How to Recover Lost Partition on USB Drive?

Updated on May 23, 2023

Summary: Want to recover lost partitions on USB Drive? Tired of being surfing the internet? No need to surf more, what you are looking for is there in the article. In this article, I have clearly talked about how to recover lost partition on USB drives with the best possible solutions, also if you want to recover your lost partition on a USB drive without any hassle then Yodot Hard Drive Recovery tool is a good choice for you.

Can USB Drive be Partitioned?

Yes, the USB drive can be partitioned. Same like a hard drive you can partition your USB drive, into multiple logical drives according to your convenience. By partitioning a USB drive you can allocate space for particular files or you can create separate file systems.

Note - With the help of the Windows disk management tool, you can create, modify, delete, assign the file system type, etc. to your USB partition. Post partitioning of the USB drive. It will appear in your OS as multiple drives with different drive letters.

Table of Contents:

Things to Check While Partitioning a USB Drive

Causes for Deleted/Lost Partition on USB Drive

How to Recover a Lost Partition on USB Drive?

Method 1: Yodot Hard Drive Recovery Tool to Recover Partitions from USB Drive

Method 2: Show Hidden Files on USB Partition Using Attrib Command

Tips To Avoid Losing Partition From USB Drive

Conclusion

Things to Check While Partitioning a USB Drive:

Backup the Data - While you planned to partition your USB drive. The first and foremost thing is to take a backup of your data. As partitioning involves modifying the drive structure, there is a possibility of losing data from the USB drive if the resizing is not done correctly.

Compatibility - Ensure that the USB drive has good compatibility with the partitioning tool that you use for partitioning and that the tool supports the file systems that you are going to use on those partitions.

Partition Size - Create the correct size and number of partitions you require. Allocate the space according to the usage and ensure that you are not exceeding the size of the USB drive.

File System - Pick the correct file system that you need for each partition. Each file system has its own characteristics, features, and compatibility. I would recommend you guys use exFAT, NTFS, FAT32 file systems for your USB partition.

If you are well aware of the above-mentioned things, you could have avoided the USB lost partition scenario. Below is a user on Reddit who has deleted the partition on USB. Because he was not well aware of the things.

Source: Reddit

"I deleted a partition from a usb and now it’s not working"

A while ago I wanted to format a USB drive. I went into disk management and saw that the USB contained one smaller and one bigger partition. This annoyed me and therefore I wanted to remove it. I tried to use disk management to remove it but the option was gray (probably should’ve understood that I shouldn’t have tried to remove it). After some quick googling, I discovered that I could remove it using the command prompt so I did just that. The smaller partition was removed and that was that.

My problem now is that the computer notices the usb but can’t access it. I’ve tried to assign a letter to it but the computer just says it can’t find the file. I also can’t format it using disk management but it just says the USB is offline. I’m not very hopeful but if anyone can help me please do.

Many thanks,

The user on Reddit has deleted his USB partition and used the disk management tool to recover it. But he couldn’t find a solution. Here I have tried various methods and steps for you guys to perform partition recovery on a USB flash drive. Make use of the methods to recover your lost partition. Before going into the solutions. Let me explain to you what are the actual causes of deleted/lost partitions on USB drives in the next section.

Causes for Deleted/Lost Partition on USB Drive:

  • Accidentally deleting, formatting, or reformatting partitions on the USB drive
  • You may lose the partition on the USB drive due to a virus infection
  • If the partition header gets corrupted, then the partition on the USB drive will become inaccessible or hidden
  • The partition on the USB drive may get damaged due to improper ejection of the drive from the computer
  • Frequently changing file systems will corrupt partitions on the USB drive
  • If you don’t use the proper procedure while creating a new partition, then you may lose other partitions present on the USB drive.

How to Recover a Lost Partition on USB Drive?

It's not that difficult to recover partitions from a USB drive with the help of the Yodot Hard Drive Recovery tool. The safest tool in the recovery industry to recover your USB drive partition.

Method 1: Yodot Hard Drive Recovery Tool to Recover Partitions from USB Drive

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Steps for USB Drive Partition Recovery by Using the Hard Drive Recovery Tool:

  • Install the software and connect the USB drive which has lost its partition

  • Click on Hard Drive Recovery → Partition Recovery

  • The tool shows the available drives on the next screen, select the particular USB drive where you accidentally deleted usb partition later click on Next
  • The software starts the scanning process and displays the found drives/partitions, click on the particular drives/partitions and hit Next

  • View the recovered data on the USB partition in Two View Types

  • Preview the recovered files using the Preview option
  • Select Save to save the recovered data in the location of your choice.

Method 2: Show Hidden Files on USB Partition Using Attrib Command

To verify your files are safe on the lost USB partition, make use of the attrib command to view your files by the steps below:

  1. Press Windows+S and then type CMD.
  2. Right-click on ‘Command Prompt’ and choose ‘Run as administrator.’
  3. Now type the following command followed by the ‘Enter’ key press:
  • attrib -h -r -s /s /d x:*.*
  • Here letter X is the USB drive partition letter from where files are missing. Replace the X letter with your USB drive partition letter.

  • You will notice that shortcuts are gone, and lost files are now accessible. Run a deep antivirus scan on your USB drive to permanently eliminate the pesky virus or malware.

Tips To Avoid Losing Partition From USB Drive:

  • Have a good backup before formatting your USB drive
  • Use efficient anti-virus applications to remove virus or malware-infected files from partitions of USB drive
  • Don’t use third-party applications to create or modify partitions on a USB drive

Conclusion:

This article is ending here, Always maintain your USB drive to avoid issues. Make use of the information mentioned above to avoid loss/deletion of partition from the USB drive. In case you lost the USB partition, use a reliable Hard Drive Recovery tool like Yodot.