Doesn't see the disk and asks to format it. What to do if the external drive does not open and asks you to format it

They are a very popular and convenient means for storing and transferring information between computers. They are very reliable, can be rewritten many times, and are practically not affected by external factors such as a magnetic field, the sun, and in many cases even moisture. However, the USB storage device may experience problems from time to time. One of the most famous is that when the computer is connected, the computer starts writing that the disk requires formatting, and the flash drive itself does not want to open. When viewing the properties of the drive, its capacity is displayed as 0 bytes, and the file system is RAW.

There are several ways to open a flash drive without formatting.

What to do in this case? Okay, if you don’t store important data on it, you can simply format it and continue to use it safely. Well, what if you can’t delete the information? Is there a way out?

Fortunately, in most cases the flash drive is damaged only at the software level, while the physical data continues to be recorded. A failure can occur for various reasons, most often due to the action of viruses, and also when the work was completed incorrectly during a recording or reading session, for example, you pulled out the flash drive from its socket or the power supply was turned off.

There are several ways to regain access. We will go over with you the working methods and methods that will help you recover files on your portable drive. All you need to do is follow the instructions carefully.

The fastest, easiest and least painless way to regain access to files on a flash drive. To do this, you don’t even need to download additional software, as all operations will be performed using the Windows command line. So, you connect the media to the USB connector, and instead of your files opening, you see a sign asking you to format the flash drive.

1. Click "No" if you really don't want to lose the recorded data.
2. Run Command Prompt as Administrator. To do this, click the Start button, enter cmd in the search bar, right-click on the utility in the search results and select “Run as administrator.” On Windows 10, you can select the corresponding item by right-clicking on the Start button.
3. After the jumping cursor is displayed after the system folder address and user name, type the command chkdsk x: /f, where instead of x, enter the letter under which your flash drive is displayed in the system. Check this information in your file explorer. To confirm and launch, click Enter.
4. Wait a couple of minutes while the utility does its job. The total time will depend on the size and class of the flash drive, as well as the number of files.

If everything goes well, you will soon be able to view the contents of your portable drive. Just in case, copy the data to your computer’s hard drive and format the flash drive to get rid of any remaining problems.

It is worth noting that it is possible that a message in the form of “CHKDSK is not valid for RAW disks” may appear, which indicates the presence of more serious problems with your device.

Unfortunately, if such a development occurs, the flash drive will need to be formatted, but if it stores data whose safety is a priority, then you can try to restore it, which will be discussed a little later.

Virus check

A very common and fairly common reason that the system does not display the contents of the flash drive and asks you to format it may be that it is infected with viruses. For example, the so-called autorun virus turns all folders and files into shortcuts, hiding them, and some other viruses generally begin to require formatting the media and do not display its contents. Therefore, if checking the disk for errors did not lead to changes, perform a virus scan.

To do this, you will need a regular antivirus or a portable antivirus scanner. Any antivirus has the ability to scan the system down to a separate folder. In the settings you need to indicate your USB drive that requires formatting and wait until the procedure is completed. If you use a free antivirus and it missed the threat, download one of the free portable scanners. By the way, we have already written a detailed review about them on our website in this article. Check out its contents. In addition, regularly monitor the security of your system so that you do not suffer from emerging problems.

Data recovery

Although in most cases the first two methods work flawlessly, let's imagine a situation where they did not help. In this case, you can try data recovery using software specially written for this purpose. There are a huge number of such utilities. Let's look at two of the best programs: TestDisk and R-Studio. They are simple and not at all difficult to understand. At the end, don’t be lazy to clean it up, because a formatted drive no longer contains damaged sectors. How to open a flash drive using each of the utilities?

TestDisk

1. Download the program from the official website of the developers - https://www.cgsecurity.org.
2. Insert the USB flash drive into your computer; when prompted to format, reject it.
3. Create a folder on your hard drive where the recovered files will be copied, and unpack the downloaded program into it.
4. Launch the recovery application by double-clicking the photorec_win.exe file.
5. Use the arrow to select the desired drive and press Enter.
6. Select your flash drive's partition table type, again using the arrows to navigate through the list. Press Enter to confirm.
7. Next, select the partition to restore. You will need Whole Disk. Move the pointer using the arrows and press Enter.
8. Select the file system type by checking Other, which will imply FAT
9. Select the folder where the recovered files will be copied. By default, the procedure you created at the very beginning is selected.
10. Click Y to start the process.
11. At the very end, go to the folder and view all the files that were recovered.

R-Studio

1. Download the utility from the official website and install it on your computer.
2. Open the main menu of the program, find your flash drive in the list of directories. It usually appears at the very bottom of the list.
3. Click the "Scan" button at the top of the screen, confirm the operation in the next window that opens.
4. Select the files you want to recover and click the "Recover" button.
5. Wait until it finishes and go to the folder where the recovered information is stored.

Low-level formatting

Quite a lengthy procedure that cannot be described in a few words. For this purpose, we have prepared a separate article dedicated to low-level formatting. In it we described the full cycle of actions, and also included links to all the necessary utilities. You will succeed if you carefully read the material provided.

Conclusion

We hope that we helped you solve the problem in which the contents of the flash drive cannot be opened, and the system says that it needs to be formatted. In the comments, we ask you to tell us whether the article helped you.

Flash drives have long become an indispensable attribute of a modern person. They are very compact and have impressive capacity. Quite often we write important data there and do not create a backup copy. But in vain, these devices often fail and can take away all the necessary information.

Let's look at what to do if the flash drive stops working and says that formatting is required.

What to do if the flash drive asks to format

Data recovery

First, let's restore important information from a flash drive.

Please note that self-recovery does not always end in success. If you do not want to risk important information, it is better to take the faulty device to a specialized institution.

For this we will use a special program called Handy Recovery. This is a paid program that has a trial period of 30 days. Let's download and run it. We are not formatting the flash drive yet.

Select the required drive and click "Rapid Recovery". If the program does not see the flash drive, then apply it to it "Quick Format". To do this in the window "My computer" Right-click on the device and select the desired item. After that, we'll try to restore it again.

This program recovers data from removable media, not the device itself.

After this, all the data that was found will be displayed in the left column. Regular folders are exactly the information that was on the flash drive at the time of the breakdown. Those marked with a red cross are files that you deleted from the media.

Select the desired file and click "Restore".

If everything worked out, then you are lucky. Now let’s figure out what to do with the flash drive itself, which has lost its functionality.

First, test it on other computers, preferably with different operating systems, and insert it into a different connector. If the problem is present everywhere then move on to the next point.

Virus check

Very often, the path to removable storage can be blocked by malicious objects. One of these Autorun.inf. To eliminate it we can use the program Anti-Autorun. You need to download it and run it, the rest is automatic.

If the problem persists, we will scan the computer along with the removable media with our antivirus.

Then we use additional funds. First, download and install the Malware utility; it does not interfere with the work of your defender and can be used in parallel. Let's check.

The scan must be run in the entire system area (including the flash drive).

Let's use the portable utility AVZ, which is also effective in searching for various threats.

If nothing is found, let's try using AdwCleaner.

We clear everything that we managed to find and reboot the computer.

Deleting a partition and creating a new one

Let's go to "Administration-Disk Management". Find your device in the list.

Now go to the Windows 7 command line (write cmd in the search field) and enter one by one "diskpart-listdisk", in the resulting list, select the letter of your flash drive; you can determine it by its size. If the wrong section is selected, you will lose all the information on it. Let's introduce "select disk"(Removable media no.).

Now let's go back to "Disk Management", the flash drive area has become unallocated. Right-click to create a new volume.

On the screen you will see "Wizard for creating a new volume", click everywhere "Further". Let's focus on choosing a file system. I will format in "Fat 32".

After these steps, my flash drive began to work normally. If you don't have one, you can use special programs to recover removable media. Just keep in mind that after using such software, you will not be able to return the data, so do this in advance.

Recovering a flash drive using special utilities

The choice of program depends on the brand of your device. Some manufacturers produce specialized utilities, others do not.

If such software is not available, you can use programs that are suitable for most media. For example D-Soft Flash Doctor. Let's download and run the program. It does not require installation. Select your media from the list and click "Restore".

If all else fails, then most likely there is a hardware failure in the device. Take her to a specialized center. Perhaps they can help you there.

So, if the operating system asks you to format a flash drive, is it possible to ignore this request and open it without formatting? It is impossible to answer unequivocally. In some cases, you can completely restore files, but there are situations when you still have to agree to formatting. We'll look at a few scenarios and give some valuable tips on the matter.

Everyone may one day encounter the error “Before using a disk in the drive, it must be formatted.” A computer or phone asks you to format a memory card when connected for various reasons: from the connector to natural wear and tear.

In any case, in the absence of mechanical damage to the media, it is quite possible to open the flash drive without formatting and/or restore at least 40% of the information stored in memory. The main thing is not to agree to formatting, put the flash drive aside and carefully read this guide.

What Causes SD Card Error to Occur?

Emergency formatting is needed when the media is damaged mechanically or software. Most often this happens when:

• The flash drive fell
• was deleted incorrectly,
• formatted in an old phone/camera,
• was not removed while resetting the phone to factory settings,
• has exhausted its working resource,
• was formatted in an incompatible file system.

With mechanical damage and natural wear and tear, everything is simple: the more damaged the flash drive is, the less likely it is to pull something out of it. Although, of course, it’s worth trying anyway. Other problems can be fixed in 8 cases out of 10.

Windows asks you to format the flash drive. Do I need to agree?

Agreeing to formatting when the system leaves no choice makes sense only in one case - you don’t need a single file from the card. You can restore information after formatting using special programs for your computer and applications for mobile devices.

Attention! It is not a fact that any recovery software after formatting will return 100% of deleted files to you.

In a situation where you are not going to part with the information, do not rush with formatting. In addition, it is not advisable to format a mobile flash drive using standard Windows tools.

To check an SD card for reading errors you need to:

1. Insert the card into the card reader and connect it to a computer running MS Windows.
2. On your computer, open the command line (Start → Run → CMD).
3. In the command prompt window, enter the command chkdsk drive letter: /f/r, for example: chkdsk M: /f/r.
4. Upon completion of the check, try to view the contents of the card using the standard method.

If the SD card does not open and requires formatting, despite a successful check in ChkDsk, you will have to make a radical decision - format it and then try to recover the files.

Format a flash drive using SDFormatter

The formatting process through the SDFormatter program is no more complicated than formatting using standard operating system tools. Download SDFormatter and install. Next, you need to connect the flash drive to the computer via a card reader and do the following:

1. In the main program window, select the drive letters of the flash drive (look through “My Computer”;
2. In Option, select the formatting type;
3. Click the Format button.

Once formatting is complete, it is advisable to check the media on your computer. If the media is opened, it will be writable on the mobile device.

The SDFormat utility supports flash drive formatting types: Full OverWrite and Quick. Quick - superficial formatting, which only marks documents in the media memory as available for rewriting; Full OverWrite - deletes the contents of files with writing over zeros (blanks).

Attention! To retain the ability to recover files from a formatted flash drive through special applications, you must select the Quick format mode.

How to prevent a similar error from occurring in the future

The first thing you need to do to avoid the problem of lost files in the future is to train yourself to make backup copies of your files. You can store them on a cloud server, for example, Google Drive, Dropbox AND Yandex.Disk, on a computer or the internal memory of a mobile device.

Following a few simple operating rules will help protect your flash drive from reading errors, converting it to an unreadable RAW format, and extend the life of the device:

• You can use the safe removal function in your mobile phone too - before removing it, you need to disconnect the SD card in the settings (Settings → Memory).
• Do not allow falls, shocks, or water to get on the memory card.
• Regularly, at least once every 1-2 months, you need to copy the content to another location and carry out preventive formatting, preferably in Full OverWrite mode.
• Make sure that applications installed on a smartphone/tablet do not interact frequently with external memory, as this dramatically accelerates the wear of the latter.

And lastly: never store anything particularly important on the SD card, for example, documents or photographs of children. A card is not the most reliable option for storing information; it can break at any moment, and no recovery programs will help.

Question answer

1. I have a large flash drive (drive) with more than 15,000 photos and videos. Once I wanted to open a flash drive, they asked me to format it (I didn’t click). Mom, frightened, took the video to M., and when she brought it back, she said that everything inside had been removed. Is there a chance to get everything back?
2. The computer asks you to format the flash drive. The phone and tablet indicate that the flash drive is damaged; photographs of the child are stored on it for all 9 months of his life and they are very important to me. Please help me remove the files from the USB flash drive, after that I won’t use it anymore, the main thing for me is to extract the baby’s photos from its memory.

Answer. You did the right thing. If the computer persistently asks you to format the flash drive, you do not need to immediately agree to the offer. It is advisable to think before you click OK and the files will disappear forever.

So, connect the USB flash drive to your computer, then download and install the Unformat program. Further steps to return files are described in the article at the specified link; video instructions are also posted there on how to recover files deleted on a flash drive and how to use the application as a whole.

There is an SD card, there is only music on it, I listen to it through a portable speaker. I want to transfer music to a PC or phone, but PCs and phones either don’t see the microSD card or ask me to format it. I don't want to lose what's on the map. What to do?

Answer. Sometimes a formatting request appears when reading errors occur on a flash drive. You can try to resolve these errors using the utilities that come with Windows. One of them is the console utility chkdsk, which also has a convenient graphical shell. Read about error checking at this link:

After reading errors are identified, you can reconnect the flash drive to the computer/laptop and check if the formatting request appears.

If all else fails, you'll have to agree to formatting

1. Need help recovering files on a flash drive. There is a lot of important information on it. When I insert it into the computer, it prompts me to format it. All the programmers I know also say that nothing can be restored. Please provide a link to the program, if there is one. Is it possible to recover deleted files from a flash drive?
2. Phone Samsung Gakalsi A3 (2015). The flash drive is asking for formatting. I insert the card into the phone, when installing the SD card, it says that it is empty and asks: should I format the flash drive or not. What to do? Please advise how to recover photos from a flash drive.
3. Samsung J7 2016 phone with a Samsung 64GB flash drive - stopped seeing the flash drive after taking a photo, it says - DAMAGED. There are a lot of photos on the flash drive that I would like to return. The computer asks you to format the flash drive. Tell me what to do and is it possible to return the photo?

Answer. When asked to format a flash drive, do not agree to the offer. Install the Unformat program and, after reading the instructions and video, try to recover files on the flash drive. Your friends may be wrong, because the files on a flash drive can be kept safe and sound until you try to format the drive or overwrite old files with new ones, and the likelihood of getting them back on the flash drive will decrease many times over.

If checking for errors does not help, and it is not possible to restore the files, well, there is nothing else left, you will have to format the flash drive. To avoid problems in the future, we recommend reading our manual, which describes all the stages and nuances of formatting:

The problem is this - Samsung tab tablet, marshmallow, the flash drive stopped working, Sony Micro SD 32GB 70MB, I insert it - it says damaged and asks to format it, it reaches 20% and crashes and the tablet does not see the memory card.

Answer. If the SD card on the tablet is not detected, you should check it for errors. This can be done via a computer. If the chkdsk utility did not find errors or did not fix them, you can format the memory card using SDFormatter. Most likely, this utility will help. Formatting on a tablet is not very efficient.

My Galaxy Grand Prime phone does not see the micro sd. I tried another one - it shows that it is empty and asks to format it, although there are files on it. I confirm, but the card is not formatted. I try another one - it sees it, but does not open files (such as photos). It says “not found”.

Answer. The SD card may have read errors. You should check it using chkdsk, and then format it using the sdformatter program. Of course, you can format it via your phone, but it is better to carry out all operations on a computer.

Qumo memory card 16 GB. Purchased for a Samsung Galaxy Tab s 2 tablet. The files are recorded from the computer, everything is fine. Time passes (1-1.5 hours), files disappear, the memory card cannot be read by the tablet. When connected to a computer, the card does not open, but asks to format it immediately. Full formatting helps. After re-downloading the files, after 1-1.5 hours the same thing happens. What could be the reason, the memory card or the tablet is faulty? Everything is fine with the built-in memory of the tablet.

Answer. The memory card needs to be removed after turning off the phone, and on the computer you need to use safe removal (icon in the notification area). As a result of hot eject, read errors may occur in the future. It is unlikely that the problem is with the tablet, although it is possible that some applications on the device use the memory card for their work, and you interrupt the process or do not wait for the copying to finish and disconnect the cable or card reader from the PC.

The old phone had a micro sd. But the phone is broken. When I try to move it to another phone, it says that the card is not supported and asks to format it. Is there any way to avoid losing data from it? There are books that were thrown there by a person who is no longer there. I wouldn't want to lose them.

I have both micro SD flash drives, 64 GB and 8 GB. previously worked on a Sony phone, when installed in a new Nokia phone, it says that the memory card is damaged and requires formatting. Although, when connected via a card reader to a TV, both cards can be read normally. The Nokia phone can read a regular flash drive connected via an OTG cable, although it was previously used only with the same Sony phone. What could be the reason and is it possible to restore the functionality of the cards on the phone without resorting to formatting?

I formatted a 16G flash drive on a new phone with Android 6.0 and combined the memory with the phone and it turned out that only the phone sees this flash drive, after some use I forgot and inserted the flash drive into the old phone, it naturally didn’t work, I put it back in the new one and after turning it on it says format and data can’t see it, I need to restore the information, please help me. Very important files on the flash drive: photos, music, documents. Thanks in advance.

smartphone blackview bv8000pro android 7.0 took out a flash card, reset the phone to factory settings, insert the card, it says configure the card and asks to format it. It was previously configured as internal memory, but there is a lot of necessary information on the card, how can I get it out of there?

“I have a new flash drive, it worked for a month and... I made it a system one and a day later my phone writes to me that the card is damaged and needs to be formatted, I format it and it says that formatting is not possible. But the computer doesn’t see it, it’s in the media but it’s as if it’s not there. Help me please!"

I have a USB flash drive (16gb) for a year, there is a lot of music on it, my son took it to listen to music on the speaker, he brought it, put it in the computer and wrote to format it

Flash drive 32 GB. When I opened it, the computer swore that it couldn’t do it without formatting. Some of the files were successfully restored through a program from the Internet. I decided to format it as the computer asked. As a result, Windows wrote that it could not complete the formatting. I tried articles on the Internet where you need to log in as an admin and write “clean” “files” and so on. Did not help. Now it seems like the computer has stopped swearing and started formatting. But the slider hasn’t moved forward for half an hour. He's at the very beginning of his journey. What should I do and is it possible to somehow return the flash drive using free programs? Thank you

Android 6: the flash drive is asking for formatting. Doesn't let you open it or do anything with it at all. There is nowhere to copy files. I don't have a PC. What to do then?

Hello! I have a SAMSUNG J2 phone? costs Android 7.1.1. There was a problem with the flash drive. Writes that it is not supported, please format it. When formatting, an error appears: Command 10 volume partition disk: 179.64 public failed with 400 Command failed. Formatting on the computer did not help. I bought a new flash drive, but everything is the same. It is impossible to format. Tell me what to do, how to open a flash drive without formatting it. Thank you.

I connected my USB Flash Card 64GB to copy files in Ubuntu 14.04 Mate. Suddenly the flash drive suddenly disappears from the explorer. In Windows 7, it appears and disappears abruptly in the explorer. It says that the disk needs to be formatted; when I try to format it, it fails when I click on Start, the explorer copies Microsoft Windows etc. repeatedly and then Windows 7 freezes. Perhaps the virus gives an error about some RAW file.

I combined the flash drive with internal memory. Then the phone's performance decreased and I wanted to do everything back. I clicked on storage then on flash drive and on portable storage. They wrote to me that I needed to format the flash drive and I formatted it... Then he started writing, the flash drive does not support this media. Click to configure. I click, there I am given the choice of making a flash drive for internal memory or portable storage. I clicked on one, then clicked next, then formatted it again, it said everything is ready, the flash drive supposedly works, then I see that the flash drive again says the flash drive is not supported, and you can do this endlessly

Today I bought a new microSD flash drive for my smartphone. Installed it. The smartphone allows you to set storage priorities between your own memory and a flash drive. Set the priority of the flash drive. Took a few photos. The photos were copied to a flash drive. Then I looked at the functionality of this flash drive, where in some section it was suggested to format this flash drive to improve its performance. Because I didn’t need photographs, so I agreed. After formatting, I cannot change priorities, i.e. The system writes that the internal memory of the smartphone is used by default. But the flash drive doesn’t seem to exist, although the system sees it. Question: how to recover a flash drive without formatting? Thank you.

smartbuy 8 gb. Works only 2 weeks after purchase, in a smartphone. When I put it in the phone, he suggested that I combine the memory, after which he formatted it, and it turned out that I rolled it back to factory settings, after which the whole problem happened: the flash drive does not open, does not appear as a removable disk, and does not appear in the device manager. Physical impact is excluded. Acronis Disk Director writes that the disk is not initialized, tell me what the problem is and how to fix it.."

Using portable media to store important information is a mistake many people make. In addition to the fact that a flash drive can be easily lost, it can fail and valuable data will be lost. An example of this is the situation when it is not readable and asks to start formatting. We'll talk further about how to access the necessary files.

Let us immediately clarify that we are talking about an error, which is shown in the photo below.

It usually occurs when the file system is corrupted, for example due to improper removal of the flash drive. Although it does not work, its contents are not damaged in this case. To extract files we use the following methods:

• Handy Recovery program;


• Active@ File Recovery program;


• Recuva program;


• Chkdsk command.

It should be said right away that data recovery from a portable device does not always end in success. The probability that the above methods will work can be estimated at 80%.

Method 1: Handy Recovery

This utility is paid, but has a trial period of 30 days, which will be quite enough for us.

To use Handy Recovery, do the following:

As you can see, using Handy Recovery is completely simple. If after performing the above procedures the error does not disappear, use the following program.

Method 2: Active@ File Recovery

It’s also a paid application, but the demo version is enough for us.

Instructions for using Active@ File Recovery look like this:

Method 3: Recuva

This utility is free and is a good alternative to the previous options.

To use Recuva, do this:

If you have any problems, you may find a solution in our article on using this program. And if not, write about them in the comments.

If no program sees the media, then you can format it in the standard way, but be sure to check "Quick (clear table of contents)", otherwise the data will not be returned. To do this, just click "Format" when an error occurs.

After this, the flash drive should be displayed.

Today, a flash drive is an indispensable portable device for storing information in electronic form. Each of us has at least one flash drive in our house, and some users have a whole collection. Unfortunately, this device is not reliable, and therefore today we will look in more detail at the problem when a flash drive asks to be formatted.

A problem when the contents of a flash drive cannot be viewed because the system requires it to be formatted occurs due to problems in the file system. This problem can occur for several reasons:

• Incorrect removal of the flash drive;
• Action of viruses;
• Damage to the file system as a result of a computer crash;
• Flash drive failure.

Unfortunately, if a similar problem has already happened, then it will be impossible to refuse formatting almost 100% of the time. However, after the procedure is done, you can restore all the information previously contained on it using special programs. But first, it’s still worth running a disk check so that Windows can independently try to find the problem and fix it in a timely manner.

Method 1: Check the disk using Windows

If this step does not help you, you can safely format the flash drive, and then proceed to the second or third method (your choice).

Method 2: Data Recovery Using Recuva

If you're not familiar with Recuva, you've probably heard of the CCleaner tool. These programs are united by the fact that they came from under the wing of the same developers.

The Recuva program has a paid version, however, on the developer’s website you can also find a version of the program that is distributed completely free of charge. Fortunately, it is quite enough to perform data recovery.

Method 3: recovery using R-STUDIO program

Another quite effective tool for recovering deleted files. The program is paid, however, it will be more than enough if you need to perform data recovery from a flash drive right now.