No of visitors who read this post: 715
Category: Anti-Spyware
Type: Question
Author: Wendy
Your rating: None Average: 5 (24 votes)

Anyone interested to fix the problem please view this post.

My flashdrive has been corrupted. It all started when i went to internet cafe and have some research. I insert the flashdrive onto the USB port of the computer. When i finished and got home I open my computer and check my flashdrive if the files that i have saved was there. When i open the flasdrive, it contains empty files?!!! It shocks me, because all of my important documents are in their and the sad thing also is i did not create a back up file. It really sucks my brain.

I think my flashdrive affected by virus am i right? If that is so, how can i retrieve the files that are in the flashdrive?

Is there a software that can retrieve the files?

Please answer thanks.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

# (Solution Accepted)

If your Flash drive is corrupted one thing you can do is to format the Flash drive. For formatting your Flash drive you can insert the Flash drive into your USB port and then in the computer you can right click on the drive and then select the format drive option. This will format your Flash drive. So if the problem was due to virus it will be removed from the Flash drive. So you can use your Flash drive again. But formatting your Flash drive will remove all the contents in the Flash drive so you will lose all the data stored in your Flash drive.

Another option for you is to insert the flash drive into some other computers, and check whether you can read the files. Please don’t insert the Flash drive into a computer that does not have any antivirus installed on it, because the virus which affected on your Flash drive may be transferred to the computer and your computer will also become useless. Try to use a good computer that has a good antivirus installed and be sure that the antivirus is updated to the latest version.

You can scan your Flash drive using that antivirus and if you see some virus in your flash drive, you can check which of the files has been infected by the virus. You can delete the virus using the antivirus software. Please be careful that some times deleting the virus will delete the infected files. If the files required by you has not been affected by the virus you can delete the virus and you will be able to view and use the files in your Flash drive.

If you want the files on the Flash drive you may also try to recover the files using data recovery tools available on the internet. You can download these softwares on your computer and install it on your computer then you can insert the Flash drive into the USB port and you may try to recover the files. The method used to recover the files may vary depending on the software used. There are a lot of free data recovery tools available on the internet that you can use.

Some times the problem will be that you would have removed the Flash drive before the files were transferred or the files wouldn’t have been transferred correctly. Always make sure that before removing your Flash drive you should click on the USB icon on the notification area and then you can select the safely remove hardware option, otherwise the files in your Flash drive may get corrupted.

Newer operating systems like windows 7 will automatically check your Flash drive and will fix any errors that it has found while you insert your Flash drive into your USB port. If your files on the Flash drive are so important that you cannot lose them then you can send your Flash drive to any renowned data recovery company, they can help you in getting the data on your Flash drive, you will have to pay them for doing this.

# (Solution Accepted)

Dear Wendy,

Here are a few automatic backup to ensure that you never find yourself hanging in unexpected circumstances.

1. Backup your Flash drive with Windows. And SyncToy is a native Microsoft tool that allows you to backup information located on your storage mediums with a single click. It works by repairing two folders in different locations and updating the files in each so that they have the same content inside.

2. Schedule automatic backups of your Flash drive. And GoodSync is among the best you can get. It makes an effort to be classy (has a nice interface), is user-friendly, and does exactly what it says it will do. Like SyncToy, it makes use of the "Left and Right" concept to simplify the learning process.

Unlike SyncToy, GoodSync has a built-in synchronization setting which allows you to schedule when you’d like your backups to happen. This means that it backs-up your flash drive automatically as long as it’s plugged into your computer at the specified time.

I hope it helps. Good luck!