SoftOrbits Flash Drive Recovery SoftOrbits Flash Drive Recovery
5 · 700 votes

Download Pen Drive Recovery Software for Deleted and Formatted Files

Pen Drive Recovery Software reads a USB stick that was quick-formatted, cleared by mistake or turned RAW, and lists the files it can still bring back. You open each one in a preview before you save it to another drive.

   
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Scan and preview free, save with a licenseRead-only scan on your PC, no cloud uploadWindows 11 and 10
SoftOrbits Flash Drive Recovery Screenshot.
After a quick format, your photos and documents stay in their sectors until new data overwrites them. SoftOrbits Pen Drive Recovery Software reads those sectors directly and supports FAT32, exFAT, NTFS and FAT16 on older small drives. Leave the stick untouched until the scan finishes: copying files onto it can overwrite what you want back.

Repair first, or copy your files off?

Drive turned RAW or asking to be formatted? Windows offers Format; forums suggest chkdsk. Both are free fixes to make the drive usable again.

Free Windows fixes

Format it or run chkdsk

Format and chkdsk /f both write to the very drive you want to rescue.

  • Format starts the drive over as empty and hides what was there
  • chkdsk may turn broken entries into nameless .CHK fragments
  • Neither tells you which files are still there
VS
Recovery first

Copy your files, then fix the drive

This takes longer than clicking Format and leaves the stick untouched.

  • See the found files before touching the drive
  • Copies land on your PC disk, away from the stick
  • Fix the drive later, once the files are safe
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How to download and use the Pen Drive Recovery Software

Install on the PC, then plug in the stick.
1

Install on the PC, then plug in the stick

Download the Pen Drive Recovery tool and install it on your computer's disk, never on the stick you are rescuing. Plug in the stick. If Windows asks to format it, click Cancel.

Pick the drive and scan.
2

Pick the drive and scan

Choose your stick by drive letter and size in the device list. Click Scan. The quick pass reads the remaining file system and usually finishes in seconds. If it finds nothing, as after a format, a deep pass starts automatically. Missing files? Tick Deep scan and scan again. It reads the whole drive; the status line shows the amount read, speed and time left.

Check the results and the preview.
3

Check the results and the preview

Files appear as the scan runs. Press Stop when you see what you need; everything found stays listed. Click a file to open it under Selected file preview.

Save to a different drive.
4

Save to a different drive

Tick the files you need, set Destination folder to a folder on your PC or another external drive, never the same pen drive, and click Recover. Only saving needs the full version.

Formatted by mistake? Run pen drive format recovery software.

Formatted by mistake? Run pen drive format recovery software

Formatted a troublesome drive or cleared a stick with your tax scans? Camera and phone cards can be formatted by mistake too: rescue a freshly formatted camera card.

  • You see which files survived before you pay anything.
  • We list only removable drives to keep you from selecting your PC's system drive by mistake.
  • Read a drive Windows calls RAW before formatting it.
   
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Deleted, formatted or RAW: what can come back

What happened to the stick, and what you wrote afterwards, determine your recovery chances.

Removed a minute ago

On a USB stick, Delete skips the Recycle Bin. Data stays until new writes reuse its space. The quick scan normally shows it in its old place.

Quick scan first

New files added since

Later writes may overwrite part of the old data. Those files return damaged or not at all.

Stop using the stick

RAW and no drive letter?

If Windows shows no working volume on the stick, start the program as administrator to read the physical disk directly.

Quick format

Microsoft's documentation says format /q deletes the file table and the root directory without checking the disk for bad sectors.

Deep scan

Full format

Without the Quick Format tick, Windows 10 and 11 fill every sector of the volume with zeros. No program can bring anything back from that.

Not recoverable

RAW and no drive letter?

If Windows shows no working volume on the stick, start the program as administrator to read the physical disk directly.

Unreadable but still listed

The stick still responds, but its structure is damaged. Cancel the format prompt and run a deep scan, which reads without that structure.

Do not format

Not detected, or the wrong size

If your stick is missing from Disk Management or reports 0 bytes or a strange capacity, its controller or memory chip has failed. You need a recovery lab.

Hardware fault

RAW and no drive letter?

If Windows shows no working volume on the stick, start the program as administrator to read the physical disk directly.

How the program reads your stick

Two scan depths

In our test, Pen Drive Recovery Software finished its quick pass on a 14.5 GB stick in about 3 seconds. Deep scan took 10 to 15 minutes; slower drives take longer.

Search by file signature

Deep scan recognizes files by their first bytes, even without a file record. By default, it looks for photos and video. Turn on look for all file types under Filters to add PDF and Office documents, ZIP archives and MP3 audio, 30+ types in all. In our test after the 4.1 update, signatures alone restored 28 of 32 files of eight types byte for byte. These get generic names like jpg_0100C000.jpg. Plain TXT files have no signature and need an intact file record.

Preview before you save

Pictures open in the program's own viewer. To preview Word, Excel and PDF files, you need the Windows preview handlers installed by Office, Acrobat or Edge.

Read-only and local

This USB pen drive recovery software opens the stick with read access only and writes nothing to it. The scan and the preview run on your PC with no upload to any cloud service. Recovered files go only to the folder you pick.

Names on FAT32 sticks

A deleted FAT32 file usually keeps its folder path. FAT overwrites the first character of a short name on deletion, so you may lose that letter. In our test, all 32 deleted files came back byte for byte; 24 lost the first letter of their names.

Damaged files get flagged

Files with unreadable sectors are still saved and marked partially recovered. Files with lost folder entries go into a folder named FOLDER0000.

SoftOrbits Flash Drive Recovery
SoftOrbits Flash Drive RecoveryDownload the Pen Drive Recovery Software, scan your stick and preview what can still be saved.
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Who needs USB pen drive recovery software

Students

Coursework, a thesis draft and lab data on one stick between campus and home? After a wrong click before the deadline, scanning beats rewriting a chapter for speed.

Office staff

Contracts and spreadsheets travel on USB sticks between PCs with no shared network. If a colleague's USB drive turns RAW, scan before IT reformats it. For phone or camera cards, read what to do when an SD card is corrupted.

Families keeping photos

Your stick may hold your only copies of holiday photos. For memory cards, cameras and other removable media, see USB flash drive and memory card recovery.

Trial and full version: what you get before you pay

Run the whole scan on your own stick before you pay. The trial stops at one step: saving the files.

On your pen driveTrialFull version
Quick scan and deep scan✓✓
File list with recovery state✓✓
Preview of found files✓✓
Save files to another drive✗✓
The trial runs for 10 days. Enter the license key in the window that opens when you click Recover, then click Recover again. The files you previewed stay in the list.
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  Buy now
From $ 59.99
  Buy now
From $ 59.99
  Download 

The trial runs for 10 days. Enter the license key in the window that opens when you click Recover, then click Recover again. The files you previewed stay in the list.

SoftOrbits Flash Drive Recovery
SoftOrbits Flash Drive Recovery
Price
from $ 59.99
Version
4.8
File Size
6.7 Mb
Last updated on
19/09/26
Trial: 10 days, scan and preview included, saving needs a license
System Requirements
  • Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 (32/64 bit)
  • Intel i3, AMD Ryzen 5 or above
  • 4 GB of RAM or above
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® series 8 and 8M, Intel® HD Graphics 2000, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX 5600, AMD Radeon™ R600, Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330, Mobility FirePro™ series, Radeon™ R5 M230 or higher graphics card with up-to-date drivers
  • 1280 × 768 screen resolution, 32-bit color
  • 1 GB of free hard disk space or above

Frequently Asked Questions

The free trial runs quick and deep scans and shows every file found in the preview pane. Saving needs a license. Other tools' free editions let you save from a few kilobytes to a couple of gigabytes.

Stop copying onto the stick and do not format it again. Run a deep scan before the old files get overwritten. Save the results to a different drive.

PhotoRec is free and open source. It reads without writing to the drive and searches by file signatures. It runs in a text window and loses original file names and folders. Commercial tools' free editions offer a friendly interface but limit how much you can save.

Good data recovery software for a USB drive offers read-only access, a deep scan for formatted or RAW drives, previews before saving, and a clear free limit on the download page. Be wary of guaranteed or 100% recovery promises: nobody can recover overwritten data.

In File Explorer, right-click your stick and choose Properties. The File system line shows FAT32, exFAT or NTFS. If Windows cannot open it, check Disk Management. RAW means Windows cannot read the volume's structure.

Our SanDisk USB repair guide covers RAW and write-protected SanDisk sticks and the risks of firmware utilities.

Yes, if the stick still appears in Windows. Click Cancel on the format prompt and run a deep scan.

Recovery software cannot undo data loss after data is overwritten, a full format or hardware failure. If your stick is missing from Disk Management or reports 0 bytes, you need a recovery lab.

Scanning and previews stay on your PC. A diagnostic log is sent only when you press the report button yourself.

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Author: SoftOrbits (English)
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Avg. rating: 5 from 700 votes
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