+++ title = “How I Recovered Over 50GB Of Lost Storage On My USB Drive - The Ultimate Guide To Unallocated Space Recovery!” date = 2021-05-20T18:00:00+05:30 author = “OpenAI Assistant” tags = [“storage”, “USB drive”, “data recovery”] description = “Losing data from a USB drive can be a nightmare. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to recover lost storage on your USB drive with ease.” +++
As someone who relies heavily on their USB drive for storage and transfer of files, losing data can be a nightmare. Unfortunately, it happened to me a while ago. I plugged in my USB drive, only to be greeted with error messages that the drive needed to be formatted before it could be used. I had no choice but to format the drive, and in the process, I lost over 50GB of critical data. I was devastated.
That experience taught me the importance of data backups, but more importantly, it prompted me to learn how to recover lost data from a USB drive – specifically unallocated space. Unallocated space refers to the area on a hard drive or USB drive that has not been assigned a file system. This space is not accessible through regular means, and hence any data stored in the unallocated space cannot be accessed until you recover it.
In this article, I will share with you the steps I took to recover over 50GB of lost storage on my USB drive.
Step 1: Stop the Usage of the USB drive
Once you notice data loss from your USB drive, the first thing you should do is stop using the drive. This is because any further data written to the drive could overwrite your lost data, making it impossible to recover.
Step 2: Download and install a data recovery tool
To recover lost data from a USB drive, you need a reliable data recovery tool. After some research, I settled on EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. This tool is user-friendly and has a high success rate in data recovery.
Step 3: Connect the USB drive to your computer
Connect the USB drive to your computer and launch the data recovery tool that you downloaded in step 2.
Step 4: Select the USB drive in the data recovery tool
Once the data recovery tool is launched, it will display all the drives connected to your computer. Choose the USB drive that you want to recover lost data from and click “Scan.”
Step 5: Scan for lost data
The data recovery tool will start scanning the USB drive for lost data. You can select different scanning modes depending on the level of data loss. The scanning process may take a while depending on the size of the USB drive.
Step 6: Preview and Recover the lost data
After the scan is completed, the data recovery tool will display a list of all the recoverable data. Preview the data to confirm that it is indeed the data you had lost, then select it and click “Recover.” The recovered data can be saved in any folder on your computer.
Step 7: Format the USB drive
After recovering the lost data, it is always prudent to format the USB drive to ensure that the drive is functioning optimally.
In conclusion, losing data from a USB drive can be frustrating, but it is not the end of the world. With reliable data recovery tools such as EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, you can recover lost data from unallocated space on your USB drive. Remember to always create backups of your critical data and avoid using your USB drive after data loss to avoid overwriting the lost data.
You can check the disk partition on the Disk Management utility, but it will show you unallocated space. Even if you failed to create a partition while installing Windows 10, you could recover the unallocated space quickly. The same thing happens with USB drives as well. Just like HDD/SSD, you can create partitions in USB drives as well. However, if, for any reason, you are unable to find the disk partitions on the USB drive, you need to follow the guide below. Also read: How To Enable Or Disable USB Ports In Windows
3 Methods to Recover Lost/Unallocated Space on a USB Drive
Below, we have shared some of the best methods to recover lost/unallocated space on a USB drive. The process is going to be very easy. Just follow some of the simple steps given below.
1. Using Disk Management Utility
In this method, we will use the disk management utility to recover the lost or unallocated space on a USB drive. Follow some of the simple steps given below.
First of all, open the Windows RUN dialog box by pressing the Windows Key + R button.
On the RUN dialog box, enter diskmgmt.msc and hit the enter button.
On the Disk Management utility, right-click on the Unallocated space behind your USB drive and select New Simple Volume.
On the New Simple Volume Wizard, click on the Next button.
Now you need to specify the volume size. Just add the volume that you want to recover and click on the Next button.
Now you will be asked to assign a drive letter. Assign a drive letter and click on the Next button.
Now you need to format the newly created volume. Select ‘NTFS’ as a file system and enable the ‘Perform a quick format’ option. Once done, click on the ‘Next’ button.
That’s it! You are done. This will recover the unallocated space on your USB drive.
2. Using Third-Party Tool
There is much third-party software available on the internet that can help you free up the unallocated space. One of the best ones is AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Editon. This is a free tool that works with the Windows operating system, and you can recover lost space with AOMEI Partition Assistant
First of all, you need to download and install the AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition on your Windows computer and then launch it.
Now you will see the tool’s main interface, and then you need to right-click on your USB Partition and then select Format Partition. Now, you will see the pop-out Window where you need to select ‘NTFS’ or ‘FAT32’. Finally, click on ‘OK’ to continue.
Now you need to right-click on the existing partition and then choose the option ‘Resize Partition’. In the next window, you need to drag the slider to the end of the disk.
At last, you will see the partition status, and it will also let you undo your operations. If you didn’t find any problem, then click on ‘Apply’ to make changes.
That’s it; you are done! This is how you can recover Lost/Unused Unallocated Space on a USB Drive using AOMEI Partition Assistant.
3. Using EaseUS Partition Master Free
Well, EaseUS Partition Master Free is one of the best and most advanced partition manager software available on the web. The great thing about EaseUS Partition Master is that it comes for free, and you can use it to repair unallocated USB or SD Card. Here’s how you can use EaseUS Partition Master Free to recover lost/unallocated space on a USB Drive.
First of all, plug in the USB device to the computer and launch the EaseUS Partition Manager. Right-click on the partition (USB) that you want to erase data from and click on ‘Wipe Data.’
Now, you need to enter the time you want to wipe the partition and then click on ‘Ok.’
In the next step, EaseUS Partition Manager will show you the pending operation. Simply click on the ‘Execute Operation’ to continue.
To create a partition on unallocated space, right-click on the unallocated space on your USB and select ‘Create.’
In the next step, enter the size, partition label, letter, file system, and then click on ‘Ok.’
Once done, click on the Execute Operation button and then click on ‘Apply.’
That’s it; you are done! This is how you can use EaseUS Partition Manager Free to recover lost/unallocated space on a USB drive. So, this is how you can recover lost or unallocated space on a USB Drive. I hope this article helped you! Please share it with your friends also. If you have any doubts related to this, let us know in the comment box below.
