How to recover a pen drive or a memory card

Pen drives (USB thumb drives) and flash memory cards, if readable, are recovered similarly to external hard drives (refer to how to recover data from readable external device). If your pen drive or memory card reports zero size (zero capacity), then it cannot be recovered using software. This is the lab job.

The USB thumb drive or a memory card can develop a zero size issue because of

• dormant manufacturing defects,
• electrostatic shock,
• mechanical damage (especially bending of the memory cards).

How to recover data using ReclaiMe

1. Make sure you have enough free space on a known-good drive or on a network to hold all the recovered data.
2. Download, install, and run ReclaiMe data recovery software.
3. Identify the pen drive you want to recover data from in the device list. Naturally, because it is the USB pen drive, it will be under the "USB devices" section (need help identifying your drive?).
4. Double click the device to start the recovery.
5. The files are displayed as soon as they are discovered.
6. Select the file(s) or folder you want to recover, and click Save button on the toolbar. Alternatively, click Save and select Save All from the menu.

How to verify the pen drive size

1. On the Start Menu, right click "Computer".
2. Select "Manage".
3. A "Computer Management" Window will appear. In a right panel, under "Storage", select "Disk Management".
4. Verify that your USB pen drive or memory card is listed and does not have a size of 0 in the physical device list.