Using flash drives like pen drive, SD card, memory card, microSD card, external hard drives has become so common today. But, sometimes it happens that due to some unexpected reasons, your flash drives get corrupted or damaged. It becomes so frustrating situation then and people get confused and don’t get anything to do.
So, keeping in mind, I am here going to tell you how to fix a corrupted flash drive using CMD option. But, before we move on to the fixing solution, let us have a look at the real practical scenario of a user who has shared his experience of a corrupted flash drive.
USB (Universal Serial Bus) is an industry standard for connecting computers and other devices. It's available with many types of ports, and each type has a unique shape. On Mac computers, USB is available with these ports, depending on your Mac model.
Corrupted USB flash drive is an old age problem. Almost every computer user has faced this common problem. It doesn’t matter what you do, at some point of time, your computer will reject to read your USB drive. But, have you ever thought about how USB flash drive gets corrupted?
- DoYourData Super Eraser. Securely and permanently erase data from HDD, SSD, USB drive, memory card or other device, beyond the scope of data recovery.
- Removing bad blocks from the USB drive with fsck. An easy way to repair a flash drive, or any drive really, is to use the fsck tool. This tool is great for removing bad file blocks, as most (if not all) corruption and unreadability comes from problems like this.
- The first step is to insert your USB thumb drive into the computer's USB drive. Click on 'My Computer' and choose the USB drive that appears. Right-click on the drive and go to 'Properties'. Then choose the 'Tools' tab. Click on the 'Check Now' button. You should be now presented with two repair options, i.e. 'Scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors' and 'Automatically fix file system errors'.
Well, there could be various causes that can make your USB flash drive corrupted or damaged. Some of the causes are mentioned below:
Causes That Can Make Your USB Flash Drive Corrupted
- Virus or malware infection.
- System files corruption.
- Availability of bad sector.
- Connecting USB flash drive to multiple PCs or Mac.
- And so on…
It doesn’t matter whatever the causes are, there are few effective solutions that you can follow to know how to fix a corrupted flash drive.
And one of the popular methods to fix corrupted flash drive is by using CMD command.
So, here comes the solution section – how to repair a corrupted flash drive using CMD (command prompt)?
How To Fix Corrupted Flash Drive Using CMD (Command Prompt)
The CMD command which is also known as the command prompt is one of the high rated and successful solutions to repair corrupted, not working, damaged or unrecognized flash drive, pen drive, SD card or hard drive. It can also be used to repair corrupted external hard drive, SSD or HDD with ease.
Note: The solution works great on Windows 10/8/8.1/7 computer.
Below, follow the steps:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted flash drive (pen drive, memory stick, SD card or external hard drive) to your Windows computer.
Step 2: Click START and type CMD in the search bar and hit ENTER to open the command prompt. Alternatively, you can also open command prompt by pressing Windows Key + R followed by typing CMD in the RUN box that pops-up.
Step 3: Now in the command prompt box, type the following commands:
- Type diskpart and hit ENTER button. After this type list disk and hit ENTER button.
Step 4: Next, type select disk followed by the number of your disk and press ENTER button. After your disk gets selected, type clean and press ENTER button.
Step 5: Next type create partition primary and hit ENTER.
Step 6: After this type active and press ENTER followed by select partition 1.
Step 7: Finally, in the last step type the following command format fs=fat32 and hit ENTER button.
A screenshot of the process is given below.
After the completion of the process, you should find your USB drive working as good as new.
Alternatively, there is another step to fix/repair corrupted USB flash drive using CHKDSK command.
Repair Corrupted USB Flash Drive Using CHKDSK Command
Below follow the steps:
Step 1: Connect the corrupted flash drive to your PC.
Step 2: On your computer click Start and type CMD in the search bar and hit ENTER.
Step 3: A new command prompt window will get open.
Step 4: Now type the following command: chkdsk /X /f H: or chkdsk H: /f and hit ENTER. Here you need to replace the H: drive with your corrupted pen drive/SD card/USB drive.
Just wait for the process to get complete and then you should find your USB flash drive working as good as new. Also, with this, you will be able to know how to recover corrupted files from USB using CMD.
Expert Tip: Recover Lost Data From Corrupted USB Flash Drive
While performing the above solutions to fix corrupted USB drive, you may encounter data loss from your flash drive. So, after fixing a corrupted USB flash drive, it is important that you get all the data back from such a drive. So, here, you can try USB Flash Drive Recovery Tool to and know how to restore lost data from USB flash drives. The best thing about this flash drive recovery software is that it is available for both Windows and Mac computer.
With the help of this photo recovery software, one can:
- Easily get back inaccessible or lost pictures, videos and audio files from corrupted USB flash drive
- Recover digital media files from corrupted pen drive, SD card, memory stick, hard drive, camera card
- Also retrieve media files from unreadable, damaged, write-protected or unrecognized USB flash drive
- 100% read-only. Safe, secure and easy to use
* Free version of the program only scans and previews recoverable objects.
Steps To Recover Files From Corrupted USB Flash Drive
Step 1: Select Desired Location
Firstly, select the drive, external media or volume from which you want to recover deleted media files. After selecting, click on 'Scan'.
Step 2: Preview Recovered Media Files
Next, you can preview the recoverable media files after the scanning process is completed.
Step 3: Recover Media Files
Lastly, you can select the images, audio, video files you want to restore and click on 'Recover' option to save them at the location you want.
Bonus Tip: People Have Also Asked
How Can I Repair My USB Flash Drive?
Well, as mentioned above, you can follow the above command prompt (CMD) to repair corrupted USB flash drive, SD memory card, memory sticks.
On the other hand, if you know that your USB flash got corrupted due to virus infection, then run anti-virus tool to scan your corrupted SDcard, USB flash drive, etc
![Repair usb flash drive tool Repair usb flash drive tool](https://www.easeus.com/images/en/screenshot/data-recovery-mac/fix-usb-not-show-up-1.png)
For detailed information please visit: Learn To Remove Virus From SD Card Without Formatting It(though it is mentioned SD card you can follow the same solution to remove virus from your virus-infected USB drive).
How Do I Remove Write Protection?
![Usb flash drive repair tool Usb flash drive repair tool](https://www.fonepaw.com/images/eraser/mac-disk-utility.png)
Many USB drives, memory stick, pen drive, SD card come with the feature of write-protection.
But sometimes it creates problems and when it creates a problem then users are not able to access files from write-protected USB flash drive, SD card, pen drive, etc.
How Do You Fix An Unrecognized USB?
Well, there are also many users out there, whose USB drive does not get detected or does not get recognized by the computer.
In such situation, they look for the solution on how to fix an unrecognized USB drive?
Well, if your USB drive, pen drive, SD card or external hard drive does not get recognized by your computer, then please follow the related links mentioned-below and find out the best solution for your problems and get fixed your unrecognized USB/SD card or pen drive.
Conclusion
I hope after you try the above solution, you will be easily able to fix corrupted USB flash drive and know-how to recover corrupted files from USB using CMD.
This tutorial will definitely not let you down, so just try the solution with the step by step instructions mentioned above. And, if you notice that the data you have saved in the flash drive has been lost the try USB Flash Drive Recovery Tool.
This tool will definitely help you restore lost data from USB flash drive in no time. So, all the very best guys.
Alex is an expert technical writer with 7+ years of experience. His in-depth knowledge about data recovery and fascination to explore new DIY tools & technologies have helped many. Alex has a great interest in photography and loves to share photography tips and tricks with others.
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Most of the time I stuck in the formatting process and unconditionally think that how to fix a corrupted flash drive without formatting? How can I restore all my data? Meanwhile, my USB always give a popping up a message that represents the corrupted or unreadable file, like a not accessible file at all.
I can’t format the USB drive until I get the proper information that tells what to do in the right manner. For this manner, I researched hard to find the best solution. Here I am providing the solutions:
- 1. Change the Drive Letter of the USB Drive
- 2. Use CMD Commands to Fix a Corrupted Flash Drive without Formatting
- 3. Enable and Update USB Drive
1Recover Data from a Corrupted Flash Drive with iMyFone AnyRecover
While fixing your corrupted flash drive, you might get into the trouble of data loss even though you don't format the flash drive. To avoid losing data, it is advisable to retrieve data from your corrupted flash drive before fixing it. But the question arises, how to recover files from corrupted flash drive? Thus iMyFone AnyRecover software is the solution to your problem.
Features of iMyFone AnyRecover:
iMyFone AnyRecover restores the lost, corrupted deleted or formatting files in a few clicks.
Easily recovers all the media including videos, photos, office documents, audios or email, and more.
With the help of AnyRecover software, it is quite easy to recover files from any storage: PC, hard drive, flash drive, SD card, digital camera, music player and so on.
There are no hidden techniques required for getting back your data.
100% secure to use, it retrieves your lost files without overwriting your original data.
How to Recover Data from a Corrupted Flash Drive with iMyFone AnyRecover?
Step 1: Select the Location
Firstly, open the AnyRecover software and select the External Device that you want to recover data from.
Step 2: Scan the Location
Click on the “Start” button. At that point, the AnyRecover instantly starts the process of scanning. It takes a while for this process to complete.
Step 3: Preview and Recover.
The AnyRecover displays the lost data after the scanning process. You can click to preview before recovery. Once you are sure about your files, select the “Recovery” button.
2How to Fix a Corrupted Flash Drive without Formatting
USB flash drive is the portable device that seems easy and most relaxed way to transfer the data from one sort to another. Often, we all were trusted to use USB for securing the sensitive data. Sometimes, the drive shows issues, when is it going to corrupt, how to fix a corrupted flash drive without formatting? Here I am listing some solutions:
Repair Usb Flash Drives
1Change the Drive Letter of the USB Drive
Scan & Repair Flash Drive
Sometimes, the drive letter can’t assign just because of unknown reason. To solve this situation, it is better to assign again the drive letter manually.
Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your computer.
Step 2. Locate the mouse icon on “This PC/My Computer”, right click it, then select the manage option to open “Computer Management”.
Step 3. Opt for “Disk Management” under “Storage”.
Step 4. Right click the disk volume and choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths”. Aerofly rc 7 4 7.
Step 5. Hit the “Change” button.
Step 6. Assign the available drive letter from the Drop-down list.
Hope your corrupted flash drive can be fixed if the issue is related to assign a drive letter.
Repair Usb Flash Drive Cmd
2Use CMD Commands to Fix a Corrupted Flash Drive without Formatting
Whenever the drive gets damaged or corrupted, it always refused to open. If you don’t want to lose your important data at the time of formatting the USB, thus the best way is to use the CMD command.
Step 1. Plug in the drive to your computer.
Step 2. In the search bar, type “CMD” and press “Enter”.
Step 3. Type 'chkdsk USB drive letter: /f' or 'chkdsk /X /f USB drive letter', replace 'USB drive letter' with the drive letter of your corrupted flash drive.
Step 4. If it prompts thus the window made all the correction, so there is no further action is required.
3Enable and Update USB Drive
In case, your pen drive is disabled thus maybe it will become malfunctioning. how to fix a corrupted flash drive without formatting? Here is the solution:
Step 1: Open the search bar and type “Device Manager” and click on the “Enter” tab.
Step 2: Expand the disk driver and instantly right click on it. After that select on the 'Enable' button.
Note: The outdated drive might cause flash drive unable to work properly. If this situation happens, it is better to consider “Update Driver Software”.
3Reason That Cause Flash Drive Corruption
Sometimes, the USB flash drive is not working properly then you instantly think about how to fix a corrupted flash drive without formatting? It is better to understand properly the main causes, so you will save yourself from facing this issue. Here I am explaining some reasons that corrupt the flash drive:
- Suddenly, power failure happens, whenever you make any operation.
- Attach of viruses on the partition table.
- The problem of the bad sector in the flash drive.
- Removal of abrupt at the time of the reading and writing process.
- The error of the internal file system.
- Issue of damaged partition.
- Accidental or improper formatting.
- Conflict in the drive letter.
Conclusion
Indeed, there are many causes as well as different solutions but it is better to learn properly first before you consider. How to fix a corrupted flash drive without formatting? If your USB flash drive is corrupted and you are worried because of important audio, video, or photos, thus consider the Recovery software - iMyFone AnyRecover. I personally use this software to avoid losing my important files.