How to Fix a USB Flash Drive

USB flash drives are extremely convenient and practical, but they're not without problems. If you've ever tried to retrieve information from your USB flash drive and discovered that the data is corrupt, you may have found yourself in a bit of a jam. Knowing how to fix a USB flash drive is a skill that everyone should at least be familiar with, should a problem occur with your flash drive.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Remove the flash drive and reboot the computer if your flash drive starts giving you trouble. Choose the "Safely Remove Hardware" option in your system tray and then removing the flash drive from the USB port. Cycle your computer on and off, replace the drive into the USB port and then try to access your flash drive again.
2. Replace the file. If a particular file won't open, you may need to delete the file entirely from the flash drive and reload it from your main computer drive. You can then try to open the file on the flash drive to see if that makes a difference. If the file opens, then the issue was with the file itself. If it still refuses to open, the problem is in the flash drive.
3. Scan your flash drive for errors. Go to My Computer, right-click on the drive and then choose Properties, then Tools. Choose "Run Error Checking and Scan for Errors" to fix any problems that may be present on your drive. Once that is complete, try to access the drive again.
4. Contact the manufacturer. If none of the above steps work, contact the flash drive's manufacturer to see about possible replacement or other options.

Tips & Warnings

• Renaming the file before performing the transfer might make a difference in whether you can access it, so consider giving that a try as part of Step 2.

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