If you deleted a file from a flash drive, how to recover it. Recovering deleted files from a flash drive

Even an experienced user who knows how and has experience creating and formatting disk partitions is upset when he loses access to data on removable media. To lose important information, it is not necessary to use formatting or infect the flash drive with a virus - just press the Delete key at the wrong time. What programs can you use to restore? necessary files- Let's try to figure it out.

When can you recover deleted data?

Before downloading all the applications listed below and launching them one by one, it would not hurt the user to figure out in what cases there is a chance to return the information “to its place.” Cases are different, and not only the authors of freely distributed or paid software, but also service center employees cannot give a 100% guarantee. In the end, the success of recovery depends on the degree of damage to the flash drive and the luck of its owner.

So, if the media is in completely good condition, can be easily detected by the computer, and the owner was smart enough not to format the flash drive or card immediately after discovering the absence of an important file, the information will most likely be restored using any program. Just download the one you like, wait a little, and select the necessary data from the list.

If a flash drive or SD card has been formatted more than once, retrieving significant files becomes difficult: some of them will not be detected standard programs, the other is not completely restored. Approximately the same results will be observed if, after deleting the data, multiple rewrites occurred: the amount of space on the media is limited, and sooner or later the old information will be “overwritten” by the new one. In this case, getting back deleted files on a flash drive is much more difficult than .

Damaged files, even if no formatting has been done, are even more difficult to recover: some programs, especially free or shareware, prefer to consider them irretrievably lost, while others “reconstruct” them as best they can, including fragments of others in the body of one document. In the best case, the resulting file will consist to some extent of unnecessary ones and zeros that were not included in the original version, forming text characters or pixels; at worst, it simply won’t open.

Important: You can prevent damage to files by trying not to hit the flash drive on hard objects and do not place it near sources magnetic field, do not “heat” or remove from the connector until you finish working with it.

It is at this stage, if you have not received a satisfactory result after using the program to recover files on a flash drive, it makes sense to contact service center: specialists not only have b O greater experience than a simple user, but also have at their disposal hardware data retrieval tools that increase the likelihood of “rescuing” important information.

Finally, if the physical media is damaged, there is almost no hope of recovering the data on your own. The phone can break without affecting the flash card - this is one case; If, after the device, the removable media also “gone”, the board is damaged or the contacts are charred, all that remains is to turn to professionals for help or, which is how the matter usually ends, toss the parts that have become meaningless in the trash.

A user who accidentally deleted a required file from a flash drive and intends to restore it must:

Stop using the media until you begin retrieving deleted data.. The operation of the flash card must be stopped immediately, preventing the computer from copying, moving or deleting other information on it - the closer the device is to the “original” state, the better.
Do not format the flash drive. Even if it already contains damaged files or damaged markings, it is better to leave operations to restore the card’s functionality for later. The priority is information recovery - this should be done first.
Do not hit, drop or mechanically impact the flash drive in any other way.. Despite modern data protection systems, removable media remains very vulnerable - and any unnecessary movement by the owner can worsen the situation or make recovery impossible.
Prepare everything you need for work. In order not to waste time, you should download a program in advance to recover data from a flash drive; if it is a microSD, prepare an adapter and check its functionality.

Important: It is impossible to say exactly how long the search and recovery of deleted or damaged data will take. It all depends on the memory capacity of the flash drive, free and occupied space, the total number of files and program settings.

Programs for recovering files from a flash drive

Now, knowing in what cases you can recover files from a flash drive at home, you can get to work. The first step in this case is to find a suitable program. Listed below are five applications suitable for both professionals and non-professionals. experienced users, and for beginners.

R.saver

A simple, convenient and quite functional program from a domestic manufacturer and, accordingly, with a completely Russian interface. You can download it completely free of charge from the link rlab.ru. It is positioned by the developers as the “successor” of the paid Recovery Explorer, at least it works according to the same algorithms and, according to the authors, is suitable in cases where other programs are ineffective.

The indisputable advantage of R.saver is the ability to restore files from a flash drive without installation: the user just needs to download and unpack the archive, and then run executable file. It copes equally well with extracting files in NTFS and FAT systems of all types, including ex-FAT. Traditionally, software includes a help section and links to the developer’s website - using them, the owner of the flash drive will be able to learn more about other products or clarify a complex issue.

PhotoRec

A more complex program in terms of interface, designed for a trained user. It is also distributed via the link cgsecurity.org in the form of an archive available for free download. The user will not have any difficulties with downloading or unpacking; To proceed specifically to recovering deleted or damaged data on a flash drive, you should run the executable file qphotorec_win.exe in the folder - this is a relatively recently introduced graphical shell.

Using the application, you can recover any files - from documents and pictures to videos and music. To save time, the user should select the required types of information in the initial window - the more specific the choice, the faster the process will be completed. The program is excellent for retrieving damaged data from memory cards - in particular, those installed in photo and video cameras.

Wise Data Recovery

A convenient program with a pleasant design from a well-established manufacturer. Unlike the previous one, it is being developed only for Windows. You can download the installation file from the link wisecleaner.com absolutely free.

The main advantage of Wise Data Recovery is a very fast file search and a convenient symbol system. So, if it is not difficult to restore information, it is marked with a green circle; if partial recovery is expected - yellow; if retrieving deleted or damaged data from a flash drive is impossible - red. Another significant advantage of the application is its completely Russian interface.

Disk Drill

Relatively recently ported from the MacOS operating system, this program is available in two versions: free and commercial. You can download the latest by following the link xetcom.com.

One of the disadvantages of the application is the lack of a portable version (the user will have to install it on HDD) and Russian interface - you will need minimal knowledge of English to work. The main advantages are the speed of searching for data on a flash drive, support for more than three hundred formats, including exotic ones, and keeping a “diary” of deleted information, which greatly simplifies recovery. Otherwise, the data extraction process is similar to working with other programs - the user will need to wait a few minutes (or hours), select the desired files and click on the “Recover” button, after specifying the target folder.

Active UNDELETE

A high-quality program that works with more than two hundred formats, distributed in shareware mode: for access to the full-featured version, the user will have to pay from 19.99 to 79.95 dollars. You can download the demo application via the link active-undelete.com, and make payment there.

An undeniable advantage of Active UNDELETE is the ability to recover data on absolutely any media (from flash drives and microSD cards to optical media). In addition, the program allows you to create virtual media for storing “intermediate” data - your computer’s working folders will not be clogged. Disadvantages of the application - relatively high cost full version and the need to install on a hard drive - it will not run “from a folder”.

How to recover deleted files from a flash drive?

Each of these programs is good in its own way and can be effective where others have failed. And to demonstrate the general procedure for restoring deleted or damaged files, it’s worth turning to another great development - Recuva from Piriform. It is also distributed in two versions - free and commercial, but even minimal functionality is enough to fully extract files from a flash drive or hard drive.

How to recover data using Recuva:

First of all, you should download the current version of the program. To do this, the user needs to go to the website ccleaner.com and call up the “Download” pop-up menu by clicking once.

In the list that appears, you will need to find the “Download Recuva” link, and then click on it.

On the new page, the visitor will be offered information about the free and commercial versions of the software, as well as a choice of two links to download the installation file.

By going a little down the page and finding the Builds page section, the user has the opportunity to download not only the installable, but also the portable version of the application. To proceed to the downloads, just use the appropriate link.

The top file in the new window is the installable one, the bottom one is the archive. It is highly not recommended to restore data by calling Recuva from the same removable media on which the files you are looking for are located.

Loading should start automatically a few seconds after the visitor is redirected to a new page. If this does not happen, you need to use the link under the main heading.

The installation file or archive can be saved to any convenient folder; The download process usually takes no more than a minute or two.

Having launched the installer, on the first page the user must select the interface language (drop-down menu in the upper right corner) and (optional) refuse to install additional software - in the lower left. To be fair, it is worth noting that the proposed computer cleaning program is quite useful and was developed by the same company as Recuva.

Using the Customize link, the owner of the flash drive gets access to “fine settings”: he can specify whether to place a shortcut on the desktop, integrate program options into the context menu and allow automatic update applications.

Installation will take a few minutes; If desired, the user can still view its details by clicking on the yellow button in the center of the screen.

Finally the program is ready to run; All that remains is to launch it using the button of the same color. If you do not want to familiarize yourself with the latest changes in the version, you should uncheck the checkbox.

Now it's time to connect the flash drive by inserting it into the USB connector and making sure that the device appears in the Windows main menu.

If any problems arise - the flash card does not open or appears “empty” - you should try removing and reinserting it, remembering to first stop the device.

On the first page of the program, the user will be shown the most general information about Recuva; After reading it, you can immediately click on the “Next” button.

On the second, you will need to select what types of files on the flash drive you want to recover. If the owner wants to return all deleted or damaged data, it is worth placing a circle near the top position; In the example, images will be restored, so the checkbox is set below.

On the third - indicate where the necessary files were supposedly (or exactly) located. If it is unknown, you should, as in the previous case, mark the top point with a circle; if known, go to “At the specified location.”

Now you need to select a removable media from the list and confirm the action by clicking on the “OK” button.

Everything is ready for restoration; By clicking “Start,” the user can leave the monitor or laptop screen for a few minutes.

A list of found files will be displayed in the form of thumbnails. By increasing and decreasing the size of the window, the owner of the flash drive can examine each drawing in more detail.

To restore the desired file, check the checkbox next to its name, and then click on the “Restore” button.

Now you need to choose which folder the data will be saved in, confirming the decision with the “OK” button.

To complete the process, just use the same button.

By selecting “Advanced mode”, the owner of the flash drive will be able to get a little more information about the files being recovered, in particular, find out their location and see their sizes.

If the search does not produce results, it makes sense to call the “Settings” menu and check the checkboxes to search for “zero” files - system and hidden files.

Here, in the drop-down list below, you can select the maximum number of rewrites that allows you to identify the data. The larger it is, the longer Recuva will work - but also the better the result.

You can close the program by clicking on the cross in the upper right corner of the page.

Now we need to consider a more complex situation. The document was rewritten several times, so the standard method cannot detect it on a flash drive. In this case, calling the program again, you need to specify the file type “Documents”, and then click on the “Next” button.

If desired, the user may not specify a specific volume to search by simply marking the “On the memory card” item with a circle - however, it is recommended to remove all flash drives and memory cards that are not related to file extraction for the duration of the work.

Since simple recovery was not successful, in the final window you need to check the “Enable in-depth analysis” checkbox.

The process of searching for files in this mode will take significantly more minutes; For some time it may seem to the user that the system is not responding, but there is no point in stopping the program.

Finally, the approximate time until the work is completed will appear in the window, and the progress bar will “come to life.”

In the table with search results, not only “green”, easily recoverable files will appear, but also “yellow” ones - the chances of their successful extraction are slightly less.

And also “red” ones - they either will not be restored at all, or will appear on the hard drive in a highly distorted form.

You can get a little more information about each file by selecting it with the mouse pointer and going to the “Summary” tab.

As already noted, restoration of some data is possible only in partial form, which will be noted in the report window.

You can find the desired file not by title, but by content, by calling the “Analysis” drop-down window and selecting “View Contents”.

By entering the desired text in the top field of the new window and clicking on the “Analysis” button, the user will be able to filter out unnecessary documents.

The process takes a little longer than simple in-depth analysis; You will have to wait from several minutes to several hours, depending on the amount of memory.

If none of the files found meets the request, you need to either clarify the key phrase, or continue to use the brute force method, restoring all the data and finding the required document between them.

Extraction, as with simple analysis, is carried out in two steps by clicking the “Recover” button and selecting a folder for storing information.

Advice: the user can disable the Recuva “Helper” by unchecking the checkbox on the first page. In this case, both the selection of the media on which the deleted or damaged data is located and the indication of the file type are carried out immediately in the main window, and to start the search, you need to click on the “Analysis” button.

Let's sum it up

Retrieving lost files from a flash drive is no more difficult than: to ensure the best result, the user should stop working with the media immediately after detecting a problem and not overwrite the data until the end of the work. For recovery, you can use any of the programs listed above; Most of them are free, but even the demo versions have enough features to get back an important document. The speed of searching and copying information depends on the memory capacity of the flash drive, the size of the files and their number; On average, the work takes from ten minutes to three to five hours.

Need to recover files from a USB flash drive? Are you wondering how to recover deleted documents after formatting a USB flash drive?

In the modern world, information has become a part of every person's life. Today, most documentation and photographs are stored on electronic media; a computer can replace entire rooms that would be needed to store archives, and even libraries. Increasingly, information refers to something stored specifically in in electronic format. All this is convenient, practical and rational.

But just as previously data accumulated over years could be instantly destroyed, for example, by a fire, today, in even shorter periods of time, tons of information can be destroyed due to a virus attack, hardware failure or careless disk formatting.

However, if it is not always possible to restore data after a fire, then problems with the disappearance of electronic data are actually easily solvable.

Wherever your information is stored: on a hard drive, on a flash drive or camera memory card, or any other medium, data recovery programs will help you get back all your lost files.

Such software, by the way, can be useful not only in case of loss of a large amount of data due to an electronic “natural disaster”. It is enough to lose one very important document or, say, your favorite photograph, and you will no longer be able to do without the help of a data recovery program. Now imagine that that very important document was stored only on your flash drive (USB), and you have not yet managed to transfer that very favorite photograph from the camera’s memory card to the computer. The slightest malfunction in the operation of a removable storage medium - and the problem of recovering data from a flash drive becomes your number one problem.

To avoid this problem taking you by surprise, consider downloading a flash drive recovery program.

The RS Partition Recovery program is a professional recovery of files from a flash drive and any other electronic media. The program will return your lost data, no matter in what format it was stored. Just a few simple steps, which even an inexperienced PC user can master, and the necessary files are again at your disposal.

But remember, for data recovery from a flash drive to be truly successful, you need to use only proven programs for recovery from flash drives. RS Partition Recovery is trusted by many users. After all, it really efficiently recovers files from flash drives and USB, camera memory cards (Compact Flash, xD, sD, Memory Stick), hard drive. At the same time, it is focused specifically on working with images, reads information from removable media faster, and therefore recovers data from a flash drive with better quality.

Protect yourself from accidental disappearance of data from a flash drive or from the desktop memory of your computer; let recovering files from a flash drive and hard drive be a simple task for you and does not require much effort. Download the flash drive recovery program RS Partition Recovery now.

Hello, friends! The question of recovering deleted files from flash drives, memory cards and other storage media will probably never cease to be relevant. Flash drives are much more reliable optical disks and much more versatile and convenient to use. But they also have critical days. The reasons for this may be different, ranging from the fact that the flash drive was pulled out incorrectly and ending with viruses. Here we will look at the recovery program and give several recommendations, firstly to prevent data loss, and secondly, to recovering deleted files from flash drive completed successfully. If time is running out, watch the video at the end of the article.

First of all, you need to check whether they are really deleted. Perhaps you have a virus that has made your files on the flash drive hidden and you simply cannot see them. If you know what hidden files are and your deleted ones are not among them on the flash drive, then read point two right away.

For those who don’t know that there are hidden files, I’ll tell you. Hidden files are regular files with the “Hidden” attribute.

How to view hidden files?

You can view hidden files and folders on a flash drive and any other drive using programs such as Total Commander, Free Commander ( free program analogue of Total Commander. I use it myself and recommend it to you)

If your information is not among the hidden files and folders, then most likely you deleted them.

The information below will help you try to recover your deleted files from a flash drive.

Important. Do not write anything to the flash drive. It’s better to turn it off altogether and think through a battle plan.

Why can't you write anything down? Because when deleted, the information is not physically deleted. Only the entry about it is deleted. But, it becomes possible to write information to the place of the deleted file. And if you write something down on a flash drive after deletion, then with a high probability at least part of the information will be written in place of the deleted file, and in this case it will be practically impossible to recover the information.

If your information is important, then it is better to immediately seek help from specialized recovery centers. They have powerful programs for this + experience = high chance of successfully recovering deleted files.

Recovering Deleted Files Using DMDE

Download the program to recover our files from the official website

For now current version 2.4.4.442.

An archive of ~650 KB in size is downloaded. Let's unpack it. If you have questions about unpacking archives, please read the article. WinRar archiver opens files with rar and zip extensions.

We insert the flash drive into the computer and run the DMDE.exe file in the unpacked folder. A window will appear in front of us in which we need to select a physical disk - our flash drive. We select the disk and look at the volume below to identify the flash drive. Click OK

Another window opens in which we select a section as in the figure. He will most likely be alone. Click the “Open volume” button

In the next window, don’t change anything, just click “Open”

A window opens with information about our section. On the left side, select “All found” by double-clicking on the section

The program will ask you to wait a couple of seconds to read the information.

Then you will see the files on your flash drive in the upper right part of the window. Those marked with a red cross are deleted files. Select the file to be restored and click restore. A hint will be at the bottom of the window. You can also right-click on the selected file and select “Recover…” in the context menu that opens.

In the window that opens, in the “Restore to:” field, use the button (...) to specify the location of the file or files to be restored. Click OK

Checking the recovered file.

In this way, without bothering with installing additional software, you can recover deleted files from a flash drive or from any other storage device, be it a camera memory card, and so on.

The recovery will be successful if nothing is written to the place of the deleted file. Otherwise, only part of the file or nothing at all may be recovered.

How to avoid recovering files on a flash drive

Use safe removal of flash drives and memory cards from all devices. If you can’t remove it safely, turn off the device or the tablet. Then remove the drive.
If possible, replace the flash drive with cloud storage data. For example Dropbox, or

From this article you will learn how to properly recover damaged or deleted files on a flash drive. There are many reasons why your flash drive with the necessary information fails - physical damage, power surges, exposure to viruses and spyware, hardware failures, and so on.

Accordingly, to eliminate each individual malfunction and restore information stored on a flash drive, you need your own special approach. Let's see what can be done for physical damage, thermal and electrical faults, faults in the Flash controller, and logical faults:

That is, when the connector breaks, the housing breaks, the device comes into contact with water or fire, becomes deformed, etc. In this case, you will have to diagnose the media and replace damaged components.

But if the printed circuit board itself is damaged, you will have to read data from it with a programmer (hardware and software device used to write/read information), decrypt it and move it to another location.

We are talking about damage to board elements - capacitors, transistors, diodes, which, fortunately, are not critical, since they are not involved in storing information (but they become one of the many reasons why Windows is not able to recognize the device).

Recovery occurs by dumping (removing) the image and emulating the operation of the controller, followed by gaining access to data and transferring files to other media. Unfortunately, without sufficient experience, you won’t be able to do this at home, so you’ll have to turn to familiar craftsmen or a service center.

The reason for their occurrence is the neglect of the very procedure of safe extraction, as well as power surges and surges. As a result, the operating system does not recognize the flash drive or defines it as an information storage with zero capacity.

The solution to the problem is similar to the previous point - the memory chip is unsoldered, the image is removed and written to a new medium.

Logic faults

They appear under the influence of malware (viruses and Trojans), incorrect contact during recording and incorrect removal of the flash drive after recording.

Be that as it may, the file system (NTFS, FAT) is damaged and the device is recognized as empty, plus a message is displayed about the need to format it, although in fact all the data is perfectly preserved.

In order to restore and copy deleted/inaccessible information in such a situation, special software is used. And for different models Flash drives, due to their specificity and differences from each other, may require completely different utilities.

Programs for data recovery from a flash drive

Although most recovery programs work well with flash drives, efficiency will increase significantly if you use specialized software designed to work with this type of device.

JetFlash Recovery Tool– freely distributed software, thanks to which it will not be difficult to recover deleted data from a flash drive model A-DATA, Transcend, JetFlash.

Just click the Start button to start the process of “repairing” the device, during which software errors that arose during use will be found and corrected.

It helps even in such advanced cases as the complete lack of visibility of the media in the system and its false recognition when a flash drive is mistaken for another type of media, for example, RAW.

– a data recovery program from a flash drive that can heal and even format broken drives. It’s worth noting right away that it will not help you if the files have been deleted, but when bad sectors appear in memory, this is exactly what is needed.

Doctor detects them and marks them as unused, so they stop participating in the work and are replaced by “healthy” backup cells. In addition, it is possible to create a media image and copy it to another information storage.

The list could go on for a long time, but this activity makes no sense, because, as mentioned earlier, each model of flash drive has its own type of controller (there will definitely be a couple of dozen).

Therefore, I recommend downloading another program - Flash Drive Information Extractor, using it to determine the type of controller and then using search engines, select a suitable recovery utility. Otherwise, if you use the first software you come across, you can not only once and for all lose the opportunity to return important data, but also completely “break” the flash drive.

In this article, we looked at methods and programs on how to properly recover damaged and deleted files from a flash drive. Look Video:

Flash drives and SD memory cards are capacious, cheap and convenient devices for storing information. The flash drive may contain data of particular importance: confidential information, logins and passwords for accessing wallets and bank accounts. Also USB Flash the drive is used as a key for access and authorization to operating systems, services, programs.

As a result of a simple mistake (or simple carelessness), it is easy to lose valuable information on a flash drive. Most often, information loss occurs due to a damaged file structure. In some situations, deletion is truly irreversible, but in other cases, recovery of a flash drive is possible. This is what we will try to do ourselves – programmatically.

This review presents programs that will help you recover deleted files from a flash drive. Each application has strengths and weaknesses, we will definitely list them.

How the programs were tested

To test the programs, we used a 7.29 GB USB flash drive with the FAT32 file system. The following files were copied to it:

We cleared the flash drive of files as it would look in reality. For this we:

deleted files on a flash drive bypassing the trash (Shift + Del)
completed quick formatting(with the Clear table of contents option).
a video file of 1.1 GB in size was recorded over the deleted information.

Choosing the best program to recover deleted files

Reconstruction applications are good because they skip service information on the flash drive and access memory directly. As a rule, it is possible to extract, if not all, then at least some data from the device’s memory that will be suitable for further work. As a result of manipulations using special programs, we will recover the data contained on the flash drive. The important thing is that the flash drive will work absolutely correctly after the data resuscitation procedure.

There are countless programs for recovering files on a flash drive. Many of them are universal: they work with hard drives, system partitions, and are suitable for restoring specific file formats

I suggest you familiarize yourself with programs that work with mobile devices Storage – USB flash and SD memory cards.

Unformat - a program for recovering data from a flash drive with many settings

File recovery in Unformat

Scanning deleted partitions on the flash drive took about 20 minutes. Further scanning of the partition after opening the partition takes about the same amount of time. Saving files also takes several minutes.

The Unformat program determines the deleted partitions, the file system type, the quality of the results, the first and last sector of the partition. All information about the process can be tracked through the log.

Files sorted by file type are available in the files detected by signatures section. At the same time, file types may not match extensions and must be changed manually.

As a result, the Unformat program detected all photos in jpg format. After formatting and rewriting, all data was preserved, including exif information. But the file names were deleted. Video and audio files could not be found in Unformat.

In this video I show how to recover information from a flash drive using basic settings Unformatted:

CardRecovery is a specialized program for recovering files from a flash drive

The CardRecovery program fits naturally into the review, since the list of supported devices includes USB flash drives and portable drives. It will help you recover files in such deletion scenarios as accidental formatting, damage to the file system of a flash drive, and memory card damage.

In fact, this product has not been updated for a long time, latest version– 6.10 – came out a few years ago. However, CardRecovery works without problems on Windows 10.

Restoring other information from a USB flash drive (archives, documents), unfortunately, is not available. For this reason, the CardRecovery utility will be more useful to owners of photo and video cameras who have lost information on a memory card or flash drive.

The cost of the program is low; a license for 1 user costs $39.95 USD.

Recovering files in CardRecovery

To recover data on a flash drive, we followed these steps:

Selected the Removable Devices list, as a storage device, usb flash.
Specified file types for scanning on a flash drive. CardRecovery has limits on file extensions, mainly multimedia file types - photos, audio and video.

The scan results are displayed as “file name - properties”. Exif information can be easily extracted from photos. At one of the steps (Step 3) you can see a preview. In this regard, CardRecovery is perhaps the most convenient program.

The preview is not available for video: you can see it only after purchasing the full version.

CardRecovery recovered all the images on the flash drive, just like Unformat. Many media files were restored in a damaged form with no chance of recovery (apparently, this is information that was contained on the flash drive for a very long time and was overwritten many times).

PhotoRec - recovering photos from a flash drive

Recovering files in PhotoRec

PhotoRec saves the result to the specified folder as it is restored.

The scanning took about 10 minutes: which is quite fast considering that the results are identical to Unformat. The program recovered not only photos, but also videos, and not only those that were deleted from the flash drive after formatting, but also files that were recorded and deleted before the test. Apparently, this place on the flash drive was not overwritten, so the videos, each 1 GB in size, were restored with virtually no damage.

One of the disadvantages is that PhotoRec does not have a save option. All files are saved in a heap in the specified folder, preview is not available. Information about where the files were deleted from is also not available.

Recuva program - free data recovery from a flash drive

Recuva is a universal program, you can use it to restore from usb flash drives, sd cards, hdd and ssd. Its tools are free, and you don't have to buy a license to bypass limits, as with other recovery programs. When restoring the flash drive, at the last stage, the window with the requirement to pay for the full version does not appear.

Recovery from a USB flash drive in Recuva

If the flash drive is in very poor condition, you can create an image and enable signature search. Depending on the degree of damage, files are color coded. Previews are available for media files.

How to recover information on a flash drive in Recuva

Having connected the flash drive, we opened Recuva Wizard, selected file types and storage media (usb flash drive).
We also enabled the Deep Scan option to avoid missing damaged or overwritten files.

Overall, the recovery took about 20 minutes. If the USB flash drive is more than 64 GB, be prepared that scanning will take even longer. However, Recuva works faster than other programs, such as Unformat.

Conveniently, Recuva Wizard has a preview, which is especially convenient when working with photos, if you only need specific files

In general, everything is done in a few clicks, but you have to pay for it in that there is no way to select a partition for recovery and there is no sorting by signatures.

File Scavenger – a program for recovering files on a flash drive

The list of problems solved with File Scavenger is impressive:

Recovering files deleted from a USB flash drive
Recovering data after accidentally formatting a flash drive
Fixing a damaged flash drive
The flash drive is not detected in Disk Management
The flash drive is "reset" to factory settings

Files can be recovered from hard drives, memory cards, RAID arrays, etc. Recovers data from most file systems(including NTFS, FAT 32/16/12, exFAT, ReFS) and virtual disks (VMFS, VMDK, VHD and VHDX).

The program works without installation (the corresponding option can be selected when starting File Scavenger).

File Scavenger is regularly updated; the latest version of the program for Windows 10 and Server 2012, in 64- and 32-bit editions, is available on the developer’s website.

Please note that in demo mode, File Scavenger allows you to test the functionality; Saving recovered files without purchasing a license is not possible. The cost of File Scavenger Standard Edition is $57.00, Professional Edition is $195.

Recovering files in File Scavenger

To recover files from a flash drive you need:

Select a USB flash drive from the list of devices,
Specify scanning mode quick or long
Press the Scan button.
At the end of the scan, a table with the data found on the flash drive will be displayed.
For each file, the status (probability of information recovery), modification date, size and other information useful when recovering from a flash drive are indicated.

File Scavenger also displays the partition, folder where the files were deleted. The Status column does not always display real information. For some files that Recuva identified as recoverable, the information is not available here.

The program has very few scanning settings; the interface is quite inconvenient, although simple. Files can be displayed as a file tree, plus a preview is available. You can select all files or only specified types (files are sorted by signature) and through the Save to tab.

Verdict. USB flash drive recovery programs - which one is better?

The results showed that the programs participating in the review showed approximately the same results. In fact, the likelihood of recovering data on a flash drive largely depends on what actions were performed on the USB drive after deleting the data.

So the main difference between the programs is the cost of the license and the convenience of the interface.

Answers to readers' questions

I have the "auto call recording" feature enabled. When I deleted records selectively yesterday, at some point I clicked “delete all.” But I don’t need everything, there are records that I need. What to do? How to restore them?

Answer. Any of the above file recovery programs (Recuva, Recover My Files, CardRecovery and other utilities) allow you to recover audio recordings, say, on a flash drive. The data may not be recorded on a USB flash drive, it does not matter. Simply specify the source for scanning deleted files, then view the results found and select the files that are most similar to audio recordings (you can tell by the file extension) to return.

Suddenly all the files (photos, music, etc.) appeared on the flash card, but the folders that I created remained. There was no rewriting, no formatting was done. Very strange situation, what could it be? I would like to believe that data recovery from a flash drive is still possible...

Answer. All the programs listed here (CardRecovery, PhotoRec, Recover My Files and Recuva) are equally effective at recovering data from a flash drive. Read the review and choose the utility that will meet your criteria.

You can find out directly how to recover information from a flash drive by selecting the desired section on our website in the main menu. Video instructions are available for some applications.

I deleted information from the flash drive ( rar archive in the archive there are word, pdf and dwg files) and on top of this I completely recorded the rar archive with pdf files. Is it possible to restore previous information on a flash drive?

Answer. If there was still free space on the flash drive before overwriting, there is a chance to recover the information. In fact, they are always there, but if there was no space and you deleted files precisely for this reason, the likelihood decreases. Any program for recovering deleted files from a flash drive, for example, Undelete 360, Recuva or Unformat, will help you.