[Free] How to Recover Data from Formatted Pen Drive (after Formatting Pen Drive)

Overview of Formatted Pen Drive Data Recovery

As a pen drive user, one can’t avoid formatting the pen drive since there are many occasions that you have to format the pen drive in order to make it work, such as

• When inserting a pen drive into a computer, a message keeps asking for pen drive formatting.
• The pen drive file system becomes raw and you can’t access the files there.
• The file system of the pen drive is incompatible with the computer system, and you have to format it to a new file system.
• The pen drive is corrupted.

No matter what the reason is, whether you format the pen drive on purpose or unintentionally, all the files are removed right after the formatting. You can’t see the files anywhere on the pen drive.

Is It Possible to Recover Files from Pen Drive after Formatting?

Though formatting leads to all files being removed, they’re still recoverable as long as you haven’t used the pen drive continuously. That’s means the chance to restore data from a formatted pen drive for free is higher. After formatting, all files are marked as useless and inaccessible. They’re waiting to be replaced by new data. Thus, if you recover files from formatted pen drive for free in time, then you can get it successfully.

2 Ways for How to Recover Data from Formatted Pen Drive Free

There are free ways to restore data after formatting pen drive you can depend on. One is using professional free data recovery software to retrieve files from formatted pen drive. Another is making use of the command line to get files back from pen drive after formatting for free. Check the details below.

Method 1. How to Recover Files after Formatting Pen Drive with Free Software

Using data recovery software to restore data after formatting hard drives, pen drives, USB drives, and more for free is the first choice. Why? You don’t have much time left for data recovery from formatted pen drive if you want to rescue the formatted data as much as possible and as soon as possible. Any mistake will cause data permanently removed, especially people who do not know any computer techniques should use data recovery software. It gets the whole process done very quickly and lists all the recoverable files for you to choose from. There is nothing more you needed to do.

iBeesoft Free Data Recovery is the top choice for file recovery from formatted pen drive since it’s free to use, free to preview all the recoverable files, and free to get up to 2GB files selectively. It could meet all the requirements for people who want to recover files after formatting pen drive, since it is able to:

Here are the simple steps for how to recover data after formatting pen drive for free.

1. Connect Pen Drive with Computer

Connect the pen drive with your computer. Let the pen drive be recognized as an external hard drive.

2. Install Free Data Recovery Software

Download and install it on your computer. It’s free to download, install and scan for recoverable files. Just get it to install properly on your computer. It has a Mac version and a Windows PC version. Get the right one for your computer.

3. Scan Pen Drive for Formatted Files

Launch the recover pen drive software. After then, move the mouse over the pen drive and click "Scan" in the main window. The unformat pen drive tool begins to scan the pen drive for recoverable files. Wait patiently for it to finish.

4. Preview and Recover Files from Formatted Pen Drive Free

When the scanning process is finished, all files are put into a directory. You can click to open the corresponding folder in the left panel and check the details on the right side by previewing. When finding the needed files, select them and click "Recover" to save them on your computer.

Don’t save the recovered files to a pen drive again. It might cause data overwritten issues.

Method 2. How to Recover Data from Formatted Pen Drive without Software

Some people want to learn how to get formatted files back from pen drive without using the software. Actually, you can try to recover files after formatting pen drive with CMD. Here are the steps.

1. Connect the pen drive with your computer and remember its drive letter.
2. Press Windows + R, type in cmd, and press Enter.
3. Type in chkdsk F: /f/x/r (F means the drive letter for pen drive. You should replace it with the right drive letter).
4. Press Enter.

When it is finished, you can open the pen drive, checking whether the formatted files are back. If not, you have to turn to free data recovery software for help.

Tips for How to Protect Data from Pen Drive

Though you can try the best free drive recovery software and CMD to recover files from the formatted pen drive for free, no one or service can ensure you a 100% success rate of data recovery. In this case, the better ways to protect data from being lost from the pen drives are as follows.

• Back up important files from a pen drive. More than one copy of important files is very necessary and they should be on different partitions or hard drives.
• Use pen drive safely on secure computers and devic
• Eject the pen drive before unplugging it.
• Keep pen drive clean and dry.