How to Repair a USB Thumbdrive
Computer peripherals that run through the Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface are becoming very popular today. USB is especially popular for portable data storage, thanks to reliable high-capacity thumbdrives and flash disks. There are times that USB disks do fail, and here are some steps you can take to repair the thumbdrive.
Causes of Data Loss
Unlike hard disks, diskettes, CDs and DVDs, USB disks use solid-state memory to store data. There are no moving parts in a thumbdrive, which make them less susceptible to wear and tear. While USB disks are relatively cheap, many people use them to store critical data like backup files. There are many reasons why USB thumbdrives fail:
Read/write cycles. Portable media devices like USB flash drives have a limited number of read/write cycles. If you use an older USB device, or if you use your USB thumbdrive more often than usual, you’re more likely to run out of cycles, rendering the device useless after constant use.
Improper disconnection. Perhaps the most common reason for thumbdrive failure is when you disconnect the drive from the USB port without stopping the device through the device manager of your operating system. Improperly disconnecting the drive can cause a power surge through the flash memory chip, or result in data loss.
Viruses and malware can damage the file structure of your USB disk, especially if it does not come with a read/write protection switch.
Physical damage. Thumbdrives are designed to be highly portable and are sturdier than hard drives or optical media, yet that doesn’t mean that they’re invulnerable. If you accidentally put a thumbdrive along with a load of laundry into the washing machine, you pretty much have a useless device in your hands.
Recovering Data
If you store critical data in your thumbdrive, you need to recover as much of the data as you can. It will take some time, because you may need more than one computer to see if your USB device will be recognized. Here are some ways that you can recover your data:
Data recovery tools. Disk utilities and other programs designed to recover data from hard disks can also be used to recover data from USB disks. Examples of data recovery software include RescuePRO from Sandisk, and PhotoREC.
Anti-virus software. Sometimes all you need to do is to run a thorough virus scan on your USB disk to check if it has any viruses or malware. Repair, delete, or quarantine options should be enough for you to recover critical data.
Reformatting the Drive
If your computer provides the option to reformat the drive, it means that the file structure in the memory storage system has been compromised and you can no longer conveniently recover data. You have two options when reformatting a damaged drive:
Quick format is recommended for fast, speedy disk formatting. A quick format will set up a new file system and a boot sector on the drive, and takes less than a minute depending on the capacity of your thumbdrive.
Full format is needed if quick format fails to initialize. Full format will throroughly scan the chip for defects or errors. As soon as the formatting tool repairs the drive, it then sets up the new file system and installs the new boot sector.
USB thumbdrives may be reliable, but they do fail from time to time. With these helpful remedies, you can repair a damaged USB thumbdrive, recover your data, and not have to spend time and money buying a replacement.