Corrupted File System on a USB Flash Drive

Recently someone came to me with a flash drive that said that it was not able to be accessed because the file system was corrupted. Does this mean their data is gone forever? No it simply means that Windows can't figure out what to do with the drive and files without the file system being fixed. Well there are two ways to do this, there is a simple way through the windows menus (sometimes doesn't work) and then a command line way that works more often. I will show you how to do both methods so you can fix this issue.

First you will want to plug in the USB stick and try to open it through "My Computer" if you get a popup box that says something like can not open drive file system corrupted or along those lines then this tutorial is for you. Now if your drive doesn't show up or it says Drive (letter) inaccessible then that is a different issue and this tutorial won't help.

First way to fix this is the most basic method and I would say try this way first; if it won't work then move on to the second method (command line). I do not have a good answer to why the graphical user interface method sometimes fails, but if it does you can always go to the command line method. So first step is to go to "My Computer" and find the drive letter and right click on it. In the drop down menu that will popup you will want to click on the last option that says "properties". In the Properties dialog box you will want to choose the Tools Tab. In this tab you will want to run the Error-checking tool, there is a button that says Check Now... click this. In the new window you will want to check mark both options (automatically fix file system errors) and (scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors).

The program should run through and if there are any sectors or issues with the file system or boot sectors it will fix them for you. If the program says it completed successfully then you can try to open your flash drive, if you are successful then you are done. If the program just blinks and then stops and never prompts you that it has finished then it didn't work and you need to move on to the command line method.