Insert your USB flash drive into your computer. After a moment a dialog box will appear on screen telling you that your operating system has recognized the drive you just attached. Click on the 'X' button to close out of this dialog box. Next, let’s see all the things you can do the recovery drive: 1. Use the recovery USB drive to reset Windows 10. The reset of Windows 10 deletes all your personal files and settings from the computer. There are two reasons to run the reset: You want to get rid of all your files and changes to the settings in Windows 10. Jun 15, 2020 If you want to restore USB drive back to full capacity, you just need to delete files in USB flash drive. Similarly, if you want to restore bootable USB to normal, you can just format the USB flash drive. There may be other reasons that urge you to restore USB drive to the original state.
USB Flash drives are one of luminous and disparate invention to store thousands of files in one convenient location. There are myriad of reasons to use USB flash drives over CD and DVDs. They are portable, fast and easy to use and carry. But after using it for few times, you might need to erase data from USB flash drive to make some more room to store new data or sell it.
A simple deletion will not really erase everything from the USB flash drive securely since any advanced computer user can easily recover them in no time using any data recovery software. You will be amused to see how easy it is to get back all the deleted data in no time. So, if you have any sensitive information stored from company or client information then you must erase them using some third party software to make sure all data are securely deleted and can never be restored using any data recovery software whatsoever. So most people choose to wipe data on computer or wipe Mac clean before selling.
In this guide, we will introduce you to two methods that helps to erase data on USB flash drive permanently. Both are free to implement and can get the job done as quickly as possible to give you the best user experience.
Method #1: Wipe USB Flash Drive by Using In-built Format Option
All Windows and Mac computers comes with an in-built format disk option to erase everything from a USB flash drive. We will show you how to use this feature as your advantage to make sure everything is deleted permanently.
Step 1. Insert the USB flash drive to the computer and let the PC detect it.
Step 2. Open 'My Computer' and right-click on the flash drive disk name.
Step 3. Find 'Format' from the option and make a left click on it with the help of your mouse.
Step 4. You will be able to see a window with the following option.
It will show you the storage capacity and file system. By default, it can be either NTFS or FAT32 and the volume label just indicates the name of the flash drive. Just leave it to the default settings and click on 'Start'.
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Step 5. Wait for few minutes until the formatting process is finished. It may take several minutes depending on the size of the USB Flash drive. Make sure to keep it connected while the process is taking place.
Step 6. After you see the 'Format Successful' pop up messages, you can eject the flash drive.
Warning: This should delete all the files from the flash drive. But as we mentioned earlier, a simple deletion and formatting doesn't really permanently delete everything from the USB drive, they're still be easily recovered by some data recovery softweare. . If the files are not important then you can use this simple deletion option but if you do have confidential company and client information stored in it then you might have to use a professional external tool to erase everything permanently.
Method #2: How to Completely Wipe USB Flash Drive with SafeWiper for Disk
To reduce the risk that someone might recover sensitive data from your USB flash drive, you need to use eraser software to securely erase data from removable USB disk.
SafeWiper for Disk is a professional data deletion tool that erases everything from a drive disk permanently. This little tool deletes data from a disk drive as it never existed on the first place. So, if you are erasing confidential and sensitive data from your USB flash drive then it is assured that the data deletion is beyond recovery. No data recovery has succeeded to recover data from any drive after being deleted using SafeWiper. It is easy to use but to use advanced deletion techniques, you will have to pay a small fee to enjoy the full benefits of this software.
Safewiper for Disk - Permanently Wipe Your USB Drive
Wipe data and hard drives permanently beyond recovery.
Permanently wipes data on partitions and disk volumes with advanced wiping algorithm which overwrites your data up to 35 times.
Uses advanced algorithms (Dod 5220-22.M, US Army, Peter Guttman) to 100% completely wipe data.
Supports all popular Windows file systems, NTFS, Fat, Fat32.
Step 1 Download and Install Program, Insert Your USB Drive to PC
Download SafeWiper for Disk on your computer, install and run it. SafeWiper for Disk offers to complete hard drives or logical hard drives. So you either completely remove everything from a hard disk or only the hierarchical partitions created from the hard disk. Choose the USB flash drive disk and click on 'Next'.
Step 4 Choose Wiping Algorithm
Click the Setting on the proram, you will see four wiping method in the list. You can use the featured high level deletion techniques including Peter Guttmann Secure Deletion, North Atlantic Treaty Organization_NATO standard, Guttmann Method and so on. The more advnaced wiping algorithm you choose, the more time it will take.
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Step 5 Start Deleting Files from Computer (Mac/Windows)
After choosing the wiping method, simply click on 'Wipe' and the program will automatically start erasing everything from the USB flash drive. Wait for few minutes until the data are securely removed from the disk drive.
Now, you can audit the USB flash drive and everything will be permanently erased.
Note: Realize that the data deleted using this software is permanent and there's no going back after this. So, make sure to generate a full back up before using this software.
Summary:
It is recommended to use professional external software like SafeWiper Data Wiper to permanently delete everything from a USB flash drive if it contains any classified and private data to make sure nobody can steal it. Any computer genius can easily recover deleted data from your USB flash drive if you use the simple deletion technique. You must take a step further to maintain the safety and privacy of the data. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed and found this article useful.
Why does my flash drive says it need to be formatted?
Sometimes, your computer will ask you to format the USB flash drive. That's to say, your flash drive may be corrupted or damaged. And you are not able to open USB stick and the data on it.
Then, I will list the common scenario in the following.
USB drive holds bad sectors and displays 'disk needs to be formatted'.
USB drive is blank or has an unsupported file system.
'Please Insert Disk into Removable Disk'.
USB drive shows 0 bytes or 'folder is empty'.
The virus has infected the flash drive and corrupted the files in it.
'USB Device Not Recognized or Malfunctioned'.
'You need to format the disk before using it'.
When you receive one of the message above, you need to backup files before formatting first, then you have a chance to recover files from corrupted drive. If you directly format USB, all your files will go forever.
2 solutions to fix a corrupted flash drive without losing data
When flash drive is corrupted, most users may choose to recover data first. Because it may contain their precious memories or work documents that cannot afford loss.
Solution 1: Recover data from flash drive using CMD
To recover data using CMD, just see below:
Step 1. Open CMD. You can press Win + R to summon the Run window, then type cmd.exe and click OK.
Step 2. Check if your drive has bad sectors. In the command prompt, type the following command and hit Enter.
chkdsk H: /f (H is the drive letter of USB drive. If your drive has a different drive letter, you can replace it.)
Step 3. Type Y If the drive is in use and hit Enter key to proceed. If the CMD does not prompt, you can see Step 4.
Step 4. Get the deleted files back. You can type the following command and press Enter to run it.
attrib –h –r –s/s /d H: *.*
Note: -h command assigns the Hidden attribute to the selected files. -r refers to Read-only attribute: files are readable and cannot be changed. -s assigns System attribute to the selected files. /s implies to search the specified path including subfolders. /d command includes process folders.
After all operation finish, you will find that all the recovered files are saved on your USB drive with a newly created folder. By default, the files will be in .chk format. But you still can change the file format and save it at the preferred location.
Solutions 2: Recover files from backup image
If you create a file backup before formatting the drive, you can restore it from the backup image. If you don't have other backup image, you still can use 'Explore Image' feature to restore files.
To recover files from backup, use the following steps:
Open the free backup software AOMEI Backupper Standard, click Restore at the initial screen, click Select Task or Select Image File to find the backup image, then select the files or folders you want to restore and decide where to restore the file, click Start Restore.
If you create other backup image, such as, disk backup, partition backup, you still restore file the image. AOMEI Backupper offers you a feature called Explore Image that can allows you to do selective file restore via virtual partitions.
Tip: If you want more advanced features, such as, incremental and differential backup, USB plug in, wake the computer to run scheduled task, command-line backup, dissimilar hardware restore etc, you can upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional. To protect unlimited PC and Servers, AOMEI Backupper Technician Plus will be a better choice.
5 solutions to fix a corrupted USB without formatting it
When your USB drive is damaged, you cannot directly format it. Because this operation will lead to data loss forever. Just stop using it and learn how to open USB without formatting in Windows 10, 8, 7 by the given solutions.
Solution 1: Test different USB ports on different computers
USB port can be one of the reasons that your flash drive does not work properly. I recommend you to check all the USB ports on your computer.
Solution 2: Assign a drive letter for USB via Disk Management
Sometimes, the computer cannot assign a drive letter for external USB drive owing some unknown reasons. Thus, you can plug your drive into the computer and manually assign a drive letter for it.
To assign drive letter for corrupted USB in Windows, see steps below:
Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run windows and type diskmgmt.msc
Step 2. Right-click your drive, select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the context menu.
Step 3. Click Add, select a drive letter in the drop-down menu and hit OK.
Step 4. See if you can open your drive and access your data.
Note: some users report that they cannot press Change Drive Letter and Path. There are two main reasons for it. First,the file system of USB is not FAT32 or NTFS. Second, the USB is write-protected. Thus, you can turn to a third-party tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant and change drive letter with it.
Solutions 3: Fix a corrupted flash drive without formatting using chkdsk
The command chkdsk is used to check the file system and status of system drive, then it will fix the found errors. If the problem still exits, you can try this method.
Step 1. Go to command prompt, type chkdsk H: /r and hit Enter to run it.
Step 2. Wait patiently and type exit to leave this window if there is no problem.
Note: Some users receive the eror message when using this method, saying, 'chkdsk is not available for raw drives'. If you one of them, you can try method 4.
Solution 4: Fix corrupted USB with disk check utility
Format Drive Before Creating A Bootable USB Flash Drive?
How to fix corrupted USB on windows 10, 8,7? You can use built-in disk check utility, which will scan your disk to find system errors, bad sectors and fix it. If there are bigger issues that it can’t fix, it will show you details.
Note: In different Windows, there is a little difference in expression. But, the steps are basically the same and you can follow the steps below.
To fix corrupted USB, follow the steps below:
Cached
Step 1. Connect USB drive to PC.
Step 2. Open the property of USB drive. Open Computer or This PC, right-click Removable Disk and open its Properties.
Step 3. Check and recover corrupted USB drive.
Click on Tools, tick the Check Now option and check Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, then click Start to begin the scan process.
Step 4. Click Start to begin the scan process. Wait and click Close once the process complete.
Solutions 5: Fix a corrupted USB drive with Device Manager
Step 1. Go to Control Panel and Device Manger. Also, you can directly type device manager in the search box and select it from the result list.
Step 2. Enable USB drive. Expand Disk Drive list and right-click on the USB drive and choose Enable, then wait patiently.
A little advice - What if you format USB flash drive?
Usually, when you are asked to format your USB drive, you will choose to format it. But, to be honest, this operation is not recommended, because it can delete all of your data on this drive.
Don't be panic. Even if you format the USB thumb drive, you still can restore your data. Because every file has its structure, including directory and blocks. When you format the drive, you just remove the directory of it. All your files are marked as unimportant and keep intact here.
You need to pay attention to the following things.