Full flash drive recovery. Scanning and repairing bad sectors on a removable drive

Full flash drive recovery. Scanning and repairing bad sectors on a removable drive
Full flash drive recovery. Scanning and repairing bad sectors on a removable drive
27.08.2020

The failure of a flash drive is a nuisance that can happen for various reasons. Moisture, age, intensive use, a powerful electromagnetic field, and, most often, abnormal removal of a flash drive from a connector are the factors that lead to the inability to copy or write data, or even to the fact that the volume of a flash drive is defined as 0 MB. Depending on the causes of the failure, the drive also needs to be “healed” in different ways.

With age, the memory cells of some flash drives stop accumulating or storing charge. In this case, programs come to the rescue that check all the cells in turn and format the flash drive with the removal of “bad sectors” from the partition table.

Algorithm for restoring the health of a flash drive

Flash drives on which all files suddenly stopped opening (or simply “disappeared”, turning into “hidden”) are treated with ordinary anti-virus scanners.

If the antiviruses did not help, you should copy the files known to the user from the USB flash drive and format it, thus removing the viruses. Copy hidden files possible through any file manager. You can also do this using Windows tools, for this you need:

Open the window -> "Folder Options" (in Windows 7 you need to look for it at the top of the folder window in the "Organize" menu), go to the tab -> "View" and select -> "Show hidden files and folders" in the list of advanced options.

After that, the files will become visible and they can be copied (you just need to be careful not to grab the virus file along with photos and documents).

Finally, drives from which, due to incorrect extraction or through negligence, were removed required files, are "treated" by programs for data recovery.

HDD Low Level Format Tool

The most famous such utility, it is extremely simple to use, after installation and launch, you just need to select a USB flash drive from the list.

Click -> "Continue" by going to the tab -> "LOW-LEVEL FORMAT" click -> "Format this device".

The program performs formatting with clearing the partition table and blocking corrupted memory cells, which allows you to restore the drive even in cases where it cannot be formatted using Windows tools. If the problem is not resolved after such formatting, or the flash drive is not detected by the computer at all, a breakdown has probably occurred.

Such failures are solved only with the involvement of hardware tricks (in other words, closing contacts directly).

Hetman Uneraser-Recovery

Program for recovering deleted data. The utility allows you to view a list of files deleted from logical drive user, and save the recovered files to a folder specified by the user.

The program recovers not only accidentally deleted files, but also files lost as a result of: formatting the storage medium, virus "attack", equipment or failure software.

Any user can recover files from a flash drive using this utility, even if they are not familiar with a computer.

R-studio

Using the latest unique information analysis technology, the utility allows you to quickly and efficiently recover lost data from damaged, formatted, reformatted or remote drive any local or remote computer regardless of the system used.

R-Studio allows you to recover information in file systems: NTFS, NTFS5, ReFS, FAT12/16/32, exFAT, HFS/HFS+ (Macintosh), Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris) and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4FS (Linux).

DiskDigger

A program for recovering accidentally deleted data from a media, as well as for recovering damaged files and folders as a result of a virus attack.

The program scans the media and analyzes the structure of the data that the system considers deleted.

Using its own data recovery technique, the program can revive lost files (videos, photos, music, documents, etc.), but only if the information has not yet been overwritten.

Recuva

A free utility that provides users with a powerful and easy-to-use tool for recovering lost (due to software failure or deleted) data.

Easy to use, does not require special knowledge for successful use.

Recuva has a younger brother Recuva Portable, this version of the program is specially designed to work with removable media, in our case it is a flash drive.

How programs work

After installing and running the application, you need to select a physical disk for recovery, if the flash drive is operational, its name will be displayed correctly, otherwise you can “recognize” the drive by volume. Then you need to select the type of scan: full or partial, only for files of a certain type. If data is restored after formatting, the filenames are usually lost.

In some programs, such as DiscDigger, you can view "thumbnails" of found files to decide whether to restore them in their entirety. Other applications immediately find and "glue" pieces of information.

Utilities created by their manufacturers are useful for recovering flash drives. Particularly effective Jet Flash Recovery Tool, which allows you to format and block "bad sectors" of most Transcend flash drives.

Good time!

Not uncommon with SD cards and USB flash drive All sorts of troubles happen: either they are not read, then copying takes too long, then various kinds of errors appear (what, what formatting is required, etc.). And sometimes it happens out of the blue...

In this article, I want to recommend a dozen utilities that have helped me out more than once or twice. With their help, you can work with flash drives and drives different manufacturers(Silicon Power, Kingston, Transcend, etc.), i.e. it is a universal software. I think the material will come in handy for everyone who periodically encounters similar problems.

For testing and diagnostics

CrystalDiskMark

A very useful little utility. Allows you to quickly get data on the speed of reading / writing. Supports not only USB flash drives, but also classic HDD, SSD, external hard disks and other drives (which "Windows" sees).

Note: in most cases, they are guided by the first line "Sec" (sequential write read speed). Read - reading, Write - recording.

USB Flash Benchmark

Developer site: http://usbflashspeed.com/

Another utility for testing the speed of flash drives. It allows you to get not only some numbers, but also compare them with other drives (i.e. evaluate your flash drive with other device models). This can be done due to the fact that the test results are stored on the site of the same name (along with flash drive models).

By the way! If you decide to buy a fast flash drive - just go to the site http://usbflashspeed.com/ and see the top 10. This way you can get what other people have already experienced in practice!

h2testw

A small utility from German programmers. Designed to scan USB drives for their real volume (approx. : some flash drives, for example, from Chinese manufacturers, come with a "fake" oversized volume) . In these cases, it is enough to run the flash drive with H2testw, and then format it correctly.

How to find out the real volume of a flash drive and restore its performance (using H2testw) -

Flash Memory Toolkit

Flash Memory Toolkit is a good complex for servicing USB devices. Allows you to perform a range of the most necessary actions:

  1. testing drives for read and write errors;
  2. data recovery from flash drives;
  3. viewing properties and characteristics;
  4. the ability to create a backup flash drive;
  5. low-level drive speed test.

Flashnul

Developer site: http://shounen.ru/

This program can diagnose and fix many software errors(especially when it is not clear what is happening with the flash drive at all: i.e. no errors are displayed). In addition, it supports almost all flash media: usb flash drives, CompactFlash, SD, MMC, MS, XD, etc.

Possibilities:

  1. read and write testing: the availability of each sector of the media will be checked;
  2. checking the integrity of files on the USB drive;
  3. the ability to make an image of the contents on a flash drive (may be useful for data recovery);
  4. the possibility of sector-by-sector recording of an image on USB device;
  5. some operations can be performed for other types of media: HDD, CD, Floppy disk, etc.

ChipEasy

Free and very simple utility for complete information about the flash drive. It is very useful in cases where the marking on the flash drive itself has been erased (or it was not there at all).

What data does ChipEasy provide:

  1. VID
  2. manufacturer;
  3. controller model;
  4. serial number;
  5. firmware information;
  6. memory model;
  7. Max. current consumption, etc.

flash drive information

The utility is similar to the previous one. Allows you to find out all the information about the drive (flash drive, memory card) in 2 clicks: model, controller, memory, etc.

For formatting and repair

HDD Low Level Format Tool

Program for low-level* formatting hard drives, SD cards, flash drives and other drives. I would note its "unpretentiousness": even if other utilities freeze when trying to access the flash drive (or they don't see it), HDD Low Level Format Tool can help in most cases...

Peculiarities:

  1. most manufacturers (Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, etc.) and interfaces (SATA, IDE, USB, SCSI, Firewire) are supported;
  2. when formatting, absolutely all information from the disk is cleared (partition table, MBR);
  3. recovering information from a disk after formatting with the help of HDD Low Level Format Tool is almost impossible!

MyDiskFix

A free small utility designed for low-level formatting of bad flash drives. It will come in handy in cases where your flash drive cannot be formatted using standard Windows tools, when the flash drive shows an erroneous volume, or a write error occurs.

Note: before formatting in MyDiskFix, you need to find out how many real-working sectors are on your flash drive. This can be done, for example, using the H2Test utility (which was given above).

USB Disk Storage Format Tool

A small utility for formatting HDD/USB Flash drives (supported file systems: NTFS, FAT, FAT32). By the way, the USB Disk Storage Format Tool does not require installation, it does not freeze if it works with bad flash drives, from which it takes minutes to wait for a response (like, for example, the standard formatting utility in Windows).

Peculiarities:

  • fast and secure formatting of the drive;
  • when full formatting through the utility, all data from the flash drive is deleted (later, not a single file from it can be restored);
  • scan the drive for errors;
  • creating partitions with the FAT 32 file system larger than 32 GB;
  • tested with 1000 different flash drives (Compact Flash, CF Card II, Memory Stick Duo Pro, SDHC, SDXC, Thumb Drive, etc.), and various manufacturers (HP, Sony, Lexar, Imation, Toshiba, PNY, ADATA, etc.). ).

Format USB Or Flash Drive Software

A specialized utility for working with faulty USB drives. Allows you to format and restore the flash drive. I would also note its very simple interface (see the screen above), and the ability to work without installation.

Peculiarities:

  • file systems support: FAT, FAT32, eXFAT, NTFS;
  • simple and convenient interface;
  • the possibility of full and quick formatting;
  • the ability to "see" drives that Explorer refuses to "show";
  • the ability to integrate into the Windows menu;
  • compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10.

Transcend RecoveRx

Multifunctional program: allows you to recover files from flash drives, format them, and protect them with a password. In general, this program is designed for flash drives from the manufacturer Transcend, but I can not help but note that the formatting option also works for flash drives from other manufacturers.

RecoveRx is quite an "omnivorous" program: it supports USB flash drives, memory cards, MP3 players, external hard drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs).

JetFlash Recovery Tool

This utility will help in cases where standard Windows tools just do not see the flash drive. Only Transcend, JetFlash and A-DATA USB flash drives are officially supported (many more unofficially).

Important! Keep in mind that the program in the process of repairing (restoring) a flash drive produces complete removal all data from it! If you have the opportunity to save something from a faulty flash drive - do it.

Peculiarities:

  1. simple and free utility(only 2 buttons!);
  2. compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10 (also works with older OS Windows XP, 2000 (other OS - not guaranteed));
  3. only 3 manufacturers are officially supported: Transcend, A-DATA and JetFlash;
  4. automatic recovery of the drive (the user needs to press only 1 button);
  5. low system requirements;
  6. no utility installation required.

SD Formatter

Formatting a Canon SD card in SD Formatter

This utility is designed to repair and restore memory cards: SD, SDHC, SDXC, microSD. The developers have specially oriented their product for the needs of photographers, video operators, and specialists in the maintenance of such equipment.

Drive recovery occurs in auto mode. Suitable in a variety of cases: errors in the software, virus infection, failures, due to misuse, etc.

Note: in the process of working with a flash drive - SD Formatter will delete all data from it!

D-Soft Flash Doctor

small portable program for diagnostics and repair of broken flash drives ( low-level formatting, soft reset). In addition, he can create images from flash drives / memory cards and write them to other storage media.

The program supports the Russian language (since the developer is from Kazakhstan), and is compatible with all modern Windows 7, 8, 10 operating systems.

To recover files from a flash drive

R. Saver

Easy to use recovery software deleted files With various types media: hard drives, memory cards, flash drives, etc. Can be used for various errors, file system failures, after formatting, virus infection, etc.

Supports file NTFS systems, FAT and ExFAT. For residents of Russia (when used for non-commercial purposes) the program is free.

Important!

You can learn more about working with R.Saver in the article on how to recover photos from microSD cards memory or USB flash drive -

Recuva

A file recovery program from the developers of CCleaner (the famous utility for Windows cleaning from junk files).

Recuva allows you to work not only with HDD, but also with USB flash drives, external drives, SSD, memory cards. The program is aimed at a novice user, so its use is very simple.

Peculiarities:

  1. all actions in the program are performed in steps;
  2. 2 modes for scanning drives;
  3. sorting files by their name, size, status, etc.;
  4. the utility is free;
  5. Russian is supported;
  6. compatible with Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 (32/64 bits).

MiniTool Power Data Recovery

A very powerful program (with unique scanning algorithms) that will allow you to recover data from broken flash drives, memory cards, external drives, CDs, and other drives. Popular file systems are supported: FAT 12/16/32, NTFS.

From myself, I note that in my humble opinion, the algorithms of the program are actually different from other programs of a similar kind, tk. several times with its help it was possible to recover information when other software simply did not find anything ...

Note : in free version MiniTool Power Data Recovery can only recover 1 GB of information.

Addition!

At all similar programs enough ( approx. : which can scan the drive and recover some of the deleted files). In one of my previous articles, I already cited a dozen of the most successful free products(most of them work not only with classic HDDs, but also with flash drives). I post a link to the article below.

10 free programs to recover deleted data: files, documents, photos -

That's all for now. Additions on useful and interesting utilities are always welcome.

Downloading free programs to repair flash drives, you can restore and restore the ability to use it for writing and reading again.

In this case, you will have to sacrifice data, which then, perhaps, cannot be restored.

But the alternative to using these applications is both non-working and lack of information.

Problem Diagnosis

The main signs that a flash drive needs repair are:

  • Issuing messages about protecting the USB-drive from copying or about an unidentified device;
  • The impossibility of determining the drive by any computer;
  • Absence in the list of disks;
  • The impossibility of reading (and, of course, writing) information;
  • Failed when trying to repair or format.

Sometimes the problem may lie in the USB connector or the lack of drivers on a particular computer. But, when problems are noted on each device, most likely the matter is in the drive.

Utilities for flash drives

You can try to restore the functionality of the USB drive using system utilities.

But when the problem is serious the best option will be restored through a program specifically designed for repair.

Some manufacturers release their own applications that best deal with the repair of these particular brands.

Although they can be used to restore a USB drive of any brand.

Advice: Special programs are designed for repair, not for restoration. Extracting information using them is not recommended.

JetFlash Online Recovery

To recover non-working Transcend drives, the manufacturer has created special utility, which can be found and downloaded for free on its official website.

Adata

The manufacturer Adata on the official website also has a freely available USB recovery program.

In some cases, the application manages to save some of the data, even if the USB drive has been formatted .

Recovery, unlike most of these programs, is subject not only to video, audio and photo files, but also Word documents, e-books and tables.

Universal programs

In addition to specialized software that mainly repairs drives of its own brand, there are several applications that can restore working condition most devices.

One of them is D-Soft Flash Doctor, which provides the following benefits:

  • Menu and documentation in Russian;
  • Lack of localization for individual brands;
  • Creating a flash disk image for further work not over the drive, but over its virtual copy.

The following programs, not so well known, but also free and quite effective, are:

  • ChipEasy, which can not only easily restore a flash drive, but also recognize the manufacturer if its name is not written on the case or has been erased over time;

    • Now it remains only to find the corresponding program in the Chip Model column, paying attention to the match of the controllers.

    You can find and download it for free on the Internet.

    The principle of operation for all of them is approximately the same - more emphasis on restoring performance, less on saving data.

    Thematic video:

    How to recover a flash drive that does not start? it is very easy!

    The best free programs for repairing flash drives

USB flash drive is not recognized as a disk when connected to a computer or laptop? Can't you write anything on it? And even formatting the flash drive does not work? Basically, all is not lost. Most likely, the problem lies in the controller. But we'll fix it. And everything will take a maximum of 5-10 minutes.

The only caveat is that restoring the performance of a flash drive is possible only if it does not have any mechanical damage (+ it displayed in device manager). That is, if you disabled it not through "Safely Remove" (or something like that), then this can be fixed. At the very least, it's worth at least trying to restore a non-working flash drive.

How to restore the performance of a flash drive

Even if it seems that the USB flash drive has come to an end, you should not take it in for repair. And even more so throw it away. First, you can try to recover a damaged flash drive.

The instruction works for all USB flash drives: Silicon Power, Kingston, Transcend, Data Traveler, A-Data, etc. It can be used to restore the file system and fix any problems (except for mechanical damage).

So, the first thing you need to do is determine the parameters of the USB flash drive. Or rather, its VID and PID. Based on this information, you can determine the brand of the controller, and then choose a utility that will help restore a damaged flash drive.

To find out these parameters, do the following:

  1. Connect the flash drive to a PC or laptop and go to Start - Control Panel - Device Manager.
  2. Find the "USB Controllers" section.
  3. Double click on it and look for "USB Mass Storage Device". This is your flash drive (I remind you that it must be connected to the computer).
  4. Right click on it and select "Properties".
  5. In the new window, go to the "Details" tab.
  6. In the "Property" field, select the item "Hardware ID" (or "Instance Code").

  7. See the VID and PID values ​​and remember them.
  8. Next, go to the site http://flashboot.ru/iflash/, enter your values ​​​​at the top of the site and click the "Search" button ("Search").
  9. Look for the model of your USB flash drive (by manufacturer and amount of memory). In the right column "Utils" there will be the name of the program with which you can try to restore a non-working flash drive.

After that, it remains to find this utility by name or follow the link (if any) and download it.

Restoring Kingstone, Silicon Power, Transcend and other models is easy: just run the program and follow the instructions.

What to do if you have not found a suitable utility for your model? To do this, go to Google or Yandex and write something like this: “Silicon Power 4 GB VID 090C PID 1000” (of course, you should specify the parameters of your flash drive here). And then look what the search engine found.

Never use programs that are not suitable for the VID and PID parameters of your controller! Otherwise, you will “kill” the flash drive completely, and it will no longer be possible to restore it.

In most cases, recovering a damaged flash drive is successful. And after that it will be determined when connected to a PC or laptop.

This is how you repair a flash drive with your own hands using a free utility.

And most importantly: in this way it is possible to restore a damaged flash drive in 80% of cases. While most specialized programs may not be able to cope with this task.