Flash drive turns into unreadable

Flash drive turns into unreadable

If your USB flash drive suddenly became inaccessible or unreadable, there are only two possible reasons for that: the file system is damaged or the flash drive itself may have already reached its EOL or end of life. First, try fixing it using the Windows Check Disk utility. Insert your USB flash drive to your computer then double-click My Computer. Right-click on your flash drive and select Properties.

In Properties window, select Tools tab and click Check Now under “Error checking”.

In the Check Disk window, check “Automatically fix file system errors” and then click Start.

Wait until it is finished checking the drive. Once finished, check if you can browse the flash drive. If it is still inaccessible, try formatting the USB flash drive. Right-click on your flash drive and select Format then start formatting the device. Aside from using the Check Disk utility, you can also use PC Tools Performance Toolkit to check your flash drive.

Download and install it on your computer. To check the USB flash drive, start PC Tools Performance Toolkit. Select Recovery tab and click Repair Drives. Under Select Drive Operation, select Surface Scan. Select your USB flash drive from the list and click Start. See if this fixes the problem.

If the flash drive can’t be fixed, it is possible the device may have already reached its end of life. All USB flash drives have their maximum number of writes. As you use it to store your files, the number of writes increases every time you copy a file to it or delete a file.

When the device hit the ceiling for the maximum number of writes, it will suddenly become unreadable. At this point, it is no longer possible to fix the drive and recover the files. Though the maximum number of writes is not written on its label or in the box, it is there and that’s how it is designed.