Flash drives are a part of our lives – each of us probably carry at least one or more of these handy devices, they’re great storage devices and a very safe and easy to use data transfer gadget.
However, as great as they are, in some ways they are just like another hard drive – over time, they can and will fail. What to do? A little bit of periodic maintenance should extend its life and ensure that your files won’t become damaged or corrupted. Simply re-formatting your flash drive from time to time is all it takes.
Windows Users (Mac coming soon)
First you’ll need to copy the data on your flash drive to another computer or device. Insert the drive into your computer as you normally do and open the flash drive as you normally do when accessing it (e.g. by opening ‘My Computer’ and then the flash drive, or by double clicking on the drive on your desktop). The fastest backup option may be to simply copy your files to your desktop by clicking the files and dragging them to a folder on your desktop.
Once your files are copied over, right click on the flash drive. There should be an option to re-format the drive:
1) Select that option, then click ‘Start’.
2) In a few minutes it should be done (depending on how large the flash drive is). The drive is restored to its pure state, and any parts of the drive that may have been at risk of failing are repaired in this process.
3) After it’s done, simply copy back your files from your desktop to the flash drive.
However in all things in life what sounds too good to be true probably is. At some point your drive will fail for good – so just make sure that the data you keep on this terrific device isn’t your only copy.
