This article will show you how to recover data from a USB drive using a free USB data recovery software. In addition, it will show you the specific cases that happen with USB data loss as well as several ways to effectively avoid it. This is an article that is worth reading in order to know more information about recovering USB data for free.
Free USB Recovery Software
It is quite easy to encounter data loss problems with USBs that happen every once in a while, due to how frequently it is used. This makes USB data recovery a popular topic. Are you one of those suffering from the loss of data on USB devices? Don’t panic - this post is dedicated quality, free USB data recovery service.
MiniTool Data Recovery Software Is Good to Try
Are you ready to recover USB data? MiniTool Solution provides you with the best flash drive recovery software.
- USB data recovery software free download : please download MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition.
- Free USB recovery software installation : please install this professional data recovery software on a local/external drive as you like.
- USB recovery Windows 10 : please look at the steps shown in the next part to know how to recover pen drive data step by step.
USB data recovery software free download full version:
Learn Practical Ways To Recover Missing Files On Windows 10.
After teaching you how to recover data with the data recovery tool, I will show you some situations related to USB data loss problems. Then, I’ll do my best to help you protect your USB drive and avoid USB data loss.
How to Finish Free USB Data Recovery
I advise all of you (experienced users or green hands) to use MiniTool Power Data Recovery – the data recovery software for Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7 – to get back lost data from USB device easily and safely.
7 Steps to Recover USB Data
Step one : after downloading the software to your computer, you should install and run it immediately. Now, connect your USB drive that includes lost data to the computer. ( Click to see lost data recovery from HDD. )
Step two : you should select Removable Disk Drive located on the left side of the main interface. Then look for your USB drive from the right-hand panel.
Attention :
You may be not able to find your USB drive from the main interface sometimes. Please read the solutions mentioned in the posts below to recover USB drive not recognized.
The Removable Disk Drive option is also suitable to recover files from a broken USB drive ( how to fix a broken USB stick ).
Step three : then, choose the USB drive and click on the Scan button located on the bottom right.
Step four : wait until the scan is finished in order to get the best recovery result.
Of course, you can also browse the result while scan is processing.
- If you can’t find all the files you need, please wait for the full scan to complete.
- If all the files you need have been listed, please pause the scan and select them to recover.
Step five : add a checkmark in front of the item you want to recover and then click on the Scan button to see a directory setting window.
Step six : specify the location that will be used to store the recovered data and then click on the OK button to confirm your selection.
Step seven : wait for the completion of the USB drive recovery.
In fact, you can also use MiniTool Power Data Recovery when pen drive data not showing or when files are hidden in a USB.
Why Choose MiniTool Power Data Recovery
7 reasons for choosing MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free:
- It is totally free, safe and harmless.
- It is very lightweight, and installing it has basically no requirement for hardware.
- It embeds four options to help you get rid of almost all data loss problems (as long as the lost data are not overwritten by the newly saved information).
- This free data recovery software provides wizard-style interfaces. You don’t need to worry since you can complete recovery work independently under guidance of the wizards.
- It has a very strong scanning ability, fast scanning speed and automatic data protection.
- It works perfectly in various operating systems and is able to recover data from almost all common storage devices : USB flash drive, memory card, CD, DVD, SSD, hard disk, etc.
- Even if the data recovery does not finish successfully, your current data will not be damaged.
Why don’t you give it a shot if you’re also troubled by USB data loss or data loss on other devices?
8 Other Free USB Recovery Software
Apart from MiniTool Power Data Recovery, there are some other free USB flash drive recovery software you can use:
- Recuva
- Disk Drill
- Wise Data Recovery
- Puran File Recovery
- Stellar Data Recovery
- Data Rescue
- UnDeleteMyFiles Pro
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
5 Common USB Storage Device Problems
Once valuable data are lost, you’ll want to try every possible means to recover data from USB device. So for users’ sake, I have summarized 5 common problems that may occur during the use of USB data storage devices.
Unable to Safely Remove a USB Device
Some of you may have encountered this situation: when you try to remove the USB device from computer, you find that it cannot be safely removed; Windows tells you that it has failed to stop the device, and you are asked to close all possible programs that might be using the device and try again later.
At this time, you should do the following things to try to fix the problem:
- Please check whether there is any data copying/transfer in progress.
- You need to confirm that no program in Windows is using any files from the USB device (for instance, a video may be played in a Windows player); if there is, close it.
- If the USB data storage device still can’t be removed after all programs have been closed, you’ll need to open Task Manager and then stop all the unnecessary background applications and services. (If this still couldn’t help, you may as well try to stop the explorer.exe process for the moment.)
USB Device Can’t Be Recognized
Sometimes after you connect your USB device to the computer, nothing shows up. This is known as the USB device not recognized problem.
After researching, I found the following reasons that could've led to this problem:
- USB data line problem
- USB interface voltage instability
- Compatibility issue
- BIOS setting problem
- Drive hidden issue
You can upgrade your BIOS to the latest version to solve the related problems. But, it’s possible that your PC does not boot after BIOS update .
Respectively, here are my suggestions for solving the USB device not recognized problem:
- Connect the USB data line to another computer to check whether it is broken.
- Check whether the USB interface voltage is adequate or not.
- Check whether the motherboard and system are compatible with each other.
- Make sure the USB is enabled in BIOS and operating system.
- Try to unhide the drive with Disk Management or third-party tool.
USB Device Is Not Accessible
I understand how upsetting it could be when you cannot enter the USB storage device on the computer (prompt says it needs formatting). In this case, you cannot see any data saved in that USB device. A system prompt may appear that asks you to format the drive for further use.
As you can see from above picture, the Windows prompt says the selected USB device is not accessible and the volume does not contain a recognized file system . Actually, this prompt could appear after this USB device was attacked by virus or corrupted due to other reasons.
In this case, I advise you to make use of MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover data in the inaccessible USB device at once before you attempt any other operations to fix the device. Then, you may format the USB device for further use.
Formatted USB by Mistake
Actually, formatting a USB device only requires a few clicks:
- Right click on the USB drive in File Explorer -> choose Format from the pop-up menu -> click on the Start button in the format window.
- Right click on the USB drive in Windows Disk Management -> choose Format from the pop-up menu -> click on the OK button in the format window after volume label, file system , and allocation unit size .
- Select the USB drive and select the format function in a third-party tool (see how to format partition in MiniTool Partition Wizard).
The most important thing people want to do after formatting the USB device must be recovering data from that drive. To finish the formatted USB recovery, I also advise you to use MiniTool Power Data Recovery:
- Connect the USB device to computer.
- Open the software and select Removable Disk Drive .
- Double click on the USB drive from the right-hand panel.
- Browse the scan result to check the files you want.
- Click on the Save button to choose a safe location for storing the files.
Delete Data from USB Device by Accident
Undoubtedly, everyone makes mistakes in life and work. The situation is the same when it comes to data storage and management in USB device.
Lots of users said they have deleted useful files from USB device unintentionally and they all feel very chagrin after realizing the mistake. This is common and understandable, admittedly. But, making up for the mistake bothers a lot of people.
In fact, deleted data can be easily recovered using MiniTool Power Data Recovery. As for how to recover deleted files from USB, please read this post:
In conclusion, once USB device can’t be accessed anymore or is missing valuable data, the first thing to do is to always recover data from said USB device. Considering that not every user is able to afford the charge for data recovery, I have provided solutions to achieving USB drive data recovery for free in above content. Hope you can get rid of data loss trouble after reading this.
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How to Protect USB Storage Devices
If important data are saved to a certain USB storage device, the strict management and control of this device becomes extraordinarily significant. You have to try your best to prevent serious data loss or leakage event.
I have summarized 5 ways to help you avoid data loss as much as possible, so you won’t be bothered by seeking solutions for USB data recovery.
Way 1: enable write protection .
In order to prohibit others to freely modify important data stored in the USB device, you can modify the relevant key value of system registry. In this way, ordinary users are only allowed to access data in USB device, not able to change them.
Way 2: control virus running.
Considering that it is very common for a USB device to be infected with virus, I recommend taking actions to try to control the automatic running of virus and Trojans in USB device (reject the access right of all accounts to USB device). Otherwise, once the USB device was connected to computer, the virus and Trojans will be activated automatically and data will be damaged.
How to recover files deleted by virus attack:
Way 3: hide the drive.
If you don’t want others to see the data in any USB devices, you may as well hide all the drives except for local hard disk drives. This way, even if someone connects the USB hard drive to computer without your permission to try to access your data, they will fail.
You are suggested to use Hide Partition function of MiniTool Partition Wizard to finish drive hiding work.
Way 4: set a password.
If you think it’s too troublesome for yourself to access data in a hidden USB device, you can choose to set a password to the device instead of hiding it completely. For instance, Windows BitLocker can help you encrypt your drive. (Click here if you'd like to know BitLocker encrypted drive recovery .)
Way 5: disable auto play.
When a USB device is connected to the local computer, Windows system will automatically open the corresponding device window to help users quickly access their files. However, it is very easy for network virus to take advantage of this process to damage data.
Bottom Line
As one can see easily, USBs are one of the most important interfaces. With the help of USB, you can transfer data among different storage devices easily without using network. Besides, varieties of USB devices enrich our life and ease our work.
Just because USB device is frequently used, problems tend to occur beyond our expectations. But no matter what kind of problem you’re meeting, you should rescue data from USB device at once. Then, you can choose to try possible means to fix the problem and make your device work normally again.
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