How to Recover Data from USB Flash Drive That Needs to be Formatted

"Is there a way to recover files from flash drive that needs to be formatted? It asked me to format the USB flash drive. What to do with the data on it. I know that if I do the formatting, all data will be lost".

Attention! If a pop-up asks you to format your USB flash drive when you connect the USB flash drive with your computer, do not do the formatting. It will delete all files in the USB flash drive and some of the files might be lost permanently. When it happens, you cannot access to the USB flash drive, how to restore data from flash drive that needs to be formatted? Here are the two options you can try:

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Part 1. Retrieve Data from Flash Drive that needs to be Formatted

Part 2. Recover Files from USB drive after Format

Part 1. Retrieve Data from Flash Drive that needs to be Formatted

You can recover data from a USB flash drive that needs to be formatted by backing it up. You know, by doing this, even if you formatted the USB flash drive, you can get the data back. To do the backup, you need to tool since you can’t access the USB flash drive at all. Here I’d like to recommend you iBeesoft Dbackup. It allows you to back up the whole USB flash drive or select folders to backup. Compare with other backup software, this one is simple and easy to use. And there isn’t much jargon for the backup as well. Here are the simple steps to find files from USB flash drive that needs to format.

1. Download and install iBeesoft Dbackup on your computer. It’s fully compatible with all Windows OS, including Windows 11 and Windows 10. Sorry to tell you that it only works for Windows PC currently. If you want to do a backup on Mac, you need to try other software especially for Mac.
2. Connect your USB flash drive with your computer. After then, launch this backup tool. From the main windows, you can see 3 options: File Backup, Drive Backup, System Backup. From there, you can select File Backup or Drive Backup. Since you can’t access to the USB flash drive that needs to be formatted, my suggestion is selecting Drive Backup.
3. After selecting Drive Backup, select the USB flash drive to backup. You can also try to backup selected files from the USB flash drive as well.

The above mentioned way to restore files from USB flash drive that needs to be formatted only works before the formatting. If you have formatted the USB flash drive and find all the files are deleted, you should try the way mentioned below – how to recover data from a formatted USB drive.

Part 2. Recover Files from USB drive after Format

If you have formatted the USB flash drive and want to get back data from a formatted USB drive, you need iBeesoft Data Recovery for help. It will scan your USB flash drive, looking for all the files or specified files lost due to the formatting. It supports all the commonly used file types, including pictures, videos, documents, emails, audio files, and more. It is developed specially for individuals to restore files from external hard drive or computer simple and easy to use. Download it to see how to retrieve files from a formatted USB drive!!!

1. Download the USB flash drive recovery software.

Install it on your computer. No matter you’re using a Mac or Windows PC, choose the right version for your computer OS. It is virus free. Feel free to install it on your computer.

2. Connect your USB flash drive with your computer, making sure it is detected by your computer as an external hard drive.
3. Launch the formatted USB flash drive recovery software.

It supported all file types. You can either click "Scan" to continue or click "go to setting" to deselect unwanted ones before letting it work. By only selecting the needed files, it will save the scanning periods.

4. Select USB flash drive to extract data

You can see all hard drives are listed in the window. Please select the USB flash drive since you want to recover files from the formatted flash drive. After then, click "Scan", letting the unformat USB drive software start to scan your USB flash drive. Be patient.

5. Recover Files from Formatted USB drive
6. Wait until you see the scanning process is finished. After then, you can preview the found files by selecting the file types in the left panel and check out the details on the right side. When find the target files, select them and click "Recover" to save them on your computer.