Good afternoon, Dear friends. Probably, everyone is concerned with such a problem as recovering deleted files from a flash drive or just a computer. It just happens sometimes that we accidentally delete what we need. Or maybe they deleted it on purpose, but this file was needed after a while.

The question immediately arises - is it possible to recover deleted files, pictures or music, and with what program? Of course you can, but not always. Several factors come into play here. And there are many programs for recovering deleted files.

There is also a human factor here. The fact is that the programs themselves are configured and this affects the result of recovering lost data. Therefore, if you don’t want to try to figure it out yourself, you don’t even have to waste time reading this article, but simply don’t write the data to a USB flash drive or computer and contact specialists.

Well, for those who want to try their hand, we will show you not complex scheme for recovering deleted data.

A little theory about data storage

To properly recover data, you need to know a little about the theory of how information is stored. At first I wanted to describe in more detail, but it is difficult for beginners to perceive technical terms. So I will describe on my fingers. The main thing is to understand the principle.

All information is stored in binary code, but it is stored in sectors. and the more the document or file itself weighs, the more sectors are involved. In general, storing data on hard drives or flash drives is the same, only the recording method is different. Well compare it with a book. Where sectors are pages, and the table of contents is a description of the file, its location and path to it.

Principle of data storage

You probably noticed that deletion is always faster than copying. The fact is that when copying, we just write empty sectors, and the table of contents already contains all the data about the file and, most importantly, the path to the sectors - pages. In addition, if the disk is not fragmented, then the sectors of the document (pages) will be scattered across the disk (in the book) and this must be understood. BUT when we delete files, only the table of contents is cleared. But those sectors that belonged to the deleted file are marked as empty.

That is why it is possible to recover deleted data. It’s just that that system cannot already find the path to those sectors of the file, and special programs allow you to find backup data about a stored document and paths to sectors from this document.

But even here it’s not so simple, you need to know what kind you have file system hard drive or flash drives. For example for FAT and FAT32 the system is similar, but when deleting the directory (table of contents) unable to determine 1 sector, more precisely, to determine the chain of sectors of the document that we want to restore, then the process of restoring documents takes a lot of time and effort.

But with the file system NTFS a little easier there there is a special partition table, where the entire chain is written in the order of those sectors where desired file. And the quality of the recovery will depend on the degree of damage to that directory.

Easiest way to recover photo, video or audio. You can not even collect all the sectors and the file can be played, but with minor defects. Things are more complicated, of course, with programs. Due to incomplete assembly, the program may not work.

Ways to delete files and restore them

In addition, you need to know how the removal occurs.

• For example, if you just right-click on the file, and then delete the item, then the file has been moved to the trash. Or you just moved the file to the trash. Then everything is much easier. By going to the basket, you can easily restore the document or everything that is there at once.

data recovery from recycle bin

But with a flash drive, this will not work, since the path is not saved. So be careful.

• Besides, there is a possibility that they caught the virus. This is a very common phenomenon, when a virus takes the name of a file, replaces it with the .EXE extension with its shell, and original just makes hidden.

the virus hides the original document

To check this, at the top left, click on "Organize" - Folder and search options. Next, open the "View" tab, in the "Advanced Options" window, scroll to the very bottom and click the "show hidden files ..." checkbox.

how to show hidden files and folders

In this case, of course, you need to run an antivirus, and if you don’t have it, you can read.

There is also an opinion that viruses can damage a flash drive. This is not true. Viruses harm only programs and files. They can only hide the file and instead show themselves under that name so that the user can run it for some purpose.

Of course, some say that they say the virus ate a lot of files and documents on a computer or flash drive. By and large, files are deleted by the antivirus, due to the fact that those files, documents were infected with a virus or malware which.

To date, in most antivirus programs there is a quarantine or "sandbox" where you can store a file with a virus for some time. And suddenly it is very important, you can use it and delete it.

• Now it is the process when the file was deleted from the computer or flash drive, and it needs to be restored. Then programs are applied. There are both paid and free ones, such as Recuva.

I will describe below step by step algorithm, so let's move on.

• Have formatted a disk or flash drive.

Here it should be noted that there are two formatting methods:

1. Rapid, i.e. clearing the table of contents. You can restore data in the same way as with a normal deletion.
2. Complete. Or also called low-level. It’s more difficult here, but you can restore it using signature technology. Such signatures store information about some files. And there are many programs that work on this technology. It is possible to restore, but it takes a lot of time, although it is not always possible to restore the file completely.

• Sometimes it happens that there was a mechanical damage to the disk or flash drive. For example, a hard disk can be hit well, so that the data will simply be read poorly or the disk will not work at all.

Flash drives and solid state drives are not afraid of bumps or shakes, but even there there may be problems with either chips or soldering defects. Maybe even accidentally tore off any tracks on the flash drive. Here simple programs will not help.

Of course, you can take a soldering iron and solder what came off, but the defect is not always visible. So if the disk or flash drive does not work, you just need to go to a specialist. He can make a disk, or he can unsolder a memory chip and read the files you need with a special device.

In general, you definitely shouldn’t do it yourself if you yourself are not specialists of this level 😀 .

• There is also a situation where drive file system is corrupted, and Windows cannot read information from the flash drive.

This can happen if:

1. Disabled flash drive incorrectly
2. There was a power surge while working
3. Large physical wear of memory cells and so on.

Then we need scan the memory cells of the flash drive for the presence of physical and logical errors . There are quite a few applications for this. But we will consider standard version. To do this, in "My Computer", click on the image of the desired flash drive with the right mouse button and at the bottom "Properties".

checking memory cells on a flash drive Starting the Scanning Program

If a operating system asks to disable the volume of the device, then just close all applications using it and click "Disable".

The operating system asks you to disable the device volume

Step-by-step instructions for data recovery

In this manual, I use the example of data recovery using the Recuva program. because it is quite common and free and quite convenient.

data recovery

That's all, nothing complicated. In addition to the program described above, there are several more free programs.. Why are free - I just don’t see any reason for myself to buy a program that I might use once every 5 years. BUT free utilities they do their job very well.

In addition, I specifically installed several programs and tested them one after another. Here is a list of programs that I would recommend:

1. Russian program DMDE. Very effective, you can download it on the official website at the link.
2. R.saver. Well restores data even after formatting, according to signatures. Here is the link .
3. PC Inspector File Recovery powerful program. But the downside is that it is in English.

• First of all, I note that if you are recovering data from a flash drive, then when restoring, specify the path on the computer, such as the My Documents folder. Even when restoring something on a computer, specify the path to another disk partition or another disk. And it is better to read the instructions there before using the programs. It happens very useful.
• What to do, if the file is not completely restored. You can try other programs to “collect” this file, restore it. For example, with music or photos or videos, it's easier. Some programs can also read corrupted files. True, they will be damaged, not complete.

You can also try opening text documents in a simple TXT text editor. There are utilities for recovering documents, such as OfficeRecovery. Of course, no one can guarantee. But if the information is important, you can try different tools.

• There is also a case when we insert an external drive into the port, and the system asks to format it. What to do if there is very important information.

First, we try to check the disk for errors, See above. It is also possible try various programs for flash drives that can provide access, such as JetFlash Recovery Tool.

Well, if it doesn’t work out, let it format, you can then try to restore it. In any case, your drive has failed, so you need to important information pull out and, depending on the breakdown, repair or change the disk.

• It is not uncommon for a program to restore a file, but it does not open or is simply empty. In such cases, the program simply could not restore the file for some reason. Can then try other data recovery programs.
• Also, if the file was deleted a very long time ago, it can also be restored. Everything will depend only on how many sectors with the file have been overwritten. So that removal time does not always play a role. But of course, the sooner the better.

Hope I could help you. If you have any questions, write in the comments, bye bye.

How to recover deleted files from flash drive? updated: September 11, 2017 by: Subbotin Pavel

After turning on the flash drive, did you find that the files you needed were “not found”? Or, even more hilariously: is the computer happy to report that "the device is not formatted"? Do not despair, in all these cases there is still a chance to recover data.

Data recovery is possible if:

1. You did not write new files to this media or partition (otherwise, the old data that needs to be restored may be completely or partially overwritten).
2. And, no low-level formatting (or, firmware) was performed.

USB drive - seems to be opening. But - some files (which are needed) are missing. How to restore deleted items is discussed below.

When you delete a file on systems like Windows, for example, nothing is erased. The simple file is marked as "deleted". And if (accidentally deleting something necessary), there was no recording on the USB flash drive, you can restore it with one of the free programs. The simplest to date is the Recuva program). Downloading its portable version.

Recuva - file recovery

We start the program, the “Recuva master” will appear in front of us. Ignore the wizard and go to the main window of this program.

• In the marked line, the partition or external media (flash card) is selected, which now contains the "deleted" files.

• And in this line, we indicate the type of files that need to be restored (or, we write the full name of the deleted file). If we do not know, or we want to restore all deleted files, we leave this line empty.

It is necessary to recover deleted photos from a flash drive - select the "Graphics" option.

Recovery occurs automatically, in two stages. Click the "Analyze" button. A search is performed, then the program will give us a list of found files that can still be recovered. What and how to recover deleted from a flash drive, the program knows itself (it depends a little on the user). So, if the file is not in the list, there is already “nothing to be done”.

If there is, select the checkbox, click on the "Restore" button. A window will appear with a list of disks, where exactly (on which disk) to restore information. The program can restore files to the directory where they "were" once (in this case, we get a lower probability of recovery). And it’s easier to say: it’s possible to restore to the same partition, the same folder where our “deleted” file is contained, but only in emergency cases.

What if the files won't open?

If the flash drive does not open completely, or it is not possible to copy the file, in this case, there is also a way out. We try to do the following: in "My Computer", right-click - on the letter of the flash drive, then "Properties". If the flash drive looks like this:

Then - the following does not help (the flash drive will most likely have to be formatted). If - no, and the volume of the drive is shown adequately - go to the "Service" tab.

There, three options for the "service" will be offered: "Check disk", "Defragment", and "Archive". Attention! In case of problems with the file system, you can choose "Run a check" (but not "Defragment").

In this "check", put two checkmarks (for incidental "correction" of all errors), and click "Start". Upon completion, we will get a working drive.

And if - really, everything looks like in the picture above? Or, the flash card immediately asks for formatting with the message:

In this case, only data recovery with quick formatting of the drive will help.

Attention! Do not proceed with formatting if:

The drive contains really valuable information (the probability of corrupting data remains non-zero!).

There is a suspicion that the equipment is faulty (that is, the problem is in the hardware).

If at least one of the indicated requirements is met, it seems that best solution will: take the flash drive to a service center. If, however, decide to restore it yourself - the procedure is as follows:

Disconnect the USB flash drive, reboot the computer.

Once again we connect, we carry out "check".

If the flash drive still does not open, then we agree with the formatting, confirming this decision with the "Yes" button.

Formatting will select "Quick", and in the same system that was used before (most often it is FAT32). With such an operation, the file allocation table will be erased, but not the files themselves.

After passing through a quick format, the flash drive is ready for data extraction.

After formatting

How to restore folders on a USB flash drive and files inside if the USB flash drive is formatted? Consider an example with one of these programs: EasyRecovery Professional.

We start the program.

Select another tab - "Data Recovery".

And we click exactly "FormatRecovery".

Next, select the desired partition - the letter "flash drive". Also, you need to select a file system. Attention - if now you do not know which file system was used by the flash drive (FAT 32 or NTFS) - it's better not to risk it! Although, FAT is more commonly used.

The drive will be scanned, after which a warning will appear that the recovered data must be sent to another drive.

There are more “narrow-cut” versions of licensed software (many are absolutely free). For example, ObjectRescue (c ee PhotoRescue Pro) knows better how to recover photos from USB flash drives and CompactFlash drives. This program is similar in use to Recuv.

Here is another list of programs:

Documents Rescue Pro; restorer; JetFlashRecovery; Digital Media Rescue Professional.

Conclusion

It can be confidently noted here that the result of a scan may not always suit the user. AT different programs ah, for file recovery and FAT directory structure, similar algorithms work. Similar, but not the same. Recovery results may vary. Including - very noticeable.

You may have to “try” several different programs: you can use different ones, but only latest versions. Often, a positive result turned out to be just on the side of the paid ones.

In case of mechanical damage to a USB flash drive, it happens that only the controller is damaged. That is, the memory chips remained absolutely functional.

In this case, we buy a second flash drive of the same type (and it is better to change the microcircuit in service center). It depends on the qualifications, and on the experience of the manipulating the "soldering" - what happens as a result.

We hope that after recovery, the flash drive will be working. However, the really important data is now most likely not to be trusted. Is not it?

How to recover deleted folder files

Access to files on a flash drive (USB drive) can be broken for several reasons.

• careless removal;
• incorrect removal of the drive from the computer;
• physical damage;
• viral infection;
• resource exhaustion.

All reasons, except for the last one, are the result of inattention or inaccuracy of users. Most of them, in particular, simply pull the flash drive out of the computer's connector, ignoring the recommended safe removal procedure. This may damage the built-in firmware (firmware). BUT resource exhaustion is due to the fact that the number of write/delete cycles on any media is not infinite and, if it has reached the limit, then recovery is impossible, and you have to buy a new device.

Recovery methods

How to recover corrupted files from a flash drive? In most cases, this can be done in whole or in part.

Usually, when files seem to be deleted, they continue to be in their place, the path to them becomes inaccessible.

This situation persists until new entries on the flash drive, which can erase the old information. Therefore, you need to exclude new write attempts. Formatting the USB drive will further exacerbate the problem.

If you have problems opening on a USB flash drive, first of all, you need to restart your computer. If there is no effect, you need to consistently resort to the following ways recover data:

• in-system disk troubleshooter;
• elimination of the consequences of a virus attack;
• specialized programs.

Intrasystem tool

available in Windows opportunity testing and automatic correction of simple disc problems can also be used for a USB drive. To do this, follow these steps in sequence:

Elimination of the consequences of a virus attack

For reliable operation system, some important system files are assigned the "Hidden" attribute. Thus, they become invisible and protected from careless user actions.

In some cases, viruses that have entered the system do the same with the files on the USB drive, hiding them in the same way as the system ones. To check, you will need to do the following:

If, after opening the flash drive icon of the “Computer” window, translucent icons of previously invisible files became visible, then you should get rid of viruses. If after this the recovery did not occur, and the icons were not accepted normal view, then you need to manually remove the "Hidden" attribute. To do this, on the same icon:

Recuva program

If the previous manipulations were unsuccessful, then you will have to resort to the help of specialized programs. As an example, consider from Piriform (known for its widespread CCleaner). The sequence of actions after installation is as follows:

1. Run the program;
2. In the window that appears to restore corrupted data in dialog mode, it is recommended to click "Next"; for advanced users, the "Do not open the wizard at startup" mode is provided;
   
3. In the next window, you need to select the type of files to be restored;
   
   
4. Then you should click "Browse" and specify the flash drive as the location;
   
   
5. In the next window, before clicking "Start", it is recommended to check the box "Enable in-depth analysis": in this case, the recovery will take longer, but the results will be better.
   
   
6. When finished, the scan results will be displayed in color. In most cases, media information is restored better than others. The green circle indicates the possibility full recovery file, and red - that it is hopeless. A file marked with a yellow icon can be partially restored. For text documents this is an acceptable option.
7. After that, it remains to check the boxes next to the files, specify the location for recording (any, except for the flash drive!) And click "Restore".

Photos are often stored on a flash drive. If they could not be completely restored, then you can try opening them in the standard built-in Paint program, and then resaving them. Experience shows that this simple program less critical to damaged images. And for viewing partially defective video data, it is best to use the VLC player for a similar reason.

Friends, hello everyone! Now we will talk about how to recover data from a flash drive if it does not open at all or has been formatted. This topic is very popular among the population, so let's figure it out together.

And the first rule that you should know in such moments is that after the loss of data, in no case should you do any operations with files on the storage medium. This will lead to the complete destruction of the lost files and folders, since they will be overwritten in the structure.

But right now, we will have a more complicated situation than the usual erroneous formatting of the disk. The fact is that when connected, a USB drive seems to be detected by Windows 10. This can be understood by a typical sound signal when connected to a USB connector:

But the flash drive itself does not open, that is, it:

Well, let's take some action. And the first thing that comes to the mind of the author of the article is to use a free program called R Undelete Home.

You can say this application is home version a very powerful and paid R-Studio utility that can recover data even on completely deleted or reformatted files:

So let's download it from the official site and get down to business. We note right away that the Home version can only fully work with the FAT file system. For NTFS, there are some restrictions related to payment:

But since flash drives are usually marked in FAT, in our case this is ideal. free option. Before copying the program files to the system, an important message will appear, the meaning of which must be clearly understood:

Here again it is worth saying that it is strictly forbidden to copy any new files to the partition on which you want to find previously deleted files. Otherwise, the file table will be overwritten and the chances of a successful outcome of the entire rescue operation will decrease significantly.

So, we are making the first launch of the R-Undelete Home program to recover data from a USB drive that does not even open in Windows system 10. And lo and behold, it is present in the list of disks:

The process of scanning files will begin, after which you should again select the "Next" option:

At the next stage, check the required recognized partition (flash drive):

Then again check the box next to the whole disk to select all the directories found:

And specify the location to save the recovered files:

Again, in no case should this be the flash drive itself, otherwise the files will simply overwrite each other when copied. After that, the scanning process will start again, which in our case ended with good news:

So, let's now go to the previously specified directory and see what is actually there. By the way, all mp3 files were restored without problems:

But graphics (pictures, photographs) are present in the lists, but for some reason they flatly refused to open:

So the question of how you can recover data from a flash drive if it does not open still remains, because in in full data still could not be returned.

If any of you know of any other effective ways tell us about them in the comments. And this article is coming to an end, it remains only to watch a very interesting video.

Many users had to deal with the situation when the data on the flash drive suddenly disappeared. The most annoying thing is that it happens at the most inopportune moment. Only saved copies of files can save the situation. But they are not always done on time. Consider how to recover deleted data yourself and the reasons why.

The following usually happens. The user inserts a USB flash drive into the USB port and at that moment a message appears: “The disk on the device<имя_компьютера>not formatted or corrupted!” In other cases, a removable disk is added to the computer, but there are no files there. It happens that the file system is displayed as raw. This means that the structure of the file system is broken and the operating system does not recognize it and refuses access to the files. It notifies you that the flash drive needs to be formatted, which is highly undesirable if you want to recover data. The most common case is that files and folders are visible on the flash drive, but when you try to open them, a message appears that they are damaged. Sometimes deleted files turned out to be so by accident.

In the worst case, this situation may occur after a controller or memory failure or physical damage carrier. Then, most likely, you will have to put up with the loss of data.

It must be remembered that it should not be written to a USB flash drive that could not be read, nothing else will be written until, and the formatting operation cannot be performed. You can't even create files and new folders. The fact is that any information is not deleted from the media, but only the record from the file system of the drive disappears. If you write another file, then it can be written to the place of the deleted one, and it will not be completely restored, and after formatting, it will be basically impossible to restore it. This is the principle of storing data on any media. All information is not completely deleted at once, but only overwritten.

How to "revive" a flash drive using Windows?

Don't panic right away. First you need to try a few simple actions, which can "revive" the flash drive. First you need to restart your computer. Nothing will definitely worsen from this, and the data can be read. If, nevertheless, the drive is not readable, we try to disable it using the "safe removal" method and then reconnect the USB flash drive. After that, you can proceed to check the file system of the drive. It should not be designated as raw, otherwise it is necessary to carry out recovery using special programs. Next, open the "My Computer" window. We find our removable drive in the list and through the "Service" menu, select "Run a check".

Here you need to check the boxes "Automatically fix system errors" and "Check and repair bad sectors." We start and wait for the results.

Antivirus check

The first thing that can be assumed in the event of the disappearance of information is that the virus hid it. In this case, the files have not been deleted, they just need to be made visible. Let's check for presence hidden files and folders on a flash drive. Click the "Start" button and go to the "Control Panel", then go to the "Appearance and Personalization" tab. We are looking for "Folder Options". In the menu that opens, we find "View" and there we uncheck the box "Hide protected system files and folders." The disks must also be active.

Now go to "My Computer". Open your removable flash drive and look. If translucent "missing" files and folders appear in the list, then they must be copied to some folder on the computer. After that, it is necessary to conduct a thorough scan of the computer for the presence of viruses. If check installed antivirus did not find anything, then it is worth repeating it using a virus scanner. After all the procedures carried out, you can return the original settings of the "Folder Options" options. Then hidden system files and folders will not interfere with further work.

Recuva program

There is another way to recover deleted data. For this there are special programs. One of the most popular - free program Recuva. It is able to recover deleted files on a flash drive and any other drive, whether HDD, memory card, or even an old floppy disk. Provided that the formatting operation was not carried out.

First, download the program, its size is only 2 MB. Developer of this software also created several other popular programs. Among them is CCleaner to clean your computer from junk files and Speccy to diagnose computer hardware.

Installing the program is not particularly difficult. Just follow the installation instructions. After that we start the program. A welcome message will open in the first window. Here we click "Next". The next one will open the Recuva Wizard, which will offer a list with options for the types of files to be recovered. It's best to select "Other" to display all types of files that need recovery. Next, you need to select the location of the files that need to be restored. Select "In the specified location" and through the "Browse" button your flash drive.

In the next window, you can check "Enable in-depth analysis". In this case, even overwritten files will be shown. For them, unfortunately, recovery is not applicable. But in general, the search result will be better, so we recommend that you enable this option. Now it remains only to be patient and wait for the search results.

The next window will open the search result. All files on the left will be marked with a circle different color. Green color indicates that the file is not damaged and can be easily restored. in yellow files that can only be partially recovered are marked. If this is a voluminous document, then it is worth trying to restore it. Perhaps most of it will be restored. Files that cannot be recovered after deleting or formatting a flash drive are marked in red. It’s just that the “memory” of them was preserved in the records.

All required files are checked. If you need to mark the entire list, for this there is a checkmark at the top near the column of the table "File name". If necessary, you can sort by any parameter:

• condition;
• the size;
• file change;
• path.

Now click "Restore" and specify the folder to save the selected files. It is important to remember that this folder must be on any other medium, but not on a damaged flash drive.

When the restore is complete, a report will open. A new window will appear in which it will be indicated how many files were restored completely and how many partially.

After restoring, you need to remember that you can extract several files from partially restored archives. For a document drawn up in Word program, the text may contain unreadable chunks. Partially restored images may not be viewable. To view incompletely restored videos, you should use the VLC player. It is the most unpretentious to the contents of the file and can show the maximum of the recovered information. All this is relevant before the formatting procedure.

Results

During the recovery process, the same type of questions often arise. I would like to remind all users that you should first try to recover information, even after formatting the drive, and only then ask questions. Perhaps the file system will be marked as raw. Sometimes it seems that the files were not restored or not all of them were restored. Then it is worth double-checking that everything was done correctly. Once again, you need to make sure that the flash drive was selected for scanning and the file system is different from raw. It does not matter how much time has passed since the files were deleted - the fact of overwriting or formatting is important. Provided that nothing has been written to the flash drive yet, the probability of recovery is very high. Recuva can recover deleted data from any media that appears as a removable drive. It is better to restore the memory card of a phone or camera using a card reader. Then they are recognized by the computer as removable media, and not as a media device.