2024 Guide: How to Recover Deleted Files from a USB Flash Drive in 3 Ways

How to recover deleted files from my USB flash drive? If you've lost or deleted files from your USB drive, don't worry. On this page, you'll find a comprehensive guide on how to recover data from a USB drive using three effective methods:

TIP: If you lost data from USB due to deletion or virus attack, the professional data recovery software in Method 1 would be a better choice. For recovering hidden files, you can seek help from CMD in Method 2. If your drive is damaged, you may need to turn to the expert in Method 3.

Reasons for File Damage or Loss on USB/Flash Drive

< strong > USB flash drives are popular for storing files and transferring data between devices because they're small, portable, and lightweight. Unfortunately, it's also very common to lose data on a USB drive. Before you attempt to recover deleted files from a USB drive, it's important to understand the reasons why files might be missing:

• Accidental deletion
• Formatted
• Virus attack
• File system becomes RAW
• Files get hidden

Fortunately, with the help of advanced USB Flash Drive Data Recovery Software and CMD, you can recover data from USB flash drive by yourself.

Method 1: How to Recover Files from a Flash Drive with Free Software

Recovering data lost from pen drive due to deletion, formatting, virus attack or any other reason is easy and reliable with the help of a third party Pen Drive Recovery Software. The tool, Free Data Recovery Software is reliable for Pen Drive Data Recovery. Check what the Pen Drive/ USB Flash Drive Recovery Software can do for you:

Download it now and follow the steps below to recover deleted files from flash drive in minutes:

Step 1: Run the USB Data Recovery software

Connect your USB drive or flash drive to the computer, then launch the USB data recovery tool on the PC. Select the drive labeled “External Drive,” then click “Scan” to begin looking for lost files.

Select the USB/flash drive to scan for and recover lost files:

Step 2. Scan and search for lost files on the USB drive

USB Data Recovery Wizard will thoroughly scan your USB flash drive/pen drive and find all lost data on it. After the scan is completed, use the "Filter" feature to locate the needed files.

Step 3. Recover all lost files from USB

Double-click to preview the files. Select the target files you want to recover, then click “Recover” to save them to a secure location on your computer or external storage device.

Video Tutorial: How to Use Pen Drive Recovery Software Tool

This is a video tutorial that shows you how to use a data recovery tool to get back lost files. You can also follow it to recover data from a flash drive.

Method 2: How to Recover Data from a Flash Drive Using CMD

Sometimes, when your pen drive gets corrupted or格式化, the files disappear. These lost files are not actually lost; they are just hidden. In such cases, you can use CMD to recover data from the pen drive as it helps retrieve hidden files from the device.

Here are the detailed steps to recover hidden data from a flash drive using CMD with the utf-8 encoding format:

Step 1 Connect the laptop hard drive to your computer.

Step 2: Click on "Start", then "Search", and type in cmd.

Step 3. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Step 4: In the Command Prompt, type attrib -h -r -s /s /d e:*.* and press Enter.

Grammar explanation:

• The `-h` option removes the hidden attribute.
• The `-r` option removes the read-only attribute.
• The `-s` option removes the system attribute.
• The `/d` in `attrib /d` includes directories, not just files. You can only use `/d` with `/s`.
• The `e:` part refers to your USB drive letter. Replace it with the actual letter of your drive.

Step 5: Wait for the process to complete, then type exit and press Enter.

After this, your USB drive data will reappear in its original location on the drive, and you can use it again.

Method 3: Repair the USB Flash Drive with Data Recovery Services

If your USB flash drive or pen drive is damaged physically, you won't be able to recover data with recovery software. Instead, you can turn to our Data Recovery Service. We've partnered with the most reliable data recovery labs in the USA. For over 17 years, we've been providing DIY data recovery solutions. Now, you can even retrieve data from devices that were once considered "unrecoverable."

Hard Drive Repair and Recovery Services

Contact our experts for a free evaluation.

Consult with our Data Recovery Specialists for personalized manual recovery services. After a free diagnosis, we offer the following services:

• Repair HDD, SSD, external hard drives, USB flash drives, and recover data from all RAID levels
• Restore lost partitions that data recovery software cannot retrieve
• Fix disks with bad sectors that cannot be read or accessed
• Recover disks transformed into GPT protected partitions
• Erase data, reformat hard drives, install/uninstall software or drivers, etc.

Here's how to proceed after recovering deleted files from a flash drive:

After the recovery, we recommend saving the files to another drive instead of the original USB flash drive. Here are some USB protection tips we'd like to share with you.

Tips on how to handle the USB drive after data recovery:

• 1. Format USB flash drive to an appropriate file system - FAT32 or NTFS. Also read: Best USB Formatting Tool.
• 2. Backup important files on the USB flash drive regularly.

Considering any wrong operation may cause data loss, your files are at risk. To protect your files, you can back up USB flash drive data with free backup software, sync to cloud storage, or use copy and paste. For safer backup, a third-party tool like Todo Backup is a good option.

Step 1: For your first backup with Todo Backup, click Create Backup on the main screen, then click the big question-mark button to choose what you want to back up.

Step 2. Since you want to back up files and folders from your computer, choose the "Files" backup mode. Here, you can select images, videos, documents, and other types of files to back up.

Step 3: Browse for the files, folders, or directories you wish to back up, select them all, and click OK.

Step 4. You need to select a backup location to save and keep your backups.

Step 5: Todo Backup allows users to save backup files to any convenient device, such as a local hard drive, external USB drive, SD card, network drive, or NAS drive, along with the brand's cloud drive. We recommend saving important backups to a cloud drive for accessibility, flexibility, and security reasons.

To use Tool Cloud, all you need is an email account to sign up and log in.

Step 6: If you want your file backup to run automatically and intelligently in the future, go to “Options”. Here, you can encrypt your sensitive file backups, compress backup images, or customize a backup schedule to tell the software when to start the next backup.

Create an advanced and automated backup task right here:

Step 7. Click on "Backup Now" to start the backup process. When finished, the backup will appear as a card in the left pane.

Run antivirus software regularly to keep your computer and flash drive safe.

Conclusion – Your Deleted Pen Drive Files Are Important

On this page, we explain the reasons that lead to the flash drive missing issue and collect two reliable methods to recover data from a missing flash drive – with third-party software or CMD.

• Method 1: Use the USB recovery software Data Recovery Wizard to restore deleted or formatted data in just three steps. This is a great tool for beginners.

1. Method 2: CMD – Retrieve hidden files from the device.
2. Method 3: Data Recovery Service – Recover USB files with expert assistance.

Note that, as long as your files on the flash drive are of utmost importance, act immediately and recover deleted files from flash drive right away.

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Recover Data from Flash Drive

If you still have queries regarding how to recover data from flash drive, stay calm. There are some related questions; read further to gain more information.

**1. Can I recover data from a formatted USB drive?**

Yes, you can follow the steps mentioned in this article to recover formatted USB drive:

Connect the USB drive to your computer Launch the Data Recovery Wizard Select the formatted drive and click Scan Choose the files to recover from the formatted USB drive Click Recover to retrieve lost USB files

2. How to fix an undetected USB drive?

If your USB flash drive is not recognized, here are some solutions to fix your USB flash drive:

• Update the unallocated USB driver and create a new partition
• Change the USB drive letter to make it detectable
• Check the USB ports and switch connections to recognize the USB

3. How much does it cost to recover data from a USB drive?

USB Flash Drive Data Recovery Cost:

• USB flash drives under 2GB – Free • USB flash drives 2GB and above – $69.95

< strong > 4. How long do USB drives last?

About 10 years. Most flash-drive manufacturers estimate that their devices will last for about a decade, though they may actually last longer if used and stored carefully.