Kingston flash drive recovery methods: from simple to complex

Almost every person who is somehow connected with computers, at least once, but faced the problem of a flash card malfunction. It can be expressed in different ways: Windows does not see the USB flash drive, refuses to format it, failures occur when copying and moving files, or the wrong amount of memory is detected.

First steps of recovery

Most of the simple cases can be cured by simply formatting the flash drive using the Windows operating system. To do this, you need to insert it into your computer and after determining it, go to “My Computer”, right-click on the drive and select “Format”. After successful formatting, the system will notify you about it.

If, after formatting, the problems persist or it ended in failure, for example, the operating system issued an error – “Windows cannot complete formatting”, then you need to try another method. Kingston provides dedicated recovery tools for its drives. The Kingston flash drive recovery software can be easily downloaded from the company’s official website in the support section. After downloading it, you need to unpack and run it. In the window that opens, select the desired drive and click Format. After formatting in a special way, the flash drive should work.

Another way to try is to use a low-level formatting program. Such a program is, for example, D-Soft Flash Doctor. It is not focused on any particular drive or manufacturer, so it can format any flash drives and memory cards.

If all these actions did not lead to anything, then there are serious problems with the controller.

Recovering a Kingston flash drive using firmware

You can restore a USB flash drive using a special utility for low-level firmware of its controller. But there are situations when there is really nothing to help the device, except for physical intervention, such as soldering or connecting to special devices.

If the drive has the following vitality criteria, then there is still a chance to restore it:

• Windows detects a USB flash drive when it is plugged into a computer port;
• after inserting the flash drive into the connector, the system automatically asks for formatting;
  
• the drive identifies itself, is visible in the system, when accessing it, the message “Insert disc …” is displayed;
• systematic errors when copying or moving files to a USB flash drive;
• slow speed of the drive in general.

Before you restore a Kingston flash drive, you need to find out the controller IDs. You need two of them, the first – VID, contains the manufacturer’s identifier. The second is PID, which stands for the product code. You need to identify them with a utility like Flash Drive Information Extractor. Having received them, you can write down somewhere.

Finding a recovery utility

Directly to carry out the firmware, you will need a special utility that can flash the flash drive controller at a low level. These special programs are usually only available from hardware manufacturers. With the help of them, they carry out the initial firmware, repair and testing of devices. Sometimes these utilities end up on the network by accident, and sometimes manufacturers share them. But the problem is that each manufacturer has its own utility, which may be different depending on the controller model and the amount of memory.

To find the right program for the reanimated model, you will need SID and PID. There is one service on the network called Flashboot ru, which stores thousands of utilities for flashing various devices and gadgets.

In the SID and PID fields, you must substitute the received numbers and click search. The service can display several program options at once. You need to choose the one in the description of which the corresponding volume of the restored drive is indicated. The list may also contain utilities for other manufacturers. It must be remembered that it is necessary to restore the Kingston flash drive, so the most suitable configuration is selected from the list. The Utils field describes the name of the program. After finding the desired line in the list, copy the name of the utility and go to the “Files” section of the flashboot.ru website. You need to paste the copied name into the search bar and click “Find”.

After finding the utility, you need to download it to your computer and unpack it. Sometimes a situation arises when the desired program is not in the files. Then you can just search for it by name in any search engine.

Using the program to recover a Kingston flash drive

Using the utility is the easiest part of the operation. You just need to insert a USB flash drive, run the program and click on the “Start” button in the program. Of course, the design, localization and method of operation of different utilities may differ, but the essence is the same, and it is intuitive. After successfully flashing the controller, the operating system may immediately offer to format the revived USB flash drive.

Now let’s see how this works in more detail, using the example of various utilities:

1. Media Recover. The program is considered proprietary and must be downloaded from the official website of the Kingston company. You can select separate flavors for different operating systems on your PC. Next, the archived file will be downloaded, which must be opened, and then write the path where it will be saved. Pressing the “Unzip” button will start the unzipping process. As soon as the exe file is unpacked, it is launched, and then the application itself is opened using the shortcut. You can insert the “broken” flash drive into USB and click OK to continue working.
2. Kingston Format Utility. A very handy program, which also belongs to the category of proprietary software, and therefore deserves special trust. It helps with any flash drives of the above brand. However, upon recovery, the media is formatted. This means that all data will not be saved. First you need to download the application from the official source and run the downloaded file. For unpacking, you need to specify the path. Pressing the “Format” button leads to the USB flash drive recovery procedure.
   

   Kingston format utility

3. HDD Low Level Format Tool. According to user reviews, this utility performed very well when working with damaged Kingston media. However, the data that was stored on such a disk will be irretrievably lost. First, you need to download the program and run it. Next, you need to select the desired storage medium from the list. Highlight it and click on “Continue”. The flash drive will be verified, after which a message will appear on the screen stating that all information will be deleted. Now you can start formatting directly. After the end of the process, you can test the device.
   

   HDD Low Level Format Tool

4. Super Stick Recovery Tool. This is a fairly simple, but trouble-free program to restore the functionality of removable media. As usual, they first download it, then insert the USB flash drive into the computer and launch the executor file. Pressing the “Update” button starts the formatting process. Once it is completed, you can test the performance.
   

   Kingmax super stick

Finding other recovery utilities

There are quite a few applications with similar functions. However, not all of them are suitable for working with flash drives of the specified brand. On the flashboot website, you can generally find a whole database with descriptions of such applications. How can you take advantage of this? We will act according to the following scenario:

• using standard Windows tools, you need to set system data for a specific flash drive. In computer management there is a section “Device Manager”. It has a subsection “Controllers”, in which we select our device, and then click on its “Properties”;
  
• now the user needs to go to the tab with the name “Information”, where the desired characteristics of the flash drive will be entered in the “Equipment ID” field;
  
• go to the flashboot website and enter their values ​​into the fields provided for this. According to this information, the system itself will select a program that is capable of restoring a specific device.

Now the user has information about which applications should be downloaded to their PC. Their use is no different from their counterparts for Kingston. Usually, to start the healing process, just click on the “Format” button or something similar.

You can use the standard Windows methods. In the catalog of disks, first we find our USB flash drive. By pressing the right mouse button we get the item “Properties”. In it, you can find the subsection “Service”, and there – “Run check”. In the next window, put 2 checkboxes at once and click “Start”. It remains to wait for the end of the scan results.

In general, you can simply format the media yourself before using the recovery software. In some cases, this quickly helps to restore the lost performance. However, first you need to use another utility that will help restore the data recorded on it.

If all else fails

If nothing helped or the utility was not found, then this means that, most likely, one of the drive’s electrical circuit modules is physically damaged. In such a situation, only a service center can help. Experts will be able to physically connect to the USB stick’s contacts and analyze or scan for damage. If the flash drive is to be repaired, then it will be repaired, if not, then nothing will help it.