How to Recover Lost Files on Flash Drives? (2024)

"I have been using a 64 GB flash drive to back up and transfer all types of files for daily use. However, since I last used it, I have unplugged it directly from my computer and now I am unable to access the various data on it. Will I lose all the files on this flash drive? Do you have any useful suggestions to solve this problem and recover the lost data?"

Portable flash drives bring a lot of convenience to data backup and transmission. However, many reasons can lead to data loss in flash drives. How to recover deleted or lost files from a flash drive? Don't worry, you can find the best flash drive recovery method in this article to recover lost files.

Reasons for the loss of flash drive files:

• Unexpected deletion. The most common situation for people who encounter data loss is when they accidentally press the "delete" button on their computer while selecting a file or folder on a flash drive. If the computer has not placed deleted files, the situation is even more serious, so by default they are placed in the Recycle Bin, which is fortunately the easiest to fix.
• Physical damages. When handling your computer, you cannot guarantee that you will not accidentally fall or damage the computer. If the trauma exceeds the normal level, it will inevitably cause problems, leading to data loss issues.
• A problem similar to physical damage is overheating, as it may also lead to data loss due to damage to physical components. Data loss caused by overheating in circuits is more common than physical effects.
• Malicious software and viruses. Most of us should already know that most types of viruses can cause harm to any type of device. Of course, this includes flash drives. If a virus that can harm your files enters the system, it is likely to cause data loss. This can usually be solved through antivirus, but we have other solutions.
• Contrary to common belief, corruption is different from the damage caused by viruses and malware. Corruption refers to the event that the equipment involved in the operation is interrupted. This may be due to a sudden power outage, or simply because the user ejected flash drive during operation.

You should already know that flash drives are fragile devices by now. It can only withstand a certain degree of damage, so you should act with caution. However, if you have already suffered from data loss, we will provide you with some tips.

Why is it difficult to recover files from flash drives?

It is undeniable that restoring files from flash drives is a little bit difficult. Because flash drives are removable drives, this means that deleting them will not save files to the Recycle Bin.

Additionally, as a removable drive, you will have to spend a lot of effort restoring files as accessing them is already difficult. Although difficult, you can make it easier by using the following reliable techniques:

• Before performing any operations on the computer, please disconnect the flash drive.
• Do not attempt to perform any operations on files in the flash drive as it may overwrite recently lost files.
• To maximize your chances of success, once you realize that data loss has occurred, please stop using the USB flash drive immediately.
• Close all programs currently running on the computer as they may automatically overwrite files.
• Do not attempt to configure flash drives, such as ejecting, renaming, formatting, etc., as doing so has the same opportunity to overwrite files as writing them.
• Perform flash drive recovery as soon as possible.

The above prompt cannot guarantee that you will retrieve the file as soon as possible, but it will increase your chances of successfully restoring files. Now that you have understood these techniques, let's continue to answer the question "How to recover lost files from USB flash drives?"

Recover lost files from flash drives using data recovery tools

The most effective way to perform USB data recovery is to use third-party software, which provides the greatest chance of success. There are a variety of data recovery programs available on the market, and we recommend using DiskGenius and CuteRecovery Free, both of which are applications designed to recover files from different devices and are compatible with all brands of flash drives. Don't delay, take a look at tutorials!

Method 1. Use DiskGenius to recover flash drive files:

Step 1: Download the latest version of DiskGenius from the official website and run it.

Step 2: Select the USB flash drive in the software that needs to recover data, and then click the File Recovery button.

Step 3: Click Start in the pop-up window, and before starting the scan, you can also set advanced options or select a file type.

Subsequently, the software enters the scanning phase:

Step 4: Preview the scanned file. The files that can be previewed without errors in DiskGenius can be recovered correctly.

Step 5: Copy out the files that need to be recovered.

Method 2. Use CuteRecovery Free to recover deleted files from USB drives (FREE)

Step 1: Download and run the latest version of the software, which offers four file search modes. You need to choose one based on your situation and click.

Step 2: Select the flash drive you want to recover data from on the left interface, and then click "Next".

During the process of scanning the flash drive, you can see the lost files found by the software.

Step 3: Double click to preview the file. If the file can be previewed correctly, then it can be correctly restored. For example, as shown in the following figure:

Step 4: Select files you want to recover and click the "Recover" button.

Recover lost files from flash drives through backup

If you have a good habit of regularly backing up data for USB flash drives, you can recover lost files through backups. There are many ways to create backups, and DiskGenius also has the function of backing up partitions and disks.

To Conclude

In the article above, we discussed methods to recover lost files from USB flash drives. This does not mean that you can be careless anytime. Sometimes, the best solution is actually prevention, you can perform daily backups and use drives carefully to avoid data loss. I hope the content above can provide you with sufficient assistance to avoid data loss on flash drives.

More guides on flash drive recovery

• How to Recover Deleted Files from Pen Drive Free?
• How to recover deleted files from USB drive (free)? - 5 Solutions
• USB Data Recovery: Recover Deleted/Lost Files from USB Drives
• Fix Unreadable USB/Pen Drive with Free USB Repair Tool in Windows 10