Flash drive Data Recovery made easy

There is no worse feeling than having important files on a USB flash drive or other storage device mysteriously disappear or accidentally deleted. If this has happened to you then rest easy as we will help you with your Flash drive data recovery and have all your precious pictures, documents, videos, music or other invaluable files back to you in no time.

 

What should you do if your files get deleted?

As soon as you have realized that your files have been deleted from your portable flash drive the first thing that you will need to do is to stop using the device immediately. This means do not attempt to write new data or add new files to the flash drive.

Reason: When new data is added to a flash storage device it will over write the previous data which can be recovered although it might seem as the file is deleted forever, it is actually still possible to recover providing that you do not add new data to the drive to overwrite the previously deleted files than you can proceed with the: Flash drive data recovery.

 

Things you will need for the Flash Drive data Recovery

All you will need for this project is the affected flash drive and a free software called Recuva. Although this tutorial is meant for USB Flash drives the same procedure can be applied and will work as a means of:

Harddrive Data Recovery

SD Card Recovery

or Any other Storage medium Recovery.

You will also need a separate storage device to place the files after they are recovered, reason being that its not recommended to recover files on the same drive as they were erased.

 

Flash drive Data Recovery Process

1. Download and install the Recua freeware here. After downloading, install the software which is relatively easy.

2. Launch the Software from the launch icon and using the Recuva Wizard as seen below,simply follow the on screen instructions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Select next if you are seeing the screen above or see the “Advance interface” below in case you chose that option during setup.

4. From the next screen in the wizard you will see a buch of file options to recover that includes: Pictures,Music,Documents,Video,Compressed files,Emails or in case you want to recover everything select: All Files.

5. Next slect the most appropriate location for where were my files, this includes On My Media card, My Documents, Recycle bin or specify a location. In the case of your USB flash drive specify the location, browse, select your Flash drive for recovery and next.

6.Before selecting start you will have the option of “deep scan” which will thoroughly scan the drive and increases the chances of recovery but requires more time, so if you are in a hurry do not check the deep scan box. But remember you may want to try again later and recover your files using this method if the normal scan fails.

7. The drive should scan in a while and you will see a results screen with file names and different color codes:

Red: indicates the files cannot be recovered.

Green: Fully Recoverable.

Any other color code: Indicates only partial recovery is possible.

8. After finding the file or files click the check box beside them, select Recover and specify where to save the files, remember do not save them in the same location as it was recovered, instead store the file on another drive or storage location.

 

Advanced interface

The advance interface does not use a wizard and works just the same as the interface above for Flash drive data recovery except you will have to launch everything yourself without the helpful windows and texts, so if you are seeing the window as above continue reading:

1. Select your flash drive or storage from the drop down in the upper left of the screen and select the scan button.

2. After the Scan, you should see a number of files, see point number 7 above for the meaning of the color codes.

3. Select the files that are recoverable and choose recover in the bottom right of the screen.

4. Select a storage location for the file to be recovered and recover your deleted files.

5. If you have trouble recovering your files you may enable deep scan in: Options-Actions-check the deep scan option and apply. You can attempt the recovery once more as this will increase the chances of success dramatically.

 

Did this method of Flash drive data recovery work for you?

Its no fun keeping weather or not this worked for you a secret,so take just a minute and compose a comment or question so we can know if this is working or not for you. Remember you may be able to help someone who wants to attempt Flash drive data recovery and is wondering if this actually works or not.

So go ahead and leave a comment below.