Today, flash drives and removable memory cards have a fairly large capacity and are used almost everywhere. Unfortunately, they are more susceptible to physical damage compared to internal drives and hard drives, but they can equally manifest software failures. So it turns out that when you try to connect the device to the computer, the system displays a message that the file system of the volume is damaged or not recognized. How to fix such crashes will now be described.
Why is the USB flash drive not recognized? Possible reasons
The most probable reasons why the operating system cannot recognize the drive or its file system can conditionally be divided into two large categories: physical damage and software failures.
Physical causes associated with malfunctions of the microcontrollers, external and internal damage, overheating or overcooling, and many other negatively affecting factors will not be considered. In this case, the USB flash drive will just have to be thrown away. Even replacing the microcontroller will cost much more than a new flash drive or memory card. Sometimes USB ports may malfunction, but here the solution is obvious: you just need to connect the flash drive to another port.
Therefore, we dwell on software failures. Among the most probable reasons that the file system of the volume is not recognized (the flash drive is not visible when connected, and if it is visible, then it is not possible to work with it), the following are distinguished:
- exposure to viruses;
- software malfunctions in the microcontroller;
- incorrect or incomplete formatting;
- incorrect removal of the device from the port;
- power surges;
- unsupported file system;
- Outdated device drivers
- Inconsistency with USB flash drive and port standards.
As for the last point, the problem is that the USB 3.0 flash drive is connected to port 2.0. This problem is solved by simply reconnecting to the desired port.
Signs of damage to the removable device
To determine that the removable device is inoperative is quite simple. In case of connection, the system starts issuing warnings that the location is unavailable, the file system of the volume is not recognized, a proposal to format the device is received, etc.
Along the way, it is worth noting that the drive itself can be visible or not. In the first case, fixing the problem is somewhat easier. In the second, you will have to use additional utilities.
When a warning about an inaccessible location is issued, the reason may also lie in the fact that the USB flash drive or removable card is assigned the wrong volume label (drive letter), for example, X instead of F. In this situation, you just need to change it by first using the disk management section, where the right by clicking on the device, select the appropriate command.
RAW format: what is it?
In the usual sense, such a structure is a modified format that is simply incompatible with most well-known operating systems. Therefore, a notification appears on the screen that the file system of the volume is not recognized (the flash drive of the RAW format, although visible, but the files on it are not visible, even if the display of hidden objects is turned on).
A format change is most often associated with software crashes due to incorrect formatting, improper device shutdown and exposure to viruses. However, converting the format to readable can be quite simple, which will be discussed later.
The main directions in solving problems
If the volume system cannot be recognized, there may be several solutions to fix the situation, depending on the cause of the failure:
- format conversion to any other compatible with the system;
- removal of viruses and threats;
- fast or full formatting;
- if you need to restore data, you must use special utilities.
Just in case, you can make sure that the appropriate driver is installed for the device. You can do this in the standard "Device Manager", access to which can be obtained either from the "Control Panel", or by calling the devmgmt.msc command from the "Run" console.
As a rule, if the device does not work or does not work correctly, it will be marked in yellow. In this case, you should either update the driver (a command from the context menu) from the system’s own database, or install it manually from removable media, or apply an automatic update using programs like Driver Booster (of course, when the flash drive is on). Sometimes it may be necessary to update the driver directly to the USB controller itself.
Simple testing and recovery
Now consider the situation when the file system of the volume is not recognized (the memory card in the system is visible) from the point of view of a regular disk. For removable drives, you can use standard commands to check their status, which were originally intended for hard drives. It's about checking the disk.
To perform this operation, you need to call the command console (cmd) from the Run menu (Win + R), and then write the line chkdsk X / f in it, where X is the letter assigned to the flash drive (most often it is F). Even if the drive is in RAW format, this procedure works in terms of restoring the file system or converting it to NTFS.
Virus scan
Some viruses can change the structure of the file system of removable drives (and not only) purposefully. In this case, a message will also be issued with a notification that the file system of the volume is not recognized. The SD flash drive, however, will be visible in the system. This simplifies the task.
The easiest way to resolve the situation is to fully verify it. You can use a standard anti - virus scanner or portable utilities. But here, unfortunately, there is no full guarantee of “treatment” of the device. This is due to the presence on the media of a seemingly standard autorun.inf startup file, which in some cases can be hidden (in order to see it, you need to set the display of hidden objects in the menu of the standard "Explorer" view).
If possible, it must be removed manually, but more often it is protected from such procedures. Here you should again apply the command line.
Removing components from the command line
So, the system reports that the file system of the volume is not recognized (a USB flash drive is detected in the system). For example, suppose that the volume label of the flash drive has a letter Z. To delete the file you are looking for, we sequentially write the following commands, after each of them press the enter key (Enter):
- cd F: /;
- attrib -a -s -h -r autorun.inf;
- del autorun.inf.
Only in this case, the complete deletion of this object is guaranteed, because even the actions in the "Explorer" due to its close integration with Windows, viruses can set some restrictions, and the command line works using the principles of DOS-systems.
Fix file system by formatting
Now one more example, when an SD card is inserted into the card reader (the file system of the volume is not recognized, but the device “sees” the device, even if it does not display formatting messages).
In principle, you can look at its format in the disk management section , but why do it if the problem is only that information cannot be written to it? The easiest way is to format.
Many users mistakenly believe that the easiest option is to quickly clear the table of contents. Absolutely wrong! Even if you install something from the drop-down list for your preferred system (FAT32 NTFS, etc.), there is no guarantee that it will be possible to work with it. Therefore, it is better to perform full formatting. This will take longer, but after that the user will receive a clean drive, as they say, from scratch. And there will definitely not be problems with him. But this method is applicable only if the device does not have important information that cannot be destroyed.
Can I recover information on a damaged device?
The issue of information recovery for many is an unambiguous criterion in favor of choosing special utilities that can not only restore boot sectors and records on devices of any type, but also extract information that was previously present on them, which for some reason became inaccessible.
You can recover data. But such advertised programs as Recuva, when the same removable media is not visible in the system, are useless. Here professional utilities come to the rescue. Two of them will be considered below: the TestDisk application and the unique R.Saver program (both utilities are portable).
Recovery with the TestDisk utility
Now let's look at the situation when the file system of the volume is not recognized (the flash drive is not visible even in the "Explorer", although the LED blinks). We must say right away that the solution below can also be used for removable memory cards of any standard.
The program is free and does not require installation. True, many may be saddened by the lack of a Russian-language interface and work in DOS mode. But the utility is very powerful, because it is able to restore the file system first, and then the necessary information.
We start the utility, in the window that appears, select the Create item. Then a list of all available disks will appear, including a flash drive invisible to the system. As a rule, it is indicated in the list as Disk / dev / sdc with the capacity indicated (in addition, a description like Generic-Multi-Card may be present). If there is no description, to determine that this is the desired flash drive, you can simply size or letter of the disk.
Next, we activate the analysis process (Proceed), after which we select Intel Partition in the partition table. Next, go to the extended file system (Advanced), press the enter key, and then at the bottom of the window use the recovery command (Undelete). We are waiting for the end of the scanning process, and then red lines corresponding to all deleted files appear in the window. Do not be surprised that even files that you don’t remember at all can be found here (the program finds them with ease).
Now we move the list with arrows, select the desired object and press the C key to restore. Next, select the directory in which the files will be saved, press "Enter". After selecting the folder, press C. again. Upon completion of the restoration, it will be reported that the creation of the copy is ready.
Universal R.Saver program
Finally, another utility that can be used if the file system is not recognized (the flash drive is visible or not visible in the system - it does not matter). It is best suited for recovering sectors and data on SD cards.
After starting the application, select the flash drive and start the scanning process (we agree with the sector-by-sector scanning). Next, the procedure for recovering sectors (reconstruction of the file system) and the information contained in them starts (this can take quite a long time).
In the list of detected objects, select the necessary ones, specify the destination folder on the hard drive and confirm the selection with the appropriate button. Upon completion, you can work with the flash drive without any problems.
Instead of an afterword
As you can see, in some cases, troubleshooting processes can be quite time-consuming (this applies to the simultaneous restoration of the drive's file system and data on it). However, if such procedures are not required, it is quite simple to restore the flash drive or removable memory card. Which way to prefer? This is everyone decides for himself, based on the current situation.