part of the text, which is quite logical. If the document is badly damaged, then there is a chance to extract at least something from it using special programs. Which ones - see the descriptions in the list. Some of the programs from that list are designed to "repair" damaged files, some are analogues of Recuva.

When restoring deleted photos(Jpeg format) you may run into trouble: corrupted (partially restored files, indicated by a yellow circle in Recuva) image files of the viewer refuse to open. In this case, try opening them in the standard Paint and save through it again (preferably to a new file through "Save As"). Often this helps to restore at least part of the photo, because Paint is able to "digest" partially damaged image files.

Damaged video recordings can be viewed, but with strong artifacts (digital noise). I recommend using the VLC player, it is unpretentious to the contents of the files.

Questions and answers about file recovery

Question: I want to restore X from device Y. Will Recuva help?

Answer: Until you try, you won't know. Please do not post this question in the comments. Only you can find the answer to this question.

Question: Nothing appeared on the flash drive after the restoration. Did the program not work?

Answer: You didn't read the instructions carefully. All files detected by the program are restored to the folder you specified on the computer, not to potentially corrupted media.

Question: The program did not restore anything or did not restore all important information. What to do?

Answer: If Recuva does not display a single found file after scanning - either you chose the wrong disk for scanning, or the data carrier was completely formatted, in this case there is still a chance to return the files from oblivion, but you will have to contact specialized companies.

Question: The flash drive asks for formatting or you need to restore data after formatting. What to do?

Answer: Never format! First, use other programs like freeware (instructions for it below) or. These tools are able to work with disks where the file system is damaged.

Question: The flash drive has become zero size. What to do?

Answer: If this is not a hardware failure, you can pull out the data using, and then the file table.

Question: Is it possible to recover files from a flash drive that were deleted 2 (3, 4, 5 - whatever number you like) years ago?

Answer: Time doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the fact that the files are overwritten "over" with new data. You won't know until you try to fix it.

Question: A file was deleted to the Recycle Bin and then it was emptied, is it possible to cancel emptying the Recycle Bin?

Answer: Yes it is possible. The Recuva program, which I described above, can restore after emptying the Recycle Bin. But there are nuances regarding all programs for recovering deleted data:

1. If the data deleted from the Recycle Bin is really valuable, you should immediately turn off the computer and take its hard drive to a specialized data recovery company. The longer the operating system runs, the less likely it is to recover a valuable file.

2. On the hard drive (especially the one where Windows is installed), files are constantly overwritten, so very there is a good chance that your file will be erased in the near future forever. Therefore, we must act quickly. Ideally, you should turn off the PC and take it to a specialized company. But, if the file is not needed much, you can try to restore it yourself. If you download Recuva from the Internet, save it to a USB flash drive - this way there is less chance that the downloaded file will get to the exact place on the disk where the file deleted from the Recycle Bin is physically located.

3. If you have a second operating system not on the drive where the file was deleted, boot into it and restore the file from there.

Question: Can I use Recuva to recover recordings from a camcorder's hard drive, phone memory, or other devices?

Answer: If the device's memory appears as a hard disk or flash drive when connected, there is a chance to recover data. Try it - it might work. To resurrect data from memory cards phone or camera (not internal memory), connect the card through a card reader. The fact is that when connecting cameras and phones to a computer with a wire, a flash drive is often defined not as a flash drive, but as an MTP media device that no recovery program will see. The card reader will allow the card to work like a regular USB flash drive and file recovery programs will see it.

Question: Can I get back deleted contacts, SMS from my phone using Recuva?

Answer: Not. For an explanation of why it is not possible, see the separate

Question: Only photos (music, documents - i.e. files of the same type) were recovered from the flash drive. How to restore everything else?

Answer: Make sure you select "Other" in the "File Type" window. Also read the answer to the second question

Question: The program recovered the files, but (some) won't open. Is there any way to open them?

Answer: So the files were too badly damaged. As I said in the previous chapter, there are programs for repairing (more precisely, “fixing”) damaged files, but the chance of successfully repairing a damaged file is small. So nothing can be done at home.

Question: The program restored the document, it turned out to be empty or with abracadabra inside. What to do?

Answer: Most likely, the file was too badly damaged. But there is a chance that your document was restored under a different name. In the "File type" window, select "Other", then further check the box "In-depth analysis" and restore all the files that were found, then open all the documents in a row and see their contents. One more point: if there is no text in the document, but the file is not of zero size, see the previous chapter “About partially restored files” - perhaps the text is still in the document file and it can be restored with programs specially designed for this.

Question: The program saw only photos, it does not see other types of files. What to do?

Answer: In the Recuva Wizard, select "Other" instead of "Pictures".

Question: Where can I find these "specialized data recovery firms" you speak of?

Answer: Search using Google or Yandex - suddenly there is one in your city. Ask about the service at service centers where computer equipment is repaired.

Question: Does Recuva restore videos/photos/music/anything else normally?

Answer: Successful recovery of files erased from a flash drive does not depend on file type. However, there are specialized programs that can “repair” partially restored files of a certain type so that at least part of the data can be “pulled out”. For example, it will be possible to see at least a piece of a photo, a part of a video frame. I won’t give examples of specialized software, because almost all such programs are paid, I can’t test it. For example, they may turn out to be Unfortunately, free Recuva cannot do this - it restores the data that remains on the storage medium without trying to “repair” the contents of damaged files.

Question: I want to open a flash drive, some kind of error comes out. What to do?

Answer: There are many reasons for such problems. Use Google or Yandex to find a solution.

Question: "Path too long" error when saving recovered data.

Answer: Save all data to a folder at the root of the drive. For example, create a "Recovered" folder on the C: drive and save the recovered files there.

Question: Recuva found photos that were a month old, but recently deleted ones didn't. What to do?

Answer: Most likely, after deleting, you wrote down some kind of file that “overlapped” the recently deleted files, erasing them forever. Try to recover with another program - PhotoRec, link below. If it does not find it, it means that there is no chance to recover such files.

When the flash drive asks for formatting (recovery with TestDisk)

With storage devices, something worse than deleting files can happen. The file table may be damaged, due to which, instead of opening the flash drive, a window will appear asking you to format the disk:

This means that the operating system cannot understand what kind of file system is used on the flash drive. Formatting the disk is a radical solution. A new file table is created, where there will be no records of the old data. Simply put, the flash drive will be clean. Naturally, you do not need this, because there are important files on the flash drive!

If suddenly you still formatted the flash drive and it is visible as an empty disk, you can scan it using the program above, maybe there is something. But if nothing has been done with the flash drive yet, there is a chance to open a damaged file table and copy the files to the hard drive using the TestDisk program. Also, I will tell you, how to restore the available volume of a flash drive, if it has decreased due to file system errors.

1. Download TestDisk (backup link for version 7.1) and unzip to any folder.

2. In the folder with TestDisk, create a folder where the files from the damaged flash drive will be copied later. The name doesn't matter, 11111 will do.

3. Run the program from the unpacked folder testdisk_win.

4. At the first stage, the program will ask the question - should you write your actions to a log file?

The mouse does not work in the program, control the keyboard in the English layout. Press the down arrow ↓ to select an item no log and press Enter.

5. Then TestDisk will ask you to choose which disk to work with. It is important not to make a mistake, otherwise you will waste your time.

Usually flash drives are defined as "Generic Mass-Storage". Portable hard drives - "Generic External". The disk size is also visible in the list. Therefore, if you do not have 100500 flash drives connected at the same time, you will not be mistaken. Use the keyboard arrows ↓ to select the desired drive, then press Enter.

6. The program will ask for the type of stored file tables, in 99% of cases this is the first item - Intel, so just press Enter.

7. Then there are several operations to choose from - Analyze (search for remote file systems, helps after formatting), Advanced (work with existing file tables) and others. To get started you need Advanced, because, perhaps, the file table has not gone anywhere, although it is damaged.

8. Use the up and down arrows on the keyboard to select a disk partition. Usually there is only one, but there are exceptions. For example, computer hard drives contain a lot of partitions - drive C:, D:, boot, backup, and so on.

When you select with the up and down arrows, the action bar at the bottom of the window, depending on the file system of the partition, changes. Do you need an item Undelete. Selected with left-right arrows ←→ . After selecting a partition and action, press Enter.

9. A list of files and folders in the partition will open. You can navigate the disk using the arrows and pressing Enter. Items "." and ".." at the top of the list of each folder - return back.

Action buttons:

a- select all files.
: - select only the selected file/folder (on which the cursor is hovering).
q- go back to the partition selection or cancel the restore action.
h- switch the view mode - whether to show the found deleted files (they are red in the list) or only the existing ones.
Shift+c- copy the selected files to the hard drive.
c- copy the selected file/folder.

When you are in the root folder (immediately after selecting the partition), click h to hide deleted files (most likely they are corrupted and will not open), then a to select all files and folders on the flash drive, then Shift+C.

Right after pressing Shift+C copying will not start. You need to select a folder where to copy the data. This is where the folder you created in step 2 inside the TestDisk folder comes in handy. Select it with the arrows and press C. The process will go:

Then you can simply close the program, all files from the flash drive will be in the selected folder.

10. If on 7 -th stage, after pressing the Advanced button, you do not have a list of partitions (you never know, you suddenly formatted the disk), recovering deleted files will be difficult. Then instead of Advanced you need a section Analyze, which will start searching for remote file tables.

In the next window, there will most likely be no partitions, they have not yet been found:

Click Enter(in the panel below, the action “Quick Search” is selected by default, which is what we need), wait for the search to complete. With any luck, the filesystems will be found and appear in the list:

There is important point. Using TestDisk, you can restore the file table immediately on the disk, then it will open normally through the "Computer" folder. This is what is advised to do in some instructions for data recovery via TestDisk. I, on the other hand, do not recommend doing so. You never know why the disk partition was lost? Suddenly, with a flash drive, hardware problems and data are recorded with distortion, then any attempt to write can completely ruin the existing files. That's why The best way- use arrows ↓ to select a section, press P to view and act as in paragraph 9 - select all folders and files, copy them to your computer's hard drive.

How to format a flash drive (and return the full volume)

When the data is copied to the hard drive of the computer and you are convinced that everything is in order with the files, you can format the USB flash drive and use it as usual.

Formatting method No. 1 (simple).

Open the "Computer" folder, right-click on the flash drive - Format - button Begin. Ready!

Formatting method No. 2 (more difficult).

The first method will not always work. The file system can be damaged so much that the operating system does not understand what size to make the partition. It looks like this:

In the formatting window, in the "Capacity" item there will be only the item "Capacity unknown" or size smaller the actual size of the flash drive. When you try to start formatting, a window will appear "Windows cannot complete formatting."

What to do? Only recreate all file tables. To do this, Windows has a Disk Management tool. In Windows 10, it is launched through right-clicking on the Start menu button - Disk Management, in older operating systems is located in the Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Disk Management.

At the bottom of the window of this program, find your flash drive, right-click on the sections (rectangles with a blue stripe, there may be several) - Delete section.

Then, when all partitions are deleted, only unallocated space will remain on the flash drive, displayed as a rectangle with a black bar on top. Call its menu with the right button - Create a simple volume.

The file system, if it is a flash drive for your phone or you do not need to store files larger than 4 gigabytes on it, you need to select FAT32. However, for flash drives in this window, the choice of other file systems is not available.

If your goal is to transfer large files between computers, you need to format the USB flash drive in the NTFS or exFAT file system. This can be done later by right-clicking on the partition rectangle and selecting Format.

The cluster size can be left at the default. Volume label - the name of the flash drive, which is visible in the "Computer" folder. You can leave the "Quick Format" checkbox unchecked, then only the area where the file system is stored will be overwritten on the flash drive. Files during quick formatting physically remain on the flash drive, but will not be visible and will soon be overwritten with new data.

12. If you can't even format using method #2, It means that the flash drive ordered to live. This often happens with MicroSD cards for phones, memory cells run out of read / write resources and write to them is blocked.

Other programs to recover deleted files from flash drives

Need to recover files from a USB flash drive? Wondering how to recover deleted documents after formatting a USB flash drive?

IN modern world Information has become a part of everyone's life. Today, most of the documentation and photographs are stored on electronic media, a computer can replace entire rooms that would be needed to store archives, and even libraries. Increasingly, information refers to something that is stored specifically in in electronic format. All this is convenient, practical and rational.

But just as the data accumulated over the years could be destroyed in an instant, for example, by a fire, today, in even shorter periods of time, tons of information can be destroyed due to a virus attack, hardware failure, or careless disk formatting.

However, if it is not always possible to recover data after a fire, then problems with the disappearance of electronic data are actually easily resolved.

Wherever your information is stored: on a hard drive, on a flash drive or memory card of a camera, or on any other medium, data recovery programs will help you get back all your lost files.

Similar software, by the way, can be useful not only in case of loss a large number data due to electronic natural disaster". It is enough to lose one very important document or, say, your favorite photograph, and you cannot do without the help of a data recovery program. Now imagine that the most important document was stored only on your flash drive (USB), and you have not yet managed to transfer that very favorite photograph from the camera's memory card to the computer. The slightest malfunction in the operation of a removable storage medium - and the problem of data recovery from a flash drive becomes your number one problem.

So that this problem does not take you by surprise, consider downloading a recovery program from flash drives.

RS Partition Recovery is a professional file recovery from a flash drive and any other electronic media. The program will return the lost data to you, in whatever format they are stored. Just a few simple steps, which even an inexperienced PC user can master, and the necessary files are again at your disposal.

But remember, in order for data recovery from a flash drive to be really successful, you need to use only proven programs for recovering from flash drives. RS Partition Recovery is trusted by many users. After all, it really restores files from flash drives and USB, camera memory cards (Compact Flash, xD, sD, Memory Stick), hard disk. At the same time, it is focused specifically on working with images, reads information from removable media faster, and therefore recovers data from a flash drive with better quality.

Protect yourself from accidental disappearance of data from a flash drive or from a computer's fixed memory, let the recovery of files from a flash drive and hard drive be a simple task for you and does not require special efforts. Download RS Partition Recovery now.

Recovery Software

Or find it missing required documents, stop writing data to this media first. The fact is that the standard procedure for deleting files involves only erasing their headers and preparing the file system to write new data to the same place. Connect to the computer and make sure that it is confidently recognized by the operating system as a removable disk.

Install any data utility. If the files were deleted recently and their importance is not great, then recovery can be done using free software solutions. One of the free programs for recovering data from removable media is the Easy Drive Data Recovery utility, designed specifically for flash cards and using special algorithms to recover data from such media. You can download Easy Drive Data Recovery from the link http://www.munsoft.ru/EasyDriveDataRecovery/articles/flash_card_data_rec....

Run the program and start the process of recovering deleted files. To do this, in the program window, select the area that will be analyzed by it (in this case, a removable disk). After scanning flash drives the program will display a list of files available for recovery and brief information about each of them. An important point in this case will be the probability of recovering a particular file. Make sure that the file you need will be restored with a high probability and click the "Restore" button. After that, select the location where it should be saved. Please note that you can only restore a file to another drive, that is, a file from flash drives must be saved to a directory on the hard drive.

Sources:

recover deleted data on flash drive

A file that was recently deleted from the computer was suddenly needed urgently. Don't get upset ahead of time. There are several simple ways to return the desired file safe and sound.

You will need

Computer, Recuva or Objectrescue Pro.

Instruction

If you deleted files by pressing the Del button on , or using the "Delete" item in the command menu, then you did not delete them completely, but only sent them to the Windows trash. It's kind of, defense mechanism operating system from ill-considered actions of the user. The Recycle Bin is a special one in which files are to be deleted. They will be in the trash until you decide with these files. They can be restored or completely removed. To restore, you need to do the following. Double-click on the "Trash" icon. Here you will see the files that have been deleted. Select the desired file and click on it with the right mouse button. In the list of commands that appears, select "Restore". The file from the "Recycle Bin" will disappear, but will appear in the folder in which it was before deletion.

You may have deleted the file from, that is, you deleted it from the Recycle Bin. In this case, you can recover data using one of the special programs. Some of them are paid and some are free. As a rule, paid ones are distinguished by an additional set of functions and a more convenient interface. Let's take a look at both types of the free Recuva program and the paid Objectrescue Pro.

Download the Recuva setup file, install it and run the program. After clicking the "Next" button, you will be taken to the program window, in which you can select the types of files to recover. After selecting the file type, go to the window in which you can mark the drive on which the desired file was located. Click on the "Analyze" icon next to the selected drive. You will be prompted with a list of files that can be recovered. Tick the ones you need and confirm with the "Restore" button. An additional window will appear in which you will have to choose a location to save the file. Click "OK" and wait for a message about successful recovery. The file has been restored.

Launch the pre-installed and activated Objectrescue Pro program. In the window that appears, click "Next". You will be taken to the area of the program, which contains the disks of your computer. Select the one on which the erased data was located and confirm the choice with the "Next" button. In the next window, you can select the types of files you want to search. Check the boxes for the types you want. Proceed to the next step by clicking "Next". You are offered to choose from two types of disk space scanning. The first option "Scan only free space" is much faster than the second, but the chances of finding a file using it are lower. Click next and you will be taken to the window for choosing where to save the recovered data. You need to choose a folder for saving on any other disk, except for the one on which you are looking for files. Also here there is a check mark in front of the item for automatic file recovery. You can use this item only when searching for a small number of files. Otherwise, the recovery process may take a long time. Click the "Next" button and observe the process of searching for files. When the search is completed, you can go to the list of found files that can be restored. File icons are labeled