The horror! You plug a USB drive into your computer, and instead of showing its contents, Windows warns you that the drive must be formatted. Even worse if you have no backup. If you need to know how to repair a USB drive in Windows 10, this guide might help.
Losing data is devastating from any point of view. Lack of adequate backups is all too common, and that path only leads to desperation. Professional forensic recovery have a prohibitive cost for most users, and they usually decide to take the hit.
However, the odds of success in a repair or recovery usually improve when it comes to a USB drive or another solid-state medium, such as an SD card. If connecting the unit makes Windows suggest a format, don’t give up. That is the nuclear option, and it should wait until we have tried everything else.
How to repair a USB drive in Windows 10
- Try connecting the drive in another computer. Why? Because Windows is capricious, and its conflicts with USB devices are well documented. Accessing the drive’s contents on another system could get you out of trouble.
- If the reaction is the same on another terminal, ignore the formatting request, open the classic CMD with administrator privileges (right-click and choose the context menu option), and type “CHKDSK (drive letter) /X /F”. The /X switch forces the drive to unmount and cut any attempt to access it (some antivirus do that), while /F orders the repair itself. If the logical damage on the drive is not too extensive, CHKDSK should be more than enough to repair it.
- Another alternative that is repeated a lot is to verify if the flash drive has lost its drive letter. This is achieved by visiting the classic Control Panel, and entering Administrative Tools – Computer Management – Disk Management. There, look for the USB drive’s partition. If it doesn’t have a letter, try to assign one with the right button (don’t touch anything else!).
- If none of that worked, it’s time to explore deeper levels and recruit the help of an external program. What I’m going to recommend today are actually two applications that come in the same package: TestDisk and PhotoRec.
- TestDisk repairs and restores partitions (formatting is one of the indicated symptoms), and PhotoRec prioritizes file rescue. TestDisk offers a tutorial in Spanish that teaches perfectly how to recover a lost partition on a flash drive. The text talks about hard drives, but it applies to removable drives as well.
In summary: have patience, don’t lose hope, and go one step at a time. Repairing a USB drive in Windows 10 is not impossible, and once you have regained access to your files, don’t hesitate to make backups. Good luck!
Download TestDisk: Click here
