Pen drives offer two significant benefits of large data storage capacity and high data transfer rate. These two features are provided in addition to others such as they allow you to store all types of data; texts, images, audios, and videos, consume less power, offer scratch, and dust resistance feature owns read and write compatibility with all Operating Systems, etc.
Furthermore, being a device of plug and play type, they neither require any application nor battery to function. Also, pen drives are physically small in size, light-weight, portable, rewritable; consequently, simplifying your work of storing and transferring a significant amount of data.
The deduction is, pen drive, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device is perfect for those who require large data storage space coupled with a high data transfer rate when moving data to and from systems. However, you can get affected by data loss situations with pen drives as well, either due to physical damage or logical damage. In such scenarios, it becomes necessary for you to retrieve data items using pen drive data recovery solutions which can be in the form of either software or services.
Types of Pen Drive Data Corruption
Irrespective of the make and model, the pen drives that use can suffer either logical or physical damage and have been described here:
Physical corruption –
This type of corruption issue causes damage in the hardware component(s), and in most cases, make the pen drives undetectable when attached to systems. In case the damage caused is minor, the hardware can be repaired, thus, bringing the pen drives back to its working state. On the other hand, if the harm caused is major it becomes impossible to fix the damage manually, ultimately leading to loss of data stored in it. The several causes of physical corruption in pen drives are as follows:
(i) Breaking of USB connectors
(ii) Breaking of the pen drives
Logical corruption –
This logical corruption causes damage to the software component(s) of the pen drives, therefore, causing loss of data. The several causes of logical corruption that causes data loss situations either due to corruption in data or data deletion, are as follows:
(i) Improper withdrawal of pen drive from the system – Improper unplugging of the pen drive from your system may result in deletion of your sensitive data, or, in certain cases, become inaccessible.
(ii) Sudden power outage – When pen drives are attached to a system that does not have power backup, an unexpected power failure will harm the pen drive.
(iii) Attack by malicious codes – Attacks by malicious codes such as malware, virus, etc. also leads to logical corruption in pen drives as they obstruct the normal functioning of storing and transferring data.
(iv) Exposure to extreme temperature – Extremely high temperatures and high humidity cause condensation, which results in a short circuit of the PCB boards in the pen drive, which ultimately leads to data loss.
Tips to Prevent Pen Drive Data Corruption
You can adopt safety measures to prevent your pen drives from becoming corrupt. It is essential to not that the preventive actions must be as per the causes of pen drive corruption. Below are some of the preventive measures:
- Disconnect/unplug correctly-
The pen drives must be safely removed using the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ feature that is present on the system. Users must ensure that none of the methods is utilizing it while it is unplugged.
- Ensure uninterrupted power supply –
A continuous power supply must be provided to avoid sudden power outage that causes logical damage to pen drives if they are connected to a system with intermittent power supply.
- Avoid malware affected systems –
You must avoid plugging in your pen drive into a malware affected system so as to prevent viruses from attacking it
- Avoid Mishandling –
A proper handling of your pen drives goes a long way. Therefore, handle your pen drive(s) safely, avoid playing with it, and keep it at an optimal temperature.
The Bottom Line
Keeping a backup of your data is one of the best ways to Pen Drive Data Corruption. However, it becomes difficult to keep a backup on a daily basis, especially with your pen drive being brought in use frequently to store and transfer data. Therefore, users affected by damaged pen drives, formatted pen drives, or accidental data deletion should take the help of a Professional data recovery solutions.
Here, Stellar Data Recovery is a name to reckon with. It offers the most comprehensive and reliable solution without you having to worry about the same. You can avail its services and regain access to all your lost data irrespective of the make and model.