How to Recover and Repair USB Drive Partition in 2023

How To Recover Lost Partitions on a USB Drive?

There are lots of USB storage devices and disks used by PC owners and companies. This includes external HDDs, flash drives, thumb drives, and quite many others. These USB drives can be partitioned to save specific data types, which is cool, but it becomes a problem when those partitions get lost, and the files/data saved in them get lost too.

If you had, at some point, tried to reformat an external USB drive; apparently, the previous partitions created on that USB drive will be deleted (including the files and data saved inside). Other scenarios such as partition table corruption, malware/virus attack on the drive, accidental deletion, and more are some of the commonest reasons why your partitions are missing on your USB storage.

Basically, when data loss occurs, it's heartbreaking and devastating, but then, in this case, you shouldn't be so much worried because you still have the chance of recovering the lost USB partitions and files. There are a couple of ways to recover lost and deleted partitions from a USB device, and this article explains them in detail.

From using free Windows built-in tools like the Attrib command, Diskpart, and check disk to using third-party programs like DiskInternals Partition Recovery. Hereunder are the possible ways to repair USB drive partitions and recover data.

2. Use Windows Diskpart Utility to Recover Lost Partition On USB Drive

Similar to the CHKDSK utility is the Diskpart utility – a free-to-use Windows tool that helps to fix disk partition problems by assigning a new drive letter to the deleted partition. Also, you need to log in to an admin account on the computer to run this utility because it runs through the command prompt. Below are the steps to follow:

• Right-click on the "Start" icon and select Disk Management

• Look out for the USB device and check for the volume(s) marked as "Unallocated." Take note of the drive/volume letter/number

• Now, right-click on "Start" again and select Windows PowerShell (Admin)

• Type Diskpart and press Enter

• Type List Disk to view all connected disks on your PC

• Type Select Disk B (where B is the USB disk with the deleted partition)

• Type List Volume to list all available volumes on disk B

• Finally, type Select Volume O (where O is the unallocated/deleted partition)

• Now, type Assign Letter=g (where g is the new drive letter to use for the partition, no other volume on the drive must have this selected letter as the identifier)

• Close the window and exit, restart the computer, and check if the problem persists.

Free Download USB Partition Recovery Software

DiskInternals offers Partition Recovery, which are two powerful data recovery software that can help you to retrieve your lost and deleted files from a corrupt USB drive or a problematic one. The DiskInternals Partition Recovery software apps are downloadable for free, and they both come with many good features.

DiskInternals Partition Recovery works to recover lost files irrespective of the data loss scenario, and it is very fast. The interface is intuitive, and it features a built-in Recovery Wizard that guides the user throughout the recovery process.

Step One: Download and install DiskInternals Partition Recovery on your Windows PC

Connect the SSD drive to the same computer you installed the software, then launch the DiskInternals Partition Recovery software.

Step Two: Select the SSD from the list of connected drives on your computer, and choose between the three scanning modes

Fast Recovery (Quick Scan) mode may not get back all the files you want, but it is very fast and recovers a good number of lost files. If you want to get back everything and also repair the SSD, use Full Recovery (Deep Scan) mode and wait for the scan to run completely – it may take some time.

Step Three: Once the scan is complete, the recovered files will be marked with a red asterisk

You can easily differentiate between files that are still saved on the SSD and the ones that were just recovered by DiskInternals Partition Recovery. Click on the recovered files and preview them to ensure they're in good condition and equally the ones you needed back.

Note: To resave the recovered files, you need to purchase the DiskInternals Partition Recovery license.

Can You Recover Data From a Hard Disk After Deleting the Partition?

Yes, but that calls for a professional data recovery solution like the DiskInternals Partition Recovery software. With such a tool, you can still retrieve lost files from a USB drive whose partitions were mistakenly deleted or reformatted. DiskInternals Partition Recovery comes with a wealth of tools and features, and it's pretty intuitive to use too. The software can run on any Windows OS computer and comes with a built-in Recovery Wizard.

How to Repair Corrupted USB Drive

1. Check USB Errors and Repair

To check for errors and repair a USB drive, you can follow these steps:

1. 1. Insert the USB drive into your computer.

1. 2. Open File Explorer and right-click on the USB drive.

1. 3. Select "Properties" from the context menu.

1. 4. Click on the "Tools" tab.

1. 5. Under the "Error checking" section, click on "Check".

1. 6. Windows will scan the drive for errors and fix any issues it finds.

If Windows is unable to fix any errors, you can try using a third-party tool to repair the drive.

2. Repair Corrupted USB Using CMD (Run CHKDSK Command)

Repairing a corrupted USB drive using CMD (Command Prompt) and running the CHKDSK command is a common solution. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Check USB Errors and Repair

To check for errors and repair a USB drive, you can follow these steps:

1. 1. Connect the corrupted USB drive to your computer.

1. 2. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator. You can do this by pressing the Windows key + X, and selecting "Command Prompt (Admin)" from the list.

1. 3. In the Command Prompt window, type the command "chkdsk [drive letter]: /f /r /x" and press Enter. Replace [drive letter] with the actual letter of your USB drive. The "/f" command will fix any errors found, "/r" will locate bad sectors and recover readable information, and "/x" will force the drive to dismount before the process starts.

1. 4. Wait for the scan to complete. This may take some time, depending on the size of your USB drive and the number of errors found.

1. 5. Once the scan is complete, type "exit" and press Enter to close the Command Prompt window.