Free USB drive recovery: deleted, formatted or unreadable
USB drive trouble comes in three kinds: files you deleted, a drive you formatted, or a drive that won’t open. Stop using the drive, work out which kind you have, and recover to a different disk. Retrova does all three for free on Mac and Windows, with no recovery cap and no account.
Stop writing to the stick. If it won’t open, use “A drive won’t open” to browse it read-only. If you deleted files, turn on “Show deleted files” to get them back with their names (FAT, exFAT, NTFS). If you formatted, use Deep scan to find files by content (names are lost). Always save to a different drive and run Verify. If the stick isn’t detected at all, it may be dead.
First: stop using it
Every file you copy to a USB stick, and every time a computer “fixes” it, risks overwriting what you want back. Eject it, and work from a card reader or the same port with nothing new written. If it has a write-protect switch, set it to locked.
Which problem do you have?
| What happened | What to do |
|---|---|
| Stick appears but says “not readable”, “you need to format”, or shows as RAW or 0 bytes | Use A drive won’t open. Don’t click Initialize or Format. See “The disk you inserted was not readable”: click Ignore, not Initialize (Mac) and “You need to format the disk” in Windows: don’t format it (Windows). |
| Files deleted, folder empty, stick otherwise fine | Use A drive won’t open and turn on Show deleted files: on FAT, exFAT and NTFS sticks, deleted files come back with their names. If that list is empty, use I deleted something (Deep scan). |
| Stick was quick-formatted by mistake | First try A drive won’t open in case the old file system can still be read (with Show deleted files on). If not, Deep scan. |
| Stick isn’t detected at all | See USB device not recognized on Windows 11 or External hard drive not showing up on Mac. If no computer sees it, it has failed. |
| Stick was fully erased or overwritten | Recovery is unlikely. Be wary of anything promising otherwise. |
Recover for free with Retrova
If the stick is there but won’t open
- Plug the drive in and open Retrova. On the home screen choose A drive won’t open. Retrova lists every drive and partition it can see, with the file system it detected.
- Pick the drive or partition. macOS asks for your administrator password at this point, because reading a disk directly needs it. Retrova only uses it to read.
- Browse and choose what you want back. If the file system is readable you see your original folders and file names, and you can preview photos, videos, PDFs and text before copying.
- Choose a destination on a different drive with enough free space. Retrova never saves onto the drive it is reading.
- Copy, then Verify. Files are written as temporary parts and renamed only when complete. When it finishes, run Verify to compare every copy with the original, byte for byte.
If you deleted files
- Open Retrova, choose A drive won’t open and pick the stick (FAT32, exFAT or NTFS).
- Turn on Show deleted files. Deleted files appear in their original folders and in a “Deleted files” folder at the top of the drive, each marked Good, Possibly overwritten or May be incomplete.
- Select what you want, copy it to a different drive, then run Verify. Limits: on FAT a first letter may show as “_”, FAT files are read as one unbroken stretch because FAT can’t record fragmentation, and on NTFS compressed or encrypted files aren’t listed.
If you formatted the stick, or the list is empty
- Open Retrova and choose I deleted something, then pick the USB stick.
- Choose the file types. Fewer types make a faster scan. Deep scan knows 72 types including JPEG, HEIC, RAW photos (CR2/CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, ORF, PEF, DNG), MP4/MOV, MP3, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, ZIP and SQLite.
- Choose a destination on a different drive with free space.
- Run the scan. Finds are saved as they are discovered, sorted by type. Stop and resume as you like.
- Open a sample of results to check them. Run Verify on what you keep.
What to expect
- Names depend on the method. Deleted files listed from the file system keep their original names and folders (NTFS, FAT, exFAT). Deep scan finds files by content, so those get new names and no folders.
- Only files stored in one piece. Fragmented files may be missed or come back incomplete.
- Deleted a while ago, or the stick has been used since? Overwritten data is gone.
- USB flash drives don’t have a Recycle Bin. Files deleted on a Windows USB stick, or on a network share, are deleted for real, not moved to a bin; macOS may keep them in the Trash on the stick.
“Free” without the catch
Many recovery apps let you scan for free and then charge, or cap what you can save, once they have found your files. Retrova has no trial, no account, and no recovery limit, and the source is open (AGPL-3.0), so you can see what it does. For the real limits of free tools in general, see Best free data recovery software and its real limits; for the long version of Retrova’s approach, Free data recovery software with no recovery limit.
What Retrova can’t do: it can’t undelete files with their names on APFS, ext or other file systems (only NTFS, FAT and exFAT), can’t open an encrypted drive without its password or recovery key, can’t open the startup disk of a T2 or Apple silicon Mac away from that Mac, doesn’t handle RAID sets or phones, and can’t fix a drive with physical damage. Retrova’s builds aren’t signed or notarised yet, so macOS and Windows will show a warning the first time you open it.
What not to do
- Don’t keep copying files to the stick “to see if it works”.
- Don’t format or initialize the stick to make it show up.
- Don’t install recovery software on the stick you are recovering from.
- Don’t trust any tool, free or paid, that promises recovery after a full overwrite.
Get Retrova
Free and open source for macOS 11+ and Windows 10/11. No account, no recovery limit, and it never writes to the drive you’re rescuing.
Download RetrovaFree for Mac and WindowsQuestions
Can I recover files from a USB drive for free?
Yes. Retrova is free with no recovery limit, no account and no trial. It works on Mac and Windows.
Can I get the original file names back?
Yes if you only deleted them from a FAT, exFAT or NTFS stick: “A drive won’t open” with “Show deleted files” lists them with their original names and folders. Not with Deep scan, and usually not after a format, where names are lost.
Does Retrova write to my USB drive?
No. The stick is opened read-only and recovered files go to another drive you choose.
My USB drive is not detected at all. Can Retrova help?
No. Retrova needs the operating system to see the stick as a disk. If no computer lists it, it has failed physically.