How to Use Flash Drive Repair Tool to Fix Corrupted USB and Recover Data

We use USB Flash drives in storing important data on the go so we can easily access them anytime and anywhere. Unfortunately, there are times when this reliable device fails and we can no longer open it and access the data we have saved. When this happens, we need to fix the corrupted USB by using a flash drive repair tool and also recover data.

USB flash drives are convenient devices we can carry and store data either for work or personal. However, the more frequent we use it and connect to different computers, the more it is prone to file corruption or damaged USBs.

Most of these issues are actually easy to fix as long as you take action immediately, otherwise, your drive might be beyond repair. Today, we will learn how to fix corrupted USB and recover data from your flash drives.

Part 1. Recover Files from USB Flash Drive via Data RecoveryPart 2. Flash Drive Repair Tool With CHKDSK CMDPart 3. Fix USB Errors Using Windows Flash Drive Repair ToolPart 4. Flash Drive Repair Tool on Mac ComputersPart 5. Reformat USB on Mac and WindowsPart 6. Summary

Part 1. Recover Files from USB Flash Drive via Data Recovery

Corrupted or damaged USB drives usually happen when we remove the device from a computer without properly un-mounting or ejecting it. Frequent improper removing of flash drives can result in unreadable data and later on demands formatting.

If your flash drive does not have any physical damages like broken cases or ports and you sure that you have corrupted software and unable to open it once connected to a computer, then this article is for you.

Before we proceed with fixing your USB flash drives, we highly recommend that you recover your data first because most flash drive repair tools actually cause data loss.

If you have tons of files saved, you might lose all of them if you are going to head over to fix the issue right away. Although, some troubleshooting methods do not require formatting, which is good if you happen to find them out earlier but the most effective ones actually need you to format the device in order to resolve the issue.

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To keep your file safe, use FoneDog Data Recovery, it is an essential toolkit that lets you recover data from the corrupted or damaged USB and store them to your computer. You can extract most file types such as your documents, media files, and more.

It only takes a few steps to recover your data with FoneDog Data Recovery, here is how:

1. Install FoneDog Data Recovery and launch it on your computer
2. Connect the damaged or corrupted USB flash drive. The software will automatically detect the USB as an external or removable drive. Check the box beside your flash drive name and click on Scan. FoneDog Data Recovery uses two types of scanning, the quick scan, and the deep scan mode. You can opt to use the quick scan mode.
3. After scanning, you can now see all the files you have saved inside your USB. You can now select all of them or choose a few and click the Recover button to save them on your computer. If your files are incomplete, you can run a re-scan and select the deep scan mode.

And that’s all you need to recover your files on the damaged USB. Since you have already recovered your data, you can now proceed to fix it using a flash drive repair tool.

Part 2. Flash Drive Repair Tool With CHKDSK CMD

Microsoft computers use the CHKDSK CMD or the Check Disk Command to review the file system and the status of the computer’s hard drives in a DOS environment. This method is more in-depth when it comes to getting feedback from the system to help you understand and verify the issue.

Here’s how to use CHKDSK utility:

1. Connect your USB flash drive to your computer and enter cmd in the search bar just beside the Start button
2. Find the cmd.exe and right-click and choose to run as Administrator
3. Type in chkdsk /X /f G: or you can also enter chkdsk G: /f. Replace the letter G with the drive letter of your USB
4. Wait until the system scans and repairs the corrupted device. You can see from the result if the issue has been fixed along with the complete assessment.

Test your USB and check if the issue has been resolved.

Part 3. Fix USB Errors Using Windows Flash Drive Repair Tool

If you find the first method too technical and complicated, you can also use Window’s built-in flash drive repair tool. Windows uses Disk Error Checking to scan the status of the given file system and troubleshoots it when it finds out any discrepancies on the disk.

Follow this guide on how to run the Windows Disk Error tool:

1. Plugin the USB flash drive on the computer and click This PC
2. Locate your USB drive usually under Removable storage and then right-click and go to Properties
3. Go to the Tools tab and then click Check under Error Checking
4. Select Scan and Repair Drive. Allow Windows to run a thorough scan and troubleshoot the flash drive. Do not disconnect the USB while this process is ongoing and the scanning might take a while before it will be completed.

Although this method is similar to the first, running the Windows Disk Error Checking is more convenient for those people who don’t have a technical background. You can use both methods if needed.

What to Do If Windows Does Not Recognize The Corrupted USB?

The above resolution is only applicable to USB flash drives that are recognized by Windows. If by any chance, yours is not recognized, you simply need to reinstall or fix the USB driver.

To Reinstall USB Driver:

1. Plugin the USB flash drive and open the Device Manager. You can right-click the start button and choose Device Manager.
2. Navigate to Disk Drives and right-click on your USB flash drive name and select Uninstall
3. Unplug the flash drive and restart the computer
4. Reconnect the flash drive to the computer and wait until Windows automatically installs the USB driver

Part 4. Flash Drive Repair Tool on Mac Computers

Mac users can also perform a flash drive repair using basic and built-in tools. The Disk Utility on Mac is helpful especially in scanning and deleting, formatting internal and external disks.

To repair USB errors on a Mac, you can make use of the First Aid in Disk Utility under recovery mode. Check out these steps on how to perform this method:

1. Connect the USB on your Mac
2. Restart your Mac and while it’s an ongoing reboot, press Command + R. This will allow your device to into Recovery mode
3. Under Mac Utilities, select Disk Utility
4. Choose your USB flash drive under the External storage and click First Aid
5. Click Run on the notification window and wait until the process is complete

Close the Disk Utility after the repair and drag the USB icon from the desktop to the Trash folder. Un-mount the USB flash drive from Mac.

Part 5. Reformat USB on Mac and Windows

Reformatting also helps resolve all the common issues on a USB flash drive. However, reformatting is a drastic move and will cause severe data loss since it will wipe out all stored data.

You can perform this method as your last resort or if the above-mentioned troubleshooting did not help you fix the issue.

Reformatting can be done on both Mac and Windows computers. Find out how:

Via Disk Utility

The Disk Utility can also reformat the USB Flash drive to fix errors.

1. Plugin the corrupted USB to your Mac
2. Open Disk Utility and select the USB drive
3. Click Erase from the top menu under Disk Utility
4. Provide the required details including the file format, flash drive size, and more.
5. Confirm the action by clicking Erase and wait for the process to finish

Via Windows

There are many ways to reformat a USB flash drive on a Windows computer but the easiest way would be using the File Explorer.

1. Connect your USB drive to your computer
2. Locate the USB drive on the left sidebar of the file explorer
3. Right-click and choose Format
4. Enter the required information on the popup window including the size of your USB flash drive, file format system(NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32)
5. Click Start and wait for the success window to appear

You can only check the Quick Format box when you only want a quick scan however, if you have a corrupted USB, you may want to have a deep scanning in order to fix the problem.

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Part 6. Summary

To sum up this article, we have provided data recovery for your USB flash drive by using FoneDog Data Recovery software. This software provides thorough scanning and efficient data retrieval and is safe to use without losing any data.

Apart from that, we have listed several flash drive repair tool methods for Windows and Mac computers. The last resort you can use to fix your USB problem is by reformatting the device, but this, of course, will lead to data loss. You can use data recovery prior to reformatting your flash drive to make sure you still have all of the important data saved.

Try any of the methods we suggested above and let us know which one worked for you!