How I got my corrupt usb drive working again

Posted on June 30, 2007 by Usman

 And it just stopped working. It got detected by Windows and the driver got installed smoothly but when I tried to open it, it said that I should insert a disc into the drive. The message looked similar to this one:

I have been thinking that usb drives are a reliable source of data storage. But today I learned that there is nothing called reliable in the digital world. You have to have your backup stored in multiple locations to save yourself from losses.

Now I had the data in my 1 GB usb drive. But it seemed that it had ruined itself. It was not even formatting. Now my concern was not the data but the usb drive itself. I did fix the usb drive but had no data in it.

Now how did I fix it. Let me tell you. I first reinstalled the driver but nothing happened with same results in hand. So I went to Right click My Computer –> Manage –> Disk Management. Fortunately the drive was showing there but it was not showing any file system in it, just the total amount of space left. I right clicked the removable drive and chose to Change Drive letter and paths. Then removed the already assigned drive letter, Right clicked the removable drive again and chose to partition the drive. Windows created a new partition on the usb drive, assigned the new drive letter and formatted the partition successfully. This saved my drive from ruining. If anyone of you have got problems with your usb drives, please share your experiences.

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49 Responses

  1. srinivas, on February 1, 2008 at 10:12 am said:

    thank you it worked

    Reply
  2. Rahim, on February 3, 2008 at 10:16 am said:

    how to ramove autorun.inf virus

    Reply
  3. Vangellis, on September 27, 2008 at 1:02 am said:

    Hey, Thank’s Mate.
    After months of frustration and failed attempts to get my USB flash drive working again, I followed your instructions to the letter. Now it is as good as new, really chuffed. cheers
    Vangellis

    Reply
  4. Andrei, on November 20, 2008 at 11:15 am said:

    All the problem is that i cant press partion and format doesnt work….

    Reply
  5. Anne, on December 1, 2008 at 3:39 am said:

    What if it’s so messed up that you can’t even right click on the file? Any suggestions?

    Reply
  6. JoshuaXiong, on February 1, 2009 at 10:35 am said:

    Rahim, I’m thinking you are using Avast. If you haven’t updated your Avast then it must of been detected as that way. I too have the same problem as you.

    Reply
  7. Ogbonna Chima, on August 11, 2009 at 3:47 pm said:

    You are the best…

    Reply
  8. softech, on August 28, 2009 at 6:06 pm said:

    It works….ha ha…thanks buddy.!!

    Reply
  9. Dr.Dileep, on October 8, 2009 at 2:26 pm said:

    thanks lot bro.you saved my i pod

    Reply
  10. NOYPI, on October 8, 2009 at 7:09 pm said:

    it did not work ,
    So I went to Right click My Computer –> Manage –> Disk Management
    but there is the drive but there is no amount space…?
    there is no media..
    Disk1 removable then no media
    when i change the drive letter and right click it again the only options are CHANGE DRIVE LETTER , PROPERTIES , AND HELP..
    THAT’S IT I HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME…

    ==============================

    when i try to partition and format it using a bootable winxp it said there is no drive but it detect the usb..

    same in my computer and right click the drive letter of the usb but it prompted: there is no disk on drive

    i really appreciate if you can help me!
    thanks!

    Reply
  11. Dharamvir vallah, on November 12, 2009 at 10:18 pm said:

    thanx dear it solve my problems. i request you to give me tips that helps me in solving the problems of my computer customers.becoz i am a computer hardware engineer frm jetking.

    Reply
    • Jason, on September 22, 2012 at 7:00 am said:

      I have difficulties in following you step as when i reach the disk management, i saw the drive but without showing any space/no media and after changing the drive letter nothing happens and there’s no partition option at all.

      Can anybody help me.

      Reply
  12. David, on January 17, 2010 at 7:12 pm said:

    It worked I got a 16GB Kingston Flash drive working again where local computer shop could not held
    Cape Town

    Reply
  13. ulysse999, on February 6, 2010 at 2:30 am said:

    WORKS!! Working Just Fine !!!
    really saved me from too much frustration
    thanks a lot

    Reply
  14. YY, on July 20, 2010 at 1:11 am said:

    This worked beautifully! Thanks for the tip!

    Reply
  15. jerald, on July 31, 2010 at 11:52 am said:

    why i cant press partion……pls. help me

    Reply
  16. eljon, on January 7, 2011 at 9:38 pm said:

    at the computer management my usb letter will not show only C: and the broadband i’ll used

    Reply
  17. ashley, on January 29, 2011 at 2:29 am said:

    ok so i can’t do that either on my minichub usb drive. and it deleted all the files on it, is there any way we can get those files back, because they are very important, or are they lost forever? and why do you think usb drives corrupt themselves?

    Reply
  18. hopre, on February 2, 2011 at 9:30 pm said:

    i have the same problem as noypi… can i asked what OS did u do this? coz im thinking of different sys. config… mine is windows xp service pack 2… thnx!

    Reply
  19. della, on February 5, 2011 at 5:33 pm said:

    no partition the drive
    only mark partition as active
    and i cant… press it

    Reply
  20. PedroR., on February 16, 2011 at 2:16 am said:

    My usb recently stopped working for some strange reason. i try to load it on windows and it does not show anywhere except for the Device manager but it shows it as a “CBM flash disk”. Is there a way i can fix this???

    Reply
  21. Zahir Tamim, on July 15, 2011 at 6:59 am said:

    when I was copying data into my 2GB kingston usb flash, suddenly my usb flash corrupted, I formatted it, but now if I want to open it, it says “the disk is not formatted” and when I formatted it again, the message says “windows was unable to complete the format” Please help me!

    Reply
  22. zahir05, on July 15, 2011 at 7:03 am said:

    when I was copying data into my 2GB kingston usb flash, suddenly my usb flash corrupted, I formatted it, but now if I want to open it, it says “the disk is not formatted” and when I formatted it again, the message says “windows was unable to complete the format” Please help me!

    Reply
  23. King-Nehsi, on July 22, 2011 at 3:26 am said:

    Hey, i use 16GB kingston usb flash, it got corrupted.. i can see some random flies name..
    I did the steps above, i right click and changed the letter, but i cant click on mark partition as active..!!

    anyone can help please..

    Reply
  24. Yasir Imran, on August 4, 2011 at 2:04 am said:

    This didn’t work for my kingston 128GB drive

    Reply
  25. Muffy, on September 10, 2011 at 3:32 pm said:

    There is Another way of saving your USB by Getting Damage but you will loose you data but you will save your USB..For that..
    You just go to command and from there you open commoand prompt by typing “cmd”.Then from one of the drive leaving your USB drive means if your USB drive is “G:” then dont go into that drive..you just type “CD C:” or “CD D:” and get into either of the drive and from that drive you directly give Format Command to your USB by Typing “Format G:” or Type “format” Space and whatever your USB drive Name. by doing this your data will be loosed but your USB drive will get saved..

    Reply
  26. Andrew, on October 1, 2011 at 12:46 pm said:

    Problem at hand is more specificated then that for me, My device shows in my Computer but not in Disk mangement.
    It seems that the device itself has bo pre-installed software as it cant read anything. Usually if the software for the device was perfectly ok it would show the corrupted files. I ran a program that found files on it but I cant get the option of formating it. The properties on my device show that it has no manufactor and model number opions.. I am guessing my device is a complete fake.. If at any help would be appreciated.

    Reply
  27. Yasir Imran, on October 1, 2011 at 1:45 pm said:

    If you allow me to post a link. I would like to share, how did I manage to solve my problem. Read it.

    http://yasirimran.blogspot.com/2011/08/repairing-corrupted-usb-pen-drives-with.html

    Reply
  28. krishan Kant, on October 3, 2011 at 5:12 pm said:

    my 8 gb pen drive is currupted how can i solve this and my pen drive will work again please help me .

    Reply
  29. Repairing Corrupted USB Pen Drives with HP Format Utility | A R Z O O, on October 22, 2011 at 2:23 pm said:

    […] the mean time I also tested it via Ubuntu linux but it didn’t work for me. A lot of people recommended me right click my computer icon in windows and choose Manage option. Then go to disk management and […]

    Reply
  30. denver, on December 3, 2011 at 11:56 pm said:

    I did what u told me to do, but its telling me the following, assigning or removing drive letters on the current boot or pagefile volume is not allowed. So if u can pls help me it will be much appreciated. Thank you

    Reply
  31. Flippy, on December 16, 2011 at 4:57 pm said:

    THANKS But I Only followed the change letter thing then what i did was i reformatted it trwice until the name became NEW VOLUME

    Reply
  32. vaibhav, on December 21, 2011 at 10:25 pm said:

    I have Kingston 2gb pendrive when I connect to my pc it doesn’t get open and show a msg that pls format it but when i trying to format it doesn’t please help me

    Reply
  33. hafizwaseem, on December 24, 2011 at 12:24 am said:

    hi my name is waseem and my problem is usb drive
    my problem is 16gb kingston usb drive windows is showing but properties not showing ……………………………………………….
    plz help me now

    Reply
  34. Leon, on January 15, 2012 at 4:47 pm said:

    My issue :
    Pendrive corrupted

    Sign : When plug it to the computer, I cant open “Corrupted and need to format”… HELL NO…

    So, i google and I found this easy solution…
    No need to download…

    >>> http://laptop-problem.blogspot.com/2012/01/repair-corrupted-hard-drives-pendrives.html

    Reply
  35. Nicholas, on February 11, 2012 at 5:48 am said:

    Worked!!! Brilliant… u just saved my 16 GB Kingston USB Drive

    Reply
  36. Ram, on March 15, 2012 at 3:01 pm said:

    Thanks a lot. Your idea worked…

    Reply
  37. madhu, on April 10, 2012 at 6:04 am said:

    i tried to do it with my 16gb pen drive, when i connected it showed 15.94 gb space now after following this steps its totally corrupted no the system is not detecting my pen drive

    Reply
  38. Takalani Edson, on May 26, 2012 at 10:10 pm said:

    Why did i see this now?? I’ve thrown away countless USB’s but when i was now fed up cos this one ws a bit expensiv i start searching and i stumble across a genius.. Thanx, u deserve a drink

    Reply
  39. webster, on August 1, 2012 at 8:02 pm said:

    hey, can you show me the steps with images…??? thnks…

    Reply
  40. ram ashish sahani, on August 13, 2012 at 8:08 am said:

    my computer is suddenly currpted how can got my imp data

    Reply
  41. Sam, on August 17, 2012 at 12:33 pm said:

    Thanx its solved

    Reply
  42. Sam, on August 17, 2012 at 12:33 pm said:

    Id done boot formating

    Reply
  43. Abubackker Mohammad, on August 25, 2012 at 11:07 pm said:

    Hi All !!
    I had worked more than 10 hrs a day for my projects to be done .But when I finished my projects i had a problem opening them it said my folder was corrupt i need my projects back. Can you help me!! PLz.

    Reply
  44. ste, on November 24, 2012 at 2:02 am said:

    Hi, I followed all your steps, but it says when i try to change ‘drive letters and paths for c:’ that “windows cannot remove the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume”.

    Reply
  45. Sudip Chakraborty, on December 1, 2012 at 9:50 am said:

    I have Kingston 2gb pendrive when I connect to my pc it doesn’t get open and show a msg that pls format it but when i trying to format it doesn’t please help me.

    Reply
  46. Rajan, on December 5, 2012 at 9:57 pm said:

    Really thank you brother……….it worked like magic

    Reply
  47. nasru, on January 29, 2013 at 8:11 pm said:

    thanks dear its working ur amazing mmmma

    Reply
  48. archie, on March 16, 2013 at 2:32 pm said:

    doesn’t work..partition the drive option is not shown

    Reply

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