Read time 6 minutes
Losing essential data from external drives could be frustrating, especially when no backups are available. Also, we cannot avoid losing data due to silly mistakes, while transferring files from a pen drive to the computer and suddenly unplugging it from the system to discover that we have lost all the data in our flash drive.
Pen drives might be the most flexible equipment to store your data, whether documents, mp3 files, images, or videos. But, we cannot deny that these flash drives are also prone to several corruption errors and malware, making the data inaccessible. Several reasons behind USB data loss include:
Take the help of Kernel for Windows Data Recovery software to extract deleted data from the Pen drive and other external removable drives like USB, IDE, EIDE, SCSI, SATA, ZIP, etc.
- Accidental data deletion
- Malware/virus infection
- Hardware failure (Driver failure)
- USB connector is worn out
- Connecting USB flash drive to computers having different operating systems
- Physical damages to the USB drives are in unfavorable conditions like moisture, heat, breaking, etc.
- Making a mistake(s) while partitioning a USB flash drive
- Bugs in software applications
- Problems with the power supply to USB ports
- A Power surge or interruption of power supply during data transfer
When such situations occur, recovering data from a pen drive or flash drive becomes complicated and challenging. Thus, you must be prepared with a healthy backup of your external drive’s data or methods to recover deleted data from the pen drive.
In this article, we tried to cover some effective methods that can be used to recover deleted data from a pen drive.
Before we start discussing different methods to recover deleted data from the pen drive, we recommend some precautions before you start with any recovery process, irrespective of the reasons for the loss of data in your pen drive:
- Once you have realized that you have lost data on your pen drive, immediately stop further use at least you lose your data forever.
- Remove your pen drive from your computer and keep it in the safest environment until you start the data recovery.
- Do not try to copy data from your pen drive to another place on your computer.
Methods to recover data from pen drive
Knowing the reasons behind USB drive data corruption, you might be curious how deleted data can be recovered from flash drives. So, have a look at the methods below.
Method 1: Using command prompt
The reason for prioritizing this method is that you don’t have to download any third-party tool to use it. Also, it is the most effective and easiest way to recover data from flash drive. Still, it has a small limitation: not every user is comfortable with the command prompt process.
CMD, formally known as Command Prompt, is an internal function of Windows that allows you to perform multiple tasks with simple commands. Here’s how to use CMD to recover deleted data from pen drive.
- Connect your flash drive to the computer.
- Now, Press Window + R, type “cmd,” and then hit Enter.
- Type “chkdsk A:f” and press Enter. It will start scanning the flash drive.
- Once the flash drive is scanned, type “ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D A:*.*” and hit Enter.
Note: Here, A is used to define the name given to your flash drive in your system.
Once the entire process is complete, you’ll find your deleted data on the flash drive.
Method 2: Use the restore previous version technique
Another helpful method to restore deleted files from a USB pen drive is the “Restore previous version” technique. This method also allows you to restore deleted files without using third-party software. However, this technique is only ideal if the feature is enabled before losing the data. Here’s how you can execute this method.
- Connect your USB to the computer.
- Go to “This PC,” right-click on the USB flash drive, and click Properties from here.
- In the Menu tab, click “Previous Version” and check for the available recovery options.
- Select the specified previous version and click Restore.
- Download and install the software on your computer.
- Launch the tool and select the scanning methods on the mentioned tool’s homepage.
- The tool will display all the connected drives to the system. select the external drive and click Next.
- It will start scanning the pen drive or external hard disk for deleted data restoration. The process might take some time based on their size.
- The tool will show all the recovered folders on left panel of another page. Select any folder to view its items, then click the item to display its content.
- To save the recovered data, select the specific file or folder, and click Recover.
Note: You can also choose to save the entire data.
- Choose a location to save the recovered file and click OK.
- After recovering all the essential files, the tool will notify you of “Files Saved Successfully, ” then tap OK.
If no previous versions are available, then you cannot restore your data with this method. In this case, you should move to a third-party tool that can quickly restore your flash drive’s deleted data.
Method 3: Use the Kernel for Windows Data Recovery
Kernel Free Windows Data Recovery software is a specialized tool designed to recover deleted file free (up to 2GB) or deleted data from the system hard drive and external drives. It is integrated with smart algorithms that allow it to recover every data file stored on your computer. Here is a step-by-step guide that will help you to understand the tools process seamlessly.
Conclusion
We store some files in external drives, especially when we want to carry critical data to other places, and USB flash drives are the best equipment for that as they fit into your pocket easily. But, when data is deleted from pen drives, it’s very challenging to retrieve it. Therefore, we have mentioned some effective methods to recover deleted data from a USB pen drive in this article. Also, we have mentioned a third-party tool that can be used to recover deleted Windows files.