Almost every person who, one way or another, is connected with computers, at least once, has encountered the problem of a flash card malfunction. It can be expressed in different ways: Windows does not see the flash drive, refuses to format it, there are failures when copying and moving files, or the wrong amount of memory is determined.

You can restore the Kingston drive using special software

Most simple cases can be cured by simply formatting the flash drive using the operating system. Windows systems. To do this, you need to insert it into your computer and, after identifying it, go to My Computer, right-click on the drive and select Format. After successful formatting, the system will notify you about it.

If after formatting the problems remained or it ended in failure, for example, the operating system gave an error - “Windows cannot complete formatting”, then you need to try another method. For example, Kingston provides special tools for their drives to restore their performance. The program for recovering a Kingston flash drive is easily downloaded from the company's official website, in the support section. After downloading, you need to unpack and run it. In the window that opens, select the desired drive and click Format. After formatting in a special way, the flash drive should work.

Another way worth trying is to use a low-level formatter. Such a program, for example, D-Soft Flash Doctor or similar. It is not focused on any particular drive or manufacturer, so it can format any flash drives and memory cards.

If all these actions did not lead to anything, then there were serious problems with the controller.

Recovering a Kingston flash drive using firmware

You can restore a flash drive using a special utility for low-level firmware of its controller. But there are situations when there really is nothing to help the device, except for physical intervention, such as soldering or connecting to special devices.

If the drive has the following viability criteria, then there is still a chance to restore it:

• Windows detects a flash drive when it is plugged into a computer port;
• after inserting the flash drive into the slot, the system automatically asks for formatting;
• the drive identifies itself, is visible in the system, when accessing it, the message "Insert disk ..." is displayed;
• systematic errors when copying or moving files to a USB flash drive;
• slow speed of the drive as a whole.

Before restoring the Kingston flash drive, you need to find out the controller identifiers. You need two of them, the first - VID, contains the manufacturer's identifier. The second is PID, which stands for the product code. You need to determine them with a utility like Flash Drive Information Extractor. After receiving them, you can write them down somewhere.

Finding a recovery utility

Directly for the firmware you will need special utility, capable of flashing a flash drive controller at a low level. Such special programs are usually available only from equipment manufacturers. With the help of them, they carry out the initial firmware, repair and testing of devices. Sometimes these utilities get on the net by accident, and sometimes manufacturers share them. But the problem is that each manufacturer has its own utility, which can be different depending on the controller model and the amount of memory.

For search desired program it is for the reanimated model that SID and PID will be needed. There is one service on the net called Flashboot.ru, which stores thousands of utilities for flashing various devices and gadgets.

In the SID and PID fields, you must substitute the received numbers and click search. The service can display several program options at once. It is necessary to choose the one in the description of which the corresponding volume of the restored drive is indicated. Also, the list may contain utilities for other manufacturers. It must be remembered that it is necessary to restore the Kingston flash drive, so its most appropriate configuration is selected from the list. The Utils field describes the name of the program. After finding the desired line in the list, you need to copy the name of the utility and go to the files section of the flashboot.ru website. Paste the name you copied into the search bar and click Find.

After finding the utility, you need to download it to your computer and unpack it. Sometimes a situation arises when the desired program is not in the files. Then you can just look for her by name in any search engine.

Using the Kingston flash drive recovery software

Using the utility is the easiest part of the operation. You just need to insert a USB flash drive, run the program and click on the Start button in the program. Of course, the design, localization and method of operation of different utilities for different flash drives may be different, but the essence is the same, and it is intuitive. After successfully flashing the controller, the operating system may immediately offer to format the revived flash drive.

If nothing helped

If nothing helped or the utility was not found, then it means that, most likely, one of the drive's electrical circuit modules is physically damaged. In such a situation, only a service center can help. Specialists will be able to physically connect to the contacts of the flash drive and analyze or scan for damage. If the flash drive is repairable, then it will be repaired, if not, then nothing will help it.

At the moment, the most popular digital information storage devices are USB flash drives and microSD memory cards. Almost any material thing, a flash drive, unfortunately, is no exception, tends to deteriorate and lose in performance over time, which leads to loss or corruption of the data on it. In this article, we will look at programs and standard means operating system Windows 7 and 10 to recover flash drives and memory cards as such, as well as the data stored on them.

Restoring the file system of a RAW flash drive

Flash drive that needs recovery from RAW format, one of the most common problems concerning file system on a flash drive. You will learn how to restore the file system of a flash drive by reading the guide below. Consider the sequence of actions:

1. Open the Start menu and start typing "create and". Click once with the left mouse button on the icon that appears system utility"Creating and Formatting Hard Disk Partitions".
2. In the Disk Management window that opens, locate the disk whose memory size matches the memory of the drive that needs to be restored. The system will show the data on it as unallocated. In our case, this device is called "Disk 1".
   
3. Right-click on the crossed-out space and select the "Create a simple volume" option from the drop-down list.
   
4. You will be greeted by the "Create a Simple Volume Wizard". Click on the Next > button.
   
5. The next window will prompt you to specify the size of the volume. To use all the available space on the drive, the number in the "Simple volume size (MB)" item must match the number of megabytes in the " Maximum size(MB)". Click Next > .
   
6. In the next window, you can assign a drive letter A - Z. After selecting, click again Next>.
   
7. In this window, leave everything unchanged, except for the "Volume Label" parameter. Here you can specify the name that the flash drive will receive after formatting. The easiest way to be guided by this principle is the name of the manufacturer's company and the volume of the device. If you had to restore a 16 GB flash drive from Kingston, then you should call it “Kingston 16 GB”.
   
8. The last window will show the parameters set for the new volume. Click Done.
   

Ready. Now you can open the data on the drive using the built-in "Explorer". In Disk Management, the device will be marked in blue - a sign that it is working properly.

How to recover a formatted flash drive

The flash drive recovery process depends on how it was formatted. If it was a quick cleanup, then getting the files back to the drive would be easy. Deep cleaning involves a more thorough removal of information, which leads to difficulties in recovery. Also, the instruction below is suitable for users who are interested in how to recover a damaged flash drive and how to recover a flash drive without formatting. Let's take a closer look:

1. Download and install the program "Ontrack EasyRecovery Proffesional 12".
2. In the main window, select the "Everything" option and click Next.
   
3. Click on the drive you are going to restore, then Scan.
   
4. The program will start scanning. The waiting time will depend on the storage capacity of the drive.
   
5. After completing the check, the application will display a window with a summary of the information found.
   
6. Select the files you want to recover and click Recover .
   
7. Click on the Browse button.
   
8. In the Windows system "Explorer" window, select a location to save the file. Important: you cannot immediately save files to the device from which they were recovered.
   
9. Click on the Start Saving button.
   

Ready. Now the files are restored and ready for further work.

How to restore microSD

Bringing the microSD card into working condition identical to the same process on a flash drive, you just have to use special program, designed to work with MicroSD-devices. Below are the instructions for restoring a microSD drive in SD Card Formatter:

The microSD drive is now ready to go.

Recovering data from a microSD memory card

Since memory cards are essentially the same flash drives, but designed to work in mobile devices - tablets, mobile phones, DVRs, and so on, data recovery from them can be done using the same tools that are used for flash drives. One such application, which is distributed free of charge, is Disk Drill. Let's take a look at his work:

1. Download latest version Disk Drill from the official site and install it.
2. After starting the program, find your memory card and click on the Recover button opposite it.
   
3. Disk Drill will start searching deleted files on the drive, so you will need to wait a while before completion.
   
4. When finished, Disk Drill will list all found files, sorted into folders with their data type: audio, photos, documents, and more. Check the ones you need and click Recover. By default, recovered files will be saved to the My Documents directory. To change the path, click on the open folder next to the Recover button.
   
5. Disk Drill will display a window with information about the weight of the saved documents and their number.
   

Now you can use your newly acquired files.

SanDisk Flash Drive Recovery

SanDisk has never released an official program to fix their flash devices. But if you need to recover a sandisk flash drive, then there are many tools on the Internet for this, one of which, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, will be discussed below. The sequence of actions will be as follows:

Data recovery from SanDisk flash drives

Let's try to recover data from SanDisk flash drives using R.saver. Consider the sequence of actions:

After the process is completed, you can use the recovered data.

Data Recovery from Transcend Flash Drives

Almost all well-known manufacturers of flash drives have the same situation with the availability of special software for working with them - unfortunately, it is not available. Fortunately, there are many programs from third-party developers that work equally well with all devices from any manufacturer. In this guide, we will answer the question of how to restore a Transcend flash drive using the Recuva program from Piriform, the creators of CCleaner. Let's take a look at her work:

1. Download the Recuva app from the official website of the developer.
2. At the top of the window, select your flash drive and click "Scan".
   
3. After these steps, a progress indicator will appear on the screen and the approximate waiting time until the disk scan is completed.
4. From the list of files that appears, select the ones you need and click Recover.
   
5. In the system "Explorer" Windows, specify the location on the disk where you want to save the data.
6. The program will display a window with information about the saved documents. Click OK.

Now you can continue to use the data that is important to you.

Formatting Transcend Flash Drives

To bring the flash drive into working condition, in most cases, one formatting of the data store is enough. To do this, in the guide below, we will use free program AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. The sequence of actions will be as follows:

1. After installing and launching AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, select your flash drive in the program window, and on the left side of the interface, find and click on the Format Partition operation.
   
2. In the window that appears, you can change the name of the flash drive. To do this, in the "Partition Label" field, enter any other name. Click OK to prepare the data store for formatting.
   
3. Select "Apply" in the top left corner.
   
4. The pending operations window contains a description of what changes or tools will be applied to the device. To continue, click the Go button.
   
5. In the next window, select Yes.
6. Now AOMEI Partition Assistant will start formatting the USB drive. Wait a while.
   
7. Upon completion of work with your device, the application will display a window in which it will be said that the formatting was completed successfully. Click OK.

Now you can continue to work with the flash drive.

Restoring a microSD card on an Android phone

Thanks to the continuous development of mobile operating systems, in some situations they are not inferior in capabilities to their desktop counterparts. Since almost every phone or tablet has a microSD card slot, it would be strange not to find built-in system tools for working with it. The material below will tell you how to format a memory card using only one mobile phone on Android. Consider the sequence of actions:

1. Open the settings menu on your device.
2. Find an item called "Memory" or something like that. Go into it.
3. Select the "Empty SD card" option.
4. The utility for cleaning and formatting the removable drive will open. Click on the red button Clean and Format.
5. The card will be cleared. Do not remove it during formatting and wait for it to complete.
6. Now your device is ready to work, which the utility will undoubtedly inform you about. Click on the Done button.

Now you can continue to use your smartphone as if nothing had happened.

Conclusion

In our information age, there is a need to store digital information. For this, USB flash drives and microSD memory cards are used. But over time, like any thing, they can deteriorate, which leads to the loss of information stored on them. This article describes how to recover such drives and the data they contain.

Related videos

A program for correct cleaning of storage devices and recovery of flash drives after failures. Suitable for all Kingston brand drives.

What you need to know about Kingston Format Utility:

is a tiny utility for formatting Flash-based devices (memory cards, flash drives, etc.). The application was originally created for Kingston HyperX XXGB / DTHX30 series storage devices, but it is compatible with all manufacturer's flash drives. Cleaning data (re-flashing) flash drives with Kingston Format Utility tools is suitable for various cases - if the system incorrectly considers the disk write-protected and shows “Format fail” when deleting, or if there is a need to restore flash drives Kingston DataTraveler or other series in case an error occurs while reading the data.

The utility interface consists of one window. It contains two drop-down menus. In the first block "Device" you can select the device to be cleared. If the field is not filled in, it means that there are no Kingston flash drives connected to the computer. In the second field, "File System", you can select the file system that will be used after formatting. To start the process of eliminating all files, click the "Format" button. Thanks to this algorithm, Kingston Format Utility is very convenient to use when you need to format several devices.

Briefly and clearly:

1. device formatting;
2. file system selection - NTFS/FAT32/FAT/exFAT;
3. support for Kingston components;
4. compatibility with media of different sizes.

Recovery of USB flash drives has its own characteristics. The good news is that these devices, unlike SD cards, are repairable. Therefore, if it is impossible to exchange a flash drive under warranty, why not take advantage of a 60-70% chance to repair it.

The article will consider various cases, typical problems associated with the breakdown of flash drives, and options for solving them.

Recover data or repair flash drive?

They are not the same thing, although the concepts are related.

The main task that the repair solves is to restore the performance of the flash drive so that it:

• defined as a storage device in Disk management,
• was correctly defined in Explorer,
• read and write data.

As a result of repairing a usb flash drive, it is easy to lose all the data on it, while it will be available for writing and reading.

File recovery is possible only on a working USB flash drive.

The main reasons for the failure of a usb flash drive

How to understand that a USB flash drive needs repair:

• When a flash drive is connected, the LED on its case does not light;
• The device is not recognized on another computer / laptop;
• The flash drive is defined as an unidentified usb device.

Damage to a USB drive is easy. Like any physical device, flash memory is subject to external influences (shock, thermal effects, water ingress, etc.). In addition, there are a number of software errors due to which the flash drive does not work.

Damaged USB connector pins

Often, the problem lies in a damaged contact between the controller and the USB connector.

How to check. To check the flash drive for this problem, test it on another computer. Alternatively, insert another USB flash drive (if available) into the USB port of the same computer.

If other flash drives are readable on a PC without problems, the problem is probably in the current storage medium.

If you are unable to read data from a flash drive only on this computer, the problem may be in the USB sockets motherboard PC or laptop.

How to fix.

1. Here is a link to a third-party guide on how to repair a usb connector: Repairing a usb connector on a laptop yourself.
2. If you don't want to mess around with wires, it's better to send a PC or USB flash drive with a broken usb port in for repair. approximate cost usb replacements - $ 20 - 50.

Hardware-mechanical problem: damaged controller

Most often, everything rests on the flash drive controller, which is the main link in the operation of the drive. The controller contains important microcircuits, and disconnecting a contact or burning out a leg will make data recovery on a flash drive very problematic.

How to fix a flash drive.

1. Replace the controller yourself (which is unrealistic at home).
2. Take the USB drive to the service - however, repairing the flash memory will cost decent money. You will not find a controller for a USB flash drive on sale. In the laboratory, they can find a donor flash drive and “replant” the faulty controller.
3. If the data stored on a flash drive is vital and you would like to recover it, the laboratory can use an expensive software and hardware system to extract data bypassing the hardware controller.

The cost of services can be found directly from specialists in a company that repairs flash drives in your city. It can start from $30 and go up to $500-1000.

Flashing a damaged flash drive

The USB flash drive contains firmware - microcode with service data. If the firmware of the usb flash drive is damaged, it will inevitably stop working.

How to fix. Such a flash drive cannot be formatted with the usual universal software like SDFormatter., It will need a complete “trepanation” - flashing. This will require a proprietary utility from the manufacturer.

However, you can only reflash a flash drive by learning the name of the controller. The difficulty lies in the fact that manufacturers, as a rule, use different types and models of controllers and can implement not only their own, but also other people's developments. Therefore, it is not always possible to immediately determine the type of flash controller.

Fortunately, there are special programs that allow you to determine the type of VID & PID * for Transcend, Silicon Power drives, etc .; we will list them with reference to the installers.

(* VID is manufacturer ID, PID is device ID.)

After the warranty repair, all the photos on the smartphone and on the SD card disappeared.

Answer. A very vague question. Warranty repairs were made - mobile device Or memory cards? All your claims against the performers are governed by your contract.

As for data recovery on an sd card, use specialized applications, which, in fact, this site is dedicated to.

A 2GB flash card from an old Nokia phone, the phone sees the flash drive perfectly, the tablet and other phones do not see it. Other people's flash cards my equipment sees.

Answer. If other flash cards do not open on your, as you say, old Nokia, then most likely because the phone simply does not support new technologies. Read the documentation and specifications for your device. Maybe it's time to upgrade your hardware?

My 32GB micro flash drive broke in half. How can I recover information on this flash drive, tell me, please, where and who can help me, how to fix the flash drive?

Answer. Alas, this flash drive cannot be repaired or somehow reanimated. If the firmware “flew” on your flash drive, then you could give some chance for recovery. As for physical damage, it all depends on the damage. If the flash memory chips are intact, you can read the data through a PC 3000 Flash reader, etc.

The only possible solution (if the files are not of particular importance) is to purchase a new microsd card.

The flash drive does not open, does not appear as a removable disk, does not appear in the device manager. Physical impact is excluded, because. There are three such flash drives, different people worked with them.

Answer. You didn't specify the type of memory you're working with. In any case, if a flash drive or sd card does not open, I would advise you to check the operation of the flash card on other devices. Test it on other phones or devices to which it can be connected. If it's an sd card, try connecting it to your PC via a card reader.

Check if the attached device is detected in Device Manager. If yes, use any disk partitioning program or regular Windows tools, or proprietary software available on the flash drive developer's website to format the flash drive in NTFS or FAT.

During the formatting of the flash drive (transcend), the flash drive was pulled out from the PC. It was clear that she would no longer work, the check confirmed this. The computer does not detect the flash drive, the indicator blinks all the time, it is not in "my computer", it is in the device manager, it says that it is working fine, it is defined as a storage device. Help to restore the transcend flash drive!

Answer. Probably, the file table on your flash drive has been damaged. You can still restore the operation of a flash drive if you create a partition on it and format it. You can reanimate a flash drive, as already mentioned, using specialized utilities like Acronis Disc Director and so on, but it is best to use the TestDisk application to partition and restore a transcend flash drive.

The flash drive was encrypted in TrueCrypt, I reinstalled the OS, I mount the flash drive, the files are displayed, but when I try to open them, I get an error - access denied. Can you tell me if it is possible to save information if the flash drive is not detected after encryption?

Answer. You will need a client program to work with Truecrypt. Alas, the site truecrypt.org is currently unavailable, and the project itself is closed. So try to find the app somewhere on the internet. After that, when opening files, you will be required to enter a password to access your files.

The flash drive has been reset and the system requires to format the flash drive, but I need to save very important and expensive files. Help!

Answer. In no case do not agree to format your flash drive! Instead, use data recovery software and try to restore the missing partition on your storage device. You can safely copy all saved information to HDD and then search among these blockages for exactly what you need.

There is a flash drive JetFlash Transcend 8GB. Has ceased to be determined by the system. I formatted it with JetFlash Online Recovery and it deleted all data from the flash drive. Is it possible now to recover the Transcend flash drive, that is, the data on it?

Answer. To recover a Transcend flash drive, the Unformat program is suitable. The chances of recovery depend on the depth of formatting. Anyway, use the deep scan option. Alternatively, try Recuva with a similar scanning option.