How to Cure a Bad Flash Drive
Flash drives are portable data storage devices used to carry programs and files for transferring onto another computer or as a backup storage unit for important documents. With portability comes a price--its small size makes the drive susceptible to physical damage and data corruption. There are two solutions to a bad flash drive: running Windows Checkdisk utility or formatting the drive.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Checkdisk
-
1
Open the Start menu on your taskbar. Navigate to "My Computer" or "Computer" and double click it to access the list of drives on your computer.
-
2
Go to your flash drive and right click on it to bring a drop-down menu. Select "Properties" to open the property menu of your flash disk.
-
-
3
Click on the "Tools" tab, then click the "Check Now" button under the "Error-Checking" section.
-
4
Check mark "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" under the "Check Disk" utility menu. Click "Start" to begin fixing and recovering your flash drive.
Formatting
-
5
Open the Start menu on your taskbar. Navigate to "My Computer" or "Computer" and double-click it to access the list of drives on your computer.
-
6
Go to your flash drive and right-click on it to bring a drop-down menu. Select "Format" to open the formatting menu.
-
7
Choose either FAT or FAT32 from the "File System" drop-down menu. The format of your flash drive will be listed in the "General" tab of its properties.
-
8
Click on "Start" to begin the full formatting process. You can opt to select "Quick Format," but if you want to have a thorough and more reliable format, do not select his option.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Formatting a drive deletes all data stored within it. Copy all files and documents you wish to keep onto your computer before proceeding.
