How to Fix a Damaged USB Drive on a Mac Without Losing Its Contents
The USB
flash drive is a popular piece of hardware that is utilized in many aspects of
our everyday lives, including the storing of files, the expansion of computer
storage, and the transmission of files across devices. On the other hand, your
USB flash drive could become corrupted, making it impossible for you to read or
write data. Even more concerning is the fact that the corruption of the USB
flash drive places the files that are saved on it in jeopardy.
The fact
that the USB drive does not appear on the Mac, the presence of files with
corrupted file names, the presentation of an error message by the operating
system when attempting to access the data that is stored on the USB drive, and
the fact that the USB drive is grayed out in Disk Utility are all signs that
the USB drive is corrupted. In addition, a malfunctioning USB driver, improper
ejection of the USB flash drive, rapid loss of power, physical damage, and a
variety of other factors can all contribute to a corrupted USB flash drive. In
either scenario, this piece will have an answer for you. In this article, we
will walk you through the many options that can be used to repair a damaged USB
flash drive on a Mac without causing any loss of data in the event that you are
unable to retrieve the contents that have been saved.
Repairing
a Corrupted USB Drive in a Way That Prevents the Loss of Data
Install
the most recent version of the USB driver.
The
purpose of the USB driver is to allow the USB to connect with the operating
system of the Mac. In the event that an external USB flash drive is not
recognized by your Mac, the first thing you should do is check to see if there
are any available updates for the USB driver. You can check for updates in
Software Updates and click the More info.. button to discover more information
about it. Additionally, the USB driver will be updated automatically whenever
macOS receives an update. If there are any updated USB drivers available,
installing the latest version of macOS could repair the damaged USB drive. In
addition, the necessary USB driver can be downloaded and installed from the
manufacturer's website of the USB device you are using.
Run First
Aid in Disk Utility
Logical
problems on the USB drive can be caused by improper ejection of the USB while
files are being transferred, sudden power shortages and surges, and other
unexpected events. After that, you can repair the damaged USB flash drive by
using the First Aid function of the Disk Utility application. The process is
exactly the same as that used to repair a disk on a Mac using the Disk Utility.
How to do it:
Step 1:
Open the Finder and navigate to the Applications > Utilities menu.
After
that, start the Disk Utility.
Step 2:
Navigate to the View menu by clicking the View button in the upper left corner
of the screen, and then select Show All Devices. This will display a list of
all identified disks and volumes, including the USB flash drive that is
damaged.
Step 3:
Choose the external USB drive from the sidebar on the left of the screen.
Step 4:
After selecting First Aid from the drop-down menu, choose Run from the menu
that appears.
Step 5:
After the First Aid program has finished running, you will need to click the
"Done" button.
Now that
the First Aid process is complete, you may check to see if the issue has been
resolved by attempting to access the USB flash drive on your Mac.
Format
the USB disk that has become corrupted.
If First
Aid is unable to repair the USB drive and states that Mac cannot fix the disk,
this implies that the USB drive contains major faults. The format function on
the USB flash drive should be used as a last resort for fixing a corrupted
storage device. However, doing so will delete everything that is currently
stored on the device. If you don’t have a backup of the USB drive, you need to
first recover the lost data from the corrupted disk with a professional data
recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
To
recover data from a corrupted USB flash disk,
Step 1:
Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
Step 2: Select
the USB flash drive that is corrupted and then click the "Scan"
button after it is attached to your Mac. It will recover any and all files that
have been lost or removed from the USB drive.
Step 3 is
to preview the results of the scanning. Choose which ones of them you want to
get back. Click the Recover button. And last, save the selected files to a
different drive that is not corrupt.
You can
now format the damaged USB flash disk without having to worry about losing any
data:
The first
thing you need to do is plug the infected USB drive into your Mac.
Launch
Disk Utility by going to Launchpad > Other > Disk Utility.
Step 4:
Open the Disk Utility application, and choose the external USB device from the
sidebar on the left.
Step 5:
At the very top, you'll see a button labeled "Erase."
Give the
USB drive a name, decide on a format for it, and select a color scheme.
Step 6:
In the bottom right-hand corner, look for a button labeled "Erase."
Step 7:
After the erasing procedure has been finished, click the Done button, and then
close the Disk Utility window to complete the process.
It is
very frustrating when the USB flash drive becomes corrupted and the contents
that have been stored are inaccessible. On a Mac, the USB drive that has become
corrupted can be repaired by using the methods that have been detailed above.
To prevent further loss of data, however, you should attempt to salvage any
information that can be salvaged from the faulty drive before formatting it. If
none of these procedures are successful in repairing the corrupted USB drive,
then it is possible that your disk has physical damage. You should look for a
repair shop in the area for further assistance, or you might think about
getting a new one.