Repair defective USB stick – that’s how it works

usb flash drive repair

Allegedly defective USB sticks are often thrown away, although they can still be repaired. Read in this practical tip how you can get your USB stick with a bit of luck to get back to work and save their data.

The device does the deletion itself when the memory module is idle. This means restoring data over time even though it has not been overwritten. In practice this means that if you notice early on that, you have accidentally deleted data, you can usually completely delete it restore SD, SSD and USB drives. However, overwriting and the time factor have far more fatal effects on the chances of data recovery than with conventional hard disks. For the right usb flash drive repair this is important.

Boot or not boot?

When restoring data, it is important to make an important decision in advance: Is the data on the system disk or not? If so, you should not boot from this disk because the operating system overwrites deleted data, so it is lost. In this case, you should hang the disk to another computer or boot with a rescue DVD. If you no longer have access to the drive, there is a hardware error; Flash memory is often the controller is defective. That’s why some manufacturers provide you with utilities for their SDs / SSDs, such as the Sandisk SSD toolkit.

You may succeed in getting the disc back up; otherwise, you will have no choice but to send the disc to a rescue lab. Rescue often succeeds there because the laboratories are familiar with the memory algorithms according to which the controller distributes the data in the memory. An exception is self-encrypting hard drives and SSDs.

A repair USB stick with Windows onboard resources

The built-in error checking tool in Windows could make your USB stick with a little luck again fit.

  • Insert the defective USB stick into a free USB port.
  • Open “My Computer” (Windows XP) or click “Computer” (Windows Vista and 7).
  • The connected USB stick should be listed in the list of devices.
  • Right-click on it and choose Properties.
  • Under “Properties,” there is the “Tools” tab (Windows XP) or “Tools” (Windows Vista and 7) that you click on.
  • There, the “error checking” should be listed. Click the “Check Now” button.
  • Put a tick in front of the listed options by clicking the box.
  • Finally, click “Start” to begin the review and the associated repair.

Once the review is complete, your USB flash drive might work again. The Windows tool eliminates all file and sector errors found on the USB stick.

USB stick repair fails: what to do?

For particularly serious defects or damage, you can then resort to formatting. How to format a USB stick is described in this practical tip. However, if you still have important data on the stick, you should refrain from formatting, because all files are lost. Instead, find a specialist and hire him to recover the data.

Repair USB data with rescue service on the Internet

usb flash drive repair

On the Internet, you will find various providers to save your data stored on the USB stick. Only when it is certain that the data is not lost and should be saved, you will incur costs.