Do you have an inoperable USB flash drive or other media and you are wondering which program to choose for recovery?

We have reviewed the most popular utilities. Which of the above programs is right for you and will restore a flash drive with a 100% guarantee?

A one-of-a-kind program will help you pull out all the data Hetman Partition recovery. It is loved by both beginners and pros for its convenience, speed and advanced data recovery algorithm. Your files will be found and copied even when the FS of the media is no longer available or it is damaged.

JetFlash Recovery Tool is a proprietary utility that has the simplest interface and support for working with Transcend, JetFlash and A-DATA drives. Management of only two buttons, obviously you will like it. Do not forget that the cleared data cannot be restored, so saving information from a USB flash drive will not be superfluous.

If you need to always have a universal program with you, which is convenient to use both on your home computer and outside it, we recommend D-Soft Flash Doctor, its platform does not require pre-installation, it starts instantly on any PC. Software suitable for repair, unlock,
restore the volume of the flash drive and its performance.

If you need to recover SD cards, we advise you to download F-Recovery SD, which has an effective set of simple options for working with damaged flash drives from digital cameras and other portable devices. From the point of view of a professional approach to Flash drives, it will be interesting to use the Flash Memory Toolkit, the application contains a whole range of additional functionality that can test flash drives, in addition, the program works with any version of the OS from Microsoft.

To recognize the maximum number of different types of Flash Drives, among the above utilities, as well as quickly reanimate the performance of drives, the USB formatting and recovery utility can Disk Storage Format Tool, which has a very clear and user-friendly interface. The USB Disk Storage flash drive repair program will be able to quickly recover data from damaged partitions hard drive even if flash drive firmware problems are detected.

If no flash drive recovery program has helped, we recommend checking the status of the memory controller using the ChipGenius utility. The program works with USB, micro sd, SD, SDHC and USB-Mpz players from Kingston, Silicon Power, Transcend, Adata, PQI. Further actions to correct errors, restore lost data are only advisable if
flash drive is defined in Chip Genius.

Good time!

It is not uncommon for all sorts of troubles to occur with SD cards and USB flash drives: either they are not read, then copying takes too long, then various kinds of errors appear (that formatting is required, etc.). And sometimes it happens out of the blue...

In this article, I want to recommend a dozen utilities that have helped me out more than once or twice. With their help, you can work with flash drives and drives from different manufacturers (Silicon Power, Kingston, Transcend, etc.), i.e. it is a universal software. I think the material will come in handy for everyone who periodically encounters similar problems.

For testing and diagnostics

CrystalDiskMark

A very useful little utility. Allows you to quickly get data on the speed of reading / writing. Supports not only USB flash drives, but also classic HDDs, SSDs, external hard drives, and other drives (which "Windows" sees).

Note: in most cases, they are guided by the first line "Sec" (sequential write read speed). Read - reading, Write - recording.

USB Flash benchmark

Developer site: http://usbflashspeed.com/

Another utility for testing the speed of flash drives. It allows you to get not only some numbers, but also compare them with other drives (i.e. evaluate your flash drive with other device models). This can be done due to the fact that the test results are stored on the site of the same name (along with flash drive models).

By the way! If you decide to buy a fast flash drive - just go to the site http://usbflashspeed.com/ and see the top 10. This way you can get what other people have already experienced in practice!

h2testw

A small utility from German programmers. Designed to scan USB drives for their real volume (approx. : some flash drives, for example, from Chinese manufacturers, come with a "fake" oversized volume) . In these cases, it is enough to run the flash drive with H2testw, and then format it correctly.

How to find out the real volume of a flash drive and restore its performance (using H2testw) -

Flash Memory Toolkit

Flash Memory Toolkit is a good complex for servicing USB devices. Allows you to perform a range of the most necessary actions:

1. testing drives for read and write errors;
2. data recovery from flash drives;
3. viewing properties and characteristics;
4. the ability to create a backup flash drive;
5. low-level drive speed test.

Flashnul

Developer site: http://shounen.ru/

This program can diagnose and fix many software errors (especially when it is not clear what is happening with the flash drive at all: i.e. no errors are displayed). In addition, it supports almost all flash media: USB flash drives, CompactFlash, SD, MMC, MS, XD, etc.

Capabilities:

1. read and write testing: the availability of each sector of the media will be checked;
2. checking the integrity of files on the USB drive;
3. the ability to make an image of the contents on a flash drive (may be useful for data recovery);
4. the ability to sector-by-sector write an image to a USB device;
5. some operations can be performed for other types of media: HDD, CD, floppy disk etc.

ChipEasy

A free and very simple utility for getting complete information about a flash drive. It is very useful in cases where the marking on the flash drive itself has been erased (or it was not there at all).

What data does ChipEasy provide:

1. VID
2. manufacturer;
3. controller model;
4. serial number;
5. firmware information;
6. memory model;
7. Max. current consumption, etc.

Flash Drive Information

The utility is similar to the previous one. Allows you to find out all the information about the drive (flash drive, memory card) in 2 clicks: model, controller, memory, etc.

For formatting and repair

HDD Low Level Format Tool

Program for low-level* formatting of hard drives, SD cards, flash drives and other drives. I would note its "unpretentiousness": even if other utilities freeze when trying to access the flash drive (or they don't see it), HDD Low Level Format Tool can help in most cases...

Peculiarities:

1. most manufacturers (Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, etc.) and interfaces (SATA, IDE, USB, SCSI, Firewire) are supported;
2. when formatting, absolutely all information from the disk is cleared (partition table, MBR);
3. recovering information from a disk after formatting with the help of HDD Low Level Format Tool is almost impossible!

MyDiskFix

A free little utility designed to low-level formatting bad flash drives. It will come in handy in cases where your flash drive cannot be formatted using standard Windows tools, when the flash drive shows the wrong size, or a write error occurs.

Note: before formatting in MyDiskFix, you need to find out how many real-working sectors are on your flash drive. This can be done, for example, using the H2Test utility (which was given above).

USB Disk Storage Format Tool

A small utility to format HDD/USB Flash drive (supported file systems: NTFS, FAT, FAT32). By the way, the USB Disk Storage Format Tool does not require installation, it does not freeze if it works with bad flash drives, from which it takes minutes to wait for a response (like, for example, the standard formatting utility in Windows).

Peculiarities:

• fast and secure formatting of the drive;
• when full formatting through the utility, all data from the flash drive is deleted (later, not a single file from it can be restored);
• scan the drive for errors;
• creating partitions with the FAT 32 file system larger than 32 GB;
• tested with 1000 different flash drives (Compact Flash, CF Card II, Memory Stick Duo Pro, SDHC, SDXC, Thumb Drive, etc.), and various manufacturers (HP, Sony, Lexar, Imation, Toshiba, PNY, ADATA, etc.). ).

Format USB Or Flash Drive Software

A specialized utility for working with failed USB drives. Allows you to format and restore the flash drive. I would also note its very simple interface (see the screen above), and the ability to work without installation.

Peculiarities:

• file systems support: FAT, FAT32, eXFAT, NTFS;
• simple and convenient interface;
• the possibility of full and quick formatting;
• the ability to "see" drives that Explorer refuses to "show";
• the ability to integrate into the Windows menu;
• compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10.

Transcend RecoveRx

Multifunctional program: allows you to recover files from flash drives, format them, and protect them with a password. In general, this program is designed for flash drives from the manufacturer Transcend, but I cannot help but note that the formatting option also works for flash drives from other manufacturers.

RecoveRx is a fairly "omnivorous" program: it supports USB flash drives, memory cards, MP3 players, external hard drives (HDD) and solid state drives(SSD).

JetFlash Recovery Tool

This utility will help in cases where standard Windows tools just do not see the flash drive. Only Transcend, JetFlash and A-DATA USB sticks are officially supported (many more unofficially).

Important! Keep in mind that the program in the process of repairing (restoring) a flash drive produces complete removal all data from it! If you have the opportunity to save something from a faulty flash drive - do it.

Peculiarities:

1. simple and free utility (only 2 buttons!);
2. compatible with Windows 7, 8, 10 (also works with older OS Windows XP, 2000 (other OS - operation is not guaranteed));
3. only 3 manufacturers are officially supported: Transcend, A-DATA and JetFlash;
4. automatic recovery of the drive (the user needs to press only 1 button);
5. low system requirements;
6. no utility installation required.

SD Formatter

Formatting a Canon SD card in SD Formatter

This utility is designed to repair and restore memory cards: SD, SDHC, SDXC, microSD. The developers have specially oriented their product for the needs of photographers, video operators, and specialists in the maintenance of such equipment.

Drive recovery occurs in auto mode. Suitable in a variety of cases: with errors in the software, virus infection, failures, due to misuse etc.

Note: in the process of working with a flash drive - SD Formatter will delete all data from it!

D-Soft Flash Doctor

A small portable program for diagnosing and repairing broken flash drives (low-level formatting, soft reset). In addition, he can create images from flash drives / memory cards and write them to other storage media.

The program supports the Russian language (since the developer is from Kazakhstan), and is compatible with all modern Windows 7, 8, 10 operating systems.

To recover files from a flash drive

R. Saver

Easy to use recovery software deleted files from various types of media: hard drives, memory cards, flash drives, etc. Can be used for various errors, file system failures, after formatting, virus infection, etc.

Supports NTFS, FAT and ExFAT file systems. For residents of Russia (when used for non-commercial purposes) the program is free.

Important!

You can learn more about working with R.Saver in the article on how to recover photos from microSD cards memory or USB flash drive -

Recuva

A program for recovering files from the developers of CCleaner (the famous utility for cleaning Windows of junk files).

Recuva allows you to work not only with HDD, but also with USB flash drives, external drives, SSD, memory cards. The program is aimed at a novice user, so its use is very simple.

Peculiarities:

1. all actions in the program are performed in steps;
2. 2 modes for scanning drives;
3. sorting files by their name, size, status, etc.;
4. the utility is free;
5. Russian is supported;
6. compatible with Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 (32/64 bits).

MiniTool Power Data Recovery

A very powerful program (with unique scanning algorithms) that will allow you to recover data from broken flash drives, memory cards, external drives, CDs, and other drives. Popular file systems are supported: FAT 12/16/32, NTFS.

From myself, I note that in my humble opinion, the algorithms of the program are actually different from other programs of this kind, tk. several times with its help it was possible to recover information when other software simply did not find anything ...

Note : in free version MiniTool Power Data Recovery can only recover 1 GB of information.

Addition!

In general, there are quite a lot of such programs ( approx. : which can scan the drive and recover some of the deleted files). In one of my previous articles, I already cited a dozen of the most successful free products (most of them work not only with classic HDDs, but also with flash drives). I post a link to the article below.

10 free programs to recover deleted data: files, documents, photos -

That's all for now. Additions on useful and interesting utilities are always welcome.

A variety of problems with USB drives or flash drives is something that, probably, every owner of them faces. The computer does not see the flash drive, files are not deleted or written, Windows writes that the disk is write-protected, the amount of memory is displayed incorrectly - this is not a complete list of such problems. Perhaps, if the computer simply does not detect the drive, this guide will also help you: (3 ways to solve the problem). If the flash drive is detected and working, but you need to recover files from it, I recommend that you first read the material.

If a various ways fix USB drive errors by manipulating drivers, actions in Windows Disk Management, or using command line(diskpart, format, etc.) did not lead to a positive result, you can try utilities and programs for repairing flash drives provided by both manufacturers, such as Kingston, Silicon Power and Transcend, and third-party developers.

On the official website of Silicon Power in the "Support" section, a program for repairing flash drives from this manufacturer is presented - USB Flash Drive Recovery. You will need to enter an address to download. Email(not checked), then the UFD_Recover_Tool ZIP archive is loaded, which contains the SP Recovery Utility (requires the .NET Framework 3.5 components to work, will be loaded automatically if necessary).

Similar to the previous program, SP Flash Drive Recovery requires an Internet connection to work and recovery takes place in several stages - determining the parameters of a USB drive, downloading and unpacking a suitable utility for it, then automatically performing the necessary actions.

You can download Silicon Power SP Flash Drive Recovery Software for flash drives for free from the official website http://www.silicon-power.com/web/download-USBrecovery

If you are the drive owner Kingston DataTraveler HyperX 3.0, then on the Kingston official website you can find a utility for repairing this line of flash drives, which will help you format the drive and bring it to the state it had when you bought it.

You can download Kingston Format Utility for free from https://www.kingston.com/ru/support/technical/downloads/111247

ADATA USB Flash Drive Online Recovery

The manufacturer Adata also has its own utility that will help you fix flash drive errors if you cannot read the contents of the flash drive, Windows reports that the drive is not formatted, or you see other errors associated with the drive. To download the program, you will need to enter the serial number of the flash drive (so that exactly what is required is loaded) as in the screenshot below.

After downloading - run the downloaded utility and follow a few simple steps to restore the USB device.

The official page where you can download ADATA USB Flash Drive Online Recovery and read about using the program - http://www.adata.com/ru/ss/usbdiy/

Apacer Repair Utility, Apacer Flash Drive Repair Tool

Several programs are available for Apacer flash drives at once - different versions Apacer Repair Utility (which, however, cannot be found on the official website), as well as Apacer Flash Drive Repair Tool, available for download at official pages some of the Apacer flash drives (search the official website for your specific USB drive model and check out the downloads section at the bottom of the page).

Apparently, the program performs one of two actions - simple formatting of the drive (Format item) or low-level formatting (Restore item).

Formatter Silicon Power

Formatter Silicon Power is a free low-level formatting utility for flash drives, which, according to reviews (including in the comments to the current article), works for many other drives (but use it at your own peril and risk), allowing you to restore their performance when no other methods do not help.

The utility is no longer available on the official SP site, so you will have to use Google to download it (I do not give links to unofficial locations within this site) and do not forget to check the downloaded file, for example, on VirusTotal before running it.

SD Memory Card Formatter for repairing and formatting SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards (including Micro SD)

The Association of SD Memory Card Manufacturers offers its own universal utility for formatting appropriate memory cards in case of problems with them. At the same time, judging by available information, it is compatible with almost all such drives.

The program itself is available in versions for Windows (there is support for Windows 10) and MacOS and is quite easy to use (but you will need a card reader).

You can download SD Memory Card Formatter from the official website https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

D-Soft Flash Doctor

The free program D-Soft Flash Doctor is not tied to any particular manufacturer and, judging by the reviews, can help fix problems with a flash drive through low-level formatting.

In addition, the program allows you to create a flash drive image for later work on a non-physical drive (to avoid further malfunctions) - this can be useful if you need to get data from a Flash drive. Unfortunately, the official website of the utility could not be found, but it is available on many resources with free programs.

How to find a program to repair a flash drive

Actually this kind free utilities there are much more to repair flash drives than listed here: I tried to take into account only relatively “universal” tools for USB drives from different manufacturers.

It is possible that none of the above utilities are suitable for restoring the health of your USB drive. In this case, you can use the following steps to find the right program.

Optional: if all the methods described are repaired USB stick didn't work, try it.

Until quite recently, we stored music, videos, and electronic documents on CDs or floppy disks. However, gradually these media disappeared, they were replaced by a much more compact and capacious flash drive, USB or just a flash drive. It serves as a fairly reliable "storage" of any information, but even a USB drive

sometimes breaks. What to do if the flash drive does not boot or is not detected in the system? You can throw away an unusable drive and buy a new one if nothing important is left on it. But sometimes a thesis or a single copy of an important document remains there, and it has to be restored. Transcend is no different from the same "operation" with any other brand of drive.

So, let's consider a situation in which the flash drive "hung" during the recording process and was not determined when it was reconnected. However, in the list USB devices appeared, but the disk manager did not show its icon. These symptoms indicate a controller failure. Any drives, including Transcend flash drives, are based on a control chip or controller. Various failures or power problems block the controller, and inaccessible sectors appear on the USB. If the flash drive

"hung" due to a system failure, you should do the following:

1. Determine the name and manufacturer of the controller.
2. Find a utility developed by this company.
3. Put the control chip in test mode and restore.

Let's start the recovery of the Transcend flash drive by disassembling it into parts - this is the easiest way to find out the manufacturer of the microcircuit. Disassembling a USB drive is easy, just bend the edge of the sticker on its case, press a thin object on the latch, which is hidden under the sticker, and carefully pull the connector. The controller is essentially printed circuit board. On one side is a chip, and on the other - a memory chip. Both sides contain the data necessary for recovery.

Having decided on the manufacturer of the controller, we will continue to restore the Transcend flash drive. The next step is to find a utility from the manufacturer. It must support the controller with the given number. You can download the service utility from a resource that distributes free software. If no application flash drive "view

it”, it should be switched to test mode. Which contacts need to be closed for this is indicated in the documentation of the drive. Having found a suitable program, you should install the factory driver that came with it. You can find it in the folder with the installed utility.

Now the direct recovery of the Transcend flash drive begins. First, download the utility and start searching for the drive. After waiting for it to be displayed in the program, press the "Start" button, thereby launching the diagnostics and formatting of the drive. In this case, it should be remembered that all data recorded on the USB flash drive will be erased. To restore the maximum volume of a flash drive, it is worth formatting it twice. After the message about the successful completion of the “operation”, disable the factory driver, return the flash drive to normal operating mode and reboot it.

I hope my story on how to recover data on a flash drive will come in handy more than once in a hopeless situation.

Today it is impossible to imagine a more convenient tool for quickly saving information than a flash drive. For many reasons, the main of which is still the technical imperfection of flash drives, a memory device convenient in all respects in the form of a key fob can still fail. Recovering a Transcend flash drive will be the topic of our story. However, the algorithm of electronic "reincarnation" given below is also effective for miniature "stores" of other brands.

Introduction: interesting theory

Before restoring a Transcend flash drive, you need to understand what we will have to deal with in general. Knowledge of the technical part of the device will greatly facilitate the overall troubleshooting process. However, we will not delve into technical subtleties and fill our heads with various technological terms. We only need to understand the main thing - what does a miniature drive consist of.

How a flash drive works: a look from the inside

• As a rule, the NAND FLASH chip takes up the most space on the board. Depending on the manufacturability of the finished product and its ability to remember (nominal amount of stored data), a particular Flash Drive may have one or more of these elements. If you restore a Transcend 16 gb flash drive, you should most likely know that there are two such NAND chips. It is worth noting that there are three main types of stipulated memory: SLC, MLC and TLC.
• The second most important detail is the controller. For different manufacturers, such a component may differ from similar ones both in terms of typical and software features. This microcircuit performs several functions: it converts the supply voltage, controls the LED indicator (if any), and carries out the process of communicating with the host computer. Also, the controller contains a special area of ​​memory in which the firmware is located - this is the firmware, with the help of which the general interaction with all the internal components of the Flash media takes place.
• There are also SMD elements and a quartz resonator on the board.

After a while, you will understand how much the above information will make it easier for you to recover a Transcend flash drive.

We determine the cause of the malfunction

As practice shows, the main source that causes the inoperability of a Flash-Drive device is the banal software failure, the main "symptoms" of which are:

• The mass storage device is not seen by the computer at all when inserted into the USB connector, but reacts to the insertion with a sound signal.
• The operating system defines only a part of the disk space of the removable media.
• The flash drive is recognized by the computer OS, but does not "want" to work with it.

Even in the event that you did not violate the operating rules, and some of us (users) unknowingly abuse the method of removing a USB flash drive from a PC “at a gallop”, it is still not uncommon for a miniature memory device to partially or completely fail due to independent us with you reasons. And yet it would be somewhat reckless on our part to discount the likelihood of mechanical damage, but more on that later ...

Step One: Comprehensive Action Analysis

Do not rush to look for recovery utilities flash drives Transcend. Perhaps your computer is faulty, or the reason for the inoperability of removable media lies in one of the "whims" of the PC:

• Check if the "problematic" drive works on another computer.
• Disconnect all peripherals from your PC.
• Connect the Flash Drive to one of the main system USB ports ( rear end block).
• Go to the system event log and make sure that there have been no recent driver conflicts. Otherwise, the "flying" software should be reinstalled.
• Clean the system of traces of previously connected Flash devices (USBOblivion utility will help you).

If the above did not help, and the carrier still "does not want" to work fully, proceed to the next part of the article.

Step Two: Checking the Physical Integrity of the Flash Drive Device

Hardware recovery of a Transcend flash drive is not always a difficult process (in terms of its implementation):

• Inspect the "non-working" flash drive from all sides.
• Chips, deep scratches should alert you.
• Look inside the USB connector - perhaps one of the contacts is bent or even dangling, closing the adjacent connector.

In the event that you hear that something has fallen off inside the case, or a visual inspection requires a deeper analysis, carefully dismantle the case frame of the Flash drive. Inspect the integrity of the internal soldering, especially at the points of contact between the metal part of the USB connector and the main electronic board.

Step Three: Diagnosing the Memory Device and Collecting Removable Storage Data

Correct recovery of a Transcend 8gb flash drive (including a different volume rating) is possible only when the user knows the exact information about his model.

Namely:

• What type of memory is installed on the Flash-Drive device (its unique ID).
• Which controller the removable media is equipped with (its manufacturer, model ID and firmware version).

You can find out all this data by running the ChipGenius utility on your PC, which you can easily find on the network, after which you just have to download the restorer you need and return the flash drive to "digital life".

Step Four: Direct Flash Drive Recovery Process

In most cases, the JetFlash Online Recovery utility helps. Download it latest version and run it on your computer. By the way, in the process of using this software, you need a constant Internet connection.

So, as soon as the Transcend flash drive recovery utility is launched, and your faulty removable drive is inserted into the USB port, click the rightmost button "Yes" and wait until the program performs all "resuscitation" actions.

At the end of the repair process, remove the drive from the connector and reconnect the flash drive.

With a high degree of probability, your Flash-Drive will become operational again.

Finally

As you can see, nothing is impossible! It's not as difficult as you may have thought before. The only thing you should still beware of is haste and rash actions. Do not doubt your own abilities, be sure - and you will succeed!