Kingston flash drive formatting utility. The best free programs for repairing USB flash drives. Restoring a flash drive using the example of Kingston DT

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

You can restore a Kingston drive using special software

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

If, after formatting, problems remain or it ends in failure, for example, the operating system generates an error - “Windows cannot complete formatting,” then you need to try another method. For example, Kingston provides special tools for its drives to restore their functionality. The Kingston flash drive recovery program can be easily downloaded from the company’s official website, in the support section. After downloading, you need to unpack it and run it. In the window that opens, select the required drive and click Format. After formatting in a special way, the flash drive should work.

Another method worth trying is to use a low-level formatting program. Such a program, for example, D-Soft Flash Doctor or similar. It is not targeted at any specific drive or manufacturer, so it can format any flash drives and memory cards.

If all these actions lead to nothing, then there are serious problems with the controller.

Restoring a Kingston flash drive using firmware

You can restore a flash drive by using a special utility for low-level firmware of its controller. But there are situations when the device really cannot be helped by anything other than physical intervention, such as soldering or connecting to special devices.

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

Windows detects the flash drive when it is plugged into the 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, and when accessed, the message “Insert disk...” is displayed;
systematic errors when copying or moving files to a flash drive;
Slow speed of the drive as a whole.

Before you restore the Kingston flash drive, you need to find out the controller identifiers. You need two of them, the first - VID, contains the manufacturer's identifier. The second is PID, which stands for product code. You need to determine them with a utility like Flash Drive Information Extractor. Once you receive them, you can write them down somewhere.

Finding a recovery utility

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

For search the desired program It is for the model being reanimated that SID and PID will be needed. There is one service on the network called Flashboot.ru, which stores thousands of utilities for firmware various devices and gadgets.

You must enter the received numbers into the SID and PID fields and click search. The service can display several program options at once. You need to choose the one whose description indicates the corresponding volume of the drive being restored. The list may also contain utilities for other manufacturers. You need to remember that you need to restore the Kingston flash drive, so select the most suitable configuration from the list. The Utils field describes the name of the program. After finding the desired line in the list, you need to 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 program you are looking for is not in the files. Then you can simply search for her by name in any search engine.

Using a program to recover a Kingston flash drive

Using the utility is the simplest part of the operation. You just need to insert the USB flash drive, launch the program and click on the Start button in the program. Of course, the design, localization and operating methods of different utilities for different flash drives may be different, but the essence is the same, and it is intuitive. After successful flashing of the controller, the operating system may immediately offer to format the revived flash drive.

If all else fails

If nothing helped or the utility was never found, this means that, most likely, one of the modules of the drive’s electrical circuit is physically damaged. In such a situation, only a service center can help. Specialists will be able to physically connect to the contacts of the flash drive and analyze or scan for damage. If the flash drive can be repaired, then it will be repaired, but if not, then nothing will help it.

Kingston flash drives, due to their reliability, long service life and relative low cost, are very popular. But, like any other equipment, they are not protected from various breakdowns and failures. Sometimes a drive actually dies and there is no way to restore it. Although a more common situation occurs when a flash drive can be brought back to life using special utilities.

In this article we will tell you a few effective ways for Kingston flash drive recovery.

Is it possible to restore

Here are some signs that the flash drive can be recovered:

the system prompts you to format the removable disk;
a notification appears when you connect a flash drive that a new device has been detected;
errors occur when writing and reading data;
The drive appears in Explorer, but does not open.

These problems can be eliminated by formatting the media or flashing the controller firmware, but if the drive has important information, then you must try to “pull it out” before starting restoration procedures.

Controller firmware

To restore a Kingston flash drive, you will need a special utility, and in order not to make a mistake, download the right program, you need to know the controller model.

One way to obtain the necessary information is Flash program Drive Information Extractor.

on the website flashboot.ru go to the iFlash section;
enter the PID and VID values in the appropriate windows and click Search.

Click the get data button, a report with PID and VID lines will appear. Their value is used to search for utilities for correct recovery of a Kingston Datatraveler flash drive.

Using the FLASH MODEL and FLASH VENDOR columns, find your flash drive and see which utility is suitable for the drive controller.

Kingston flash drive recovery programs

Of course, you can find the necessary utility without knowing the controller model. To do this, simply type “recovery utilities” into your browser’s search engine. The results will contain several applications, among which the following recovery tools are sure to be included.

The problem is that Kingston flash drive recovery utilities only work if they are compatible with the controller installed in the drive. Therefore, if you download the first utility you come across, you can expect that it will not detect the connected flash drive.

When necessary program found and installed, you can begin the recovery procedure. Just be sure to first read the instructions, which are usually packaged together with the utility in the archive, to find out if there is a special operating procedure for the recovery program.

Kingston Format Utility

This is a proprietary utility designed to format Kingston flash drives. Initially, the program was released specifically for the HyperX DTHX30/XXGB USB series. However, it supports any drives from this manufacturer. This program compared to others standard means formatting demonstrates higher speed.

Kingston with this utility works by converting the media file system to NTFS and FAT32. Both of these systems have both their advantages and disadvantages. We only note that for storing files small size FAT32 is better, and NTFS is better for larger ones. In addition, FAT32 format drives have limitations that will not allow you to write files larger than 4 GB. This must be taken into account before starting formatting and choosing a file system.

All necessary elements program controls are concentrated in one window, where the required media is selected (if several are connected) and the source file system is indicated. Immediately after clicking the Format button, formatting will begin.

The program does not require installation and works with drives of any size.

Key Features:

quick formatting drives from Kingston;
work in portable mode;
support file systems FAT32 and NTFS;
the main window has a minimum of controls;
high speed compared to other formatting tools.

Kingston flash drive recovery

The Hetman Uneraser program is designed to recover files deleted from various media. The application supports working with almost any storage device - USB devices, hard drives, memory cards, cell phones.

The list of supported file systems includes VFAT, NTFS, and FAT 12/16/32. The Hetman Uneraser utility can restore office documents, multimedia files, emails, photos, RAR and ZIP archives, etc.

You can also try to recover not only deleted information, but also data from damaged and already formatted media.

USB Drive Antivirus utility

Designed for all those who worry and care about the security of their computer and its file system as a whole. There are many different spyware and viruses nowadays, which, if they penetrate your computer, will delete all your data or steal passwords and confidential information. Therefore, it is recommended to pay special attention to exchanging information with partners and friends via USB drives.

All antiviruses usually slow down the system, take up a lot of space, and also spend a lot of resources on your system. USB Drive Antivirus Portable does not require installation and runs directly from a USB drive or other removable media, consumes a minimum amount of random access memory and other resources.

The program is perfect for restoring a Kingston dtse9 flash drive, eliminating the possibility of any conflicts with the antivirus software and is fully compatible with it.

This utility will detect and remove all the latest spyware and virus programs that can enter your computer through removable devices. As soon as the USB drive is connected, the application automatically scans the device for malware, viruses and suspicious files.

Low Level Format Tool

Judging by numerous user reviews, this program copes well with damaged Kingston media. It works at a low level, so it is quite successful in its functions. This applies not only to drives from Kingston. Just note that the utility will format the flash drive and restore its functionality, but the data from it will not.

Users include the following advantages of the utility:

work with all types of media ( removable drives, SD cards, hard disks, flash drives);
completely resets the information on the drive.

Flaws:

V free version there are restrictions on formatting speed;
after the formatting operation, it is necessary to initialize the device;
English interface only.

On this moment The most popular digital information storage devices are USB flash drives and microSD memory cards. Almost any material thing, a flash drive, unfortunately, is no exception, tends to deteriorate and lose its characteristics over time, which leads to loss or damage to the data on it. In this article we will look at programs and standard tools of the Windows 7 and 10 operating system for restoring flash drives and memory cards as such, as well as the data stored on them.

Restoring the file system of a RAW flash drive

A flash drive that needs recovery from RAW format is one of the most common problems regarding the file system on the flash drive. You will learn how to restore the file system of a flash drive by reading the guide below. Let's consider the sequence of actions:

Open the Start menu and start typing “creation and.” Click once with the left mouse button on the icon that appears system utility"Creating and formatting hard disk partitions."
In the Disk Management program window that opens, find a disk whose memory capacity matches the memory of the drive that requires recovery. The system will show the data on it as not distributed. In our case, this is a device called “Disk 1”.
Right-click on the crossed out space and select the “Create simple volume” option from the drop-down list.
You will be greeted by the “Create Simple Volume Wizard”. Click the Next > button.
The next window will ask you to specify the volume size. To use all available storage space on your drive, the number in "Simple volume size (MB)" must match the number of megabytes in " Maximum size(MB)". Click Next >.
In the next window you can assign a drive letter A - Z. After selecting, click Next again >.
In this window, leave everything unchanged except for the Volume Label parameter. Here you can specify the name that the flash drive will receive after formatting. The easiest way is to follow this principle: the name of the manufacturer and the size of the device. If you had to restore a 16 GB flash drive from Kingston, then it should be called “Kingston 16 GB”.
The last window will show the parameters set for the new volume. Click Finish.

Ready. Now you can open data on the drive using the built-in Explorer. In Disk Management, the device will be marked in blue - a sign that it is working properly.

How to recover a formatted flash drive

The process of restoring a flash drive depends on how it was formatted. If it was a quick cleanup, then getting the files back onto the drive will be easy. Deep cleaning involves more thorough removal of information, which leads to difficulties in recovery. Also, the instructions below are suitable for users who are interested in how to recover a damaged flash drive and how to recover a flash drive without formatting. Let's take a closer look:

Download and install the Ontrack EasyRecovery Proffesional 12 program.
In the main window, select the “Everything” option and click Next.
Click on the drive you are going to restore, then Scan.
The program will start scanning. The waiting time will depend on the storage capacity of the drive.
After completing the scan, the application will display a window with a summary of the information found.
Select the files you want to recover and click Recover.
Click on the Browse button.
In the Windows Explorer window, select a location to save the file. Important: you cannot immediately save files to the device from which you recovered them.
Click on the Start Saving button.

Ready. The files are now restored and ready for further work.

How to recover microSD

Bringing a microSD card into working condition is identical to the same process for a flash drive, you just have to use special program, designed to work with MicroSD devices. Below are instructions for restoring a microSD drive using SD Card Formatter:

The MicroSD drive is now ready for use.

Recovering data from a microSD memory card

Since memory cards are essentially the same flash drives, but designed to work in mobile devices- tablets, mobile phones, DVRs and so on, data recovery from them can be done using the same tools that are used for flash drives. One such application that is distributed free of charge is Disk Drill. Let's look at his work:

Download latest version Disk Drill from the official website and install it.
After launching the program, find your memory card and opposite it, click on the Recover button.
Disk Drill will start searching deleted files on the drive, so you will need to wait some time before it completes.
When finished, Disk Drill will output all found files, sorted into folders with their data type: audio, photos, documents, and more. Check the ones you need and click Recover. By default, recovered files will be saved to the “My Documents” directory. To change the path, click on the open folder, which is located next to the Recover button.
Disk Drill will display a window with information about the weight of the saved documents and their quantity.

Now you can use your newly acquired files.

Recovering SanDisk flash drives

SanDisk has never released official program to repair your flash devices. But if you need to restore a sandisk flash drive, then there are many tools for this on the Internet, one of which is HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, will be discussed below. The sequence of actions will be as follows:

Data recovery from SanDisk flash drives

We will try to return data from SanDisk flash drives using R.saver. Let's consider the sequence of actions:

Once the process is complete, you can use the recovered data.

Recovering information from Transcend flash drives

Almost all well-known flash drive manufacturers have the same situation with the availability special software to work with them - it, unfortunately, is missing. Fortunately, there are many programs from third-party developers that work equally well with all devices from any manufacturer. In this guide we will answer the question of how to restore Transcend flash drive using the Recuva program from Piriform, the creators of CCleaner. Let's look at its work:

Download the Recuva application from the official developer website.
At the top of the window, select your flash drive and click “Scan”.
After these steps, a progress indicator and the approximate waiting time until the disk scan is completed will appear on the screen.
From the list of files that appears, select the ones you need and click Recover.
In Windows Explorer, specify the location on the disk where you want to save the data.
The program will display a window with information about the saved documents. Click OK.

Now you can continue to use the data that is important to you.

Formatting Transcend flash drives

To get a flash drive into working condition, in most cases, just formatting the data storage is enough. To do this, in the guide below, we will use the free program “AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard”. The sequence of actions will be as follows:

After installing and launching AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, select your flash drive in the program window, and on the left side of the interface, find and click on the “Format Partition” operation.
In the window that appears, you can change the name of the flash drive. To do this, enter any other name in the “Section Label” field. To prepare the data store for formatting, click OK.
In the top left corner, select Apply.
The pending operations window contains a description of what changes or tools will be applied to the device. To continue, click the Go button.
In the next window, select Yes.
AOMEI Partition Assistant will now begin formatting the USB storage. Wait a while.
Upon completion of work with your device, the application will display a window in which it will be said that the formatting was completed successfully. Click OK.

Now you can continue working with the flash drive.

Restoring a microSD card on a phone running Android OS

Thanks to the constant development of mobile operating systems, in some situations they are not inferior in capabilities to their desktop counterparts. Since almost every phone or tablet has a slot for a microSD card, it would be strange not to find built-in system tools to work with her. The material below will tell you how to format a memory card using only one mobile phone on Android. Let's consider the sequence of actions:

Open the settings menu on your device.
Find an item called "Memory" or something like that. Enter it.
Select the "Empty SD Card" option.
A utility for cleaning and formatting the removable drive will open. Click on the red button Clear and Format.
The card will be cleared. Do not remove it during formatting and wait until it is completed.
Now your device is ready for use, as the utility will undoubtedly inform you about. Click on the Finish button.

Now you can continue to use your smartphone as if nothing had happened.

Conclusion

In our information age, there is a need to store digital information. For this, USB flash drives and microSD memory cards are used. But over time, like any thing, they can deteriorate, which leads to the loss of information stored on them. This article describes the recovery of such drives and the data located on them.

Video on the topic

Kingston Format Utility- a proprietary utility that is designed to format Kingston USB drives. In general, the program was released specifically for flash drives of the HyperX DTHX30/XXGB series, but, nevertheless, it supports any other drives from this manufacturer. Compared to standard means Windows formatting, this program demonstrates much higher operating speed. It does not have any other significant advantages.

Kingston Format Utility can convert the media file system to FAT32 and NTFS. Both of these file systems have their advantages and disadvantages. We will not go into them now, but will only note that FAT32 is better suited for storing small files, and NTFS is better suited for storing large ones. Moreover, drives in the FAT32 format have a limitation that does not allow files larger than 4 GB to be written to them, which must be taken into account when choosing a file system before starting the formatting process.

All the necessary utility controls are concentrated in one small window, where you can select the required media (if several are connected) and specify the source file system. Formatting will begin immediately after pressing the "Format" key. The program works with media of any size and does not require installation. The only thing you need to do before starting it is to unpack the downloaded archive.

Key Features and Functions

quick formatting of USB drives from the manufacturer Kingston;
file support NTFS systems and FAT32;
work in portable mode;
a minimum of controls in the main application window;
faster performance than the standard Windows formatting tool.

This article is intended to help you software recovery USB Flash Drive, based on the SK6211 microcontroller manufactured by Skymedi. This controller is found in flash drives from various manufacturers, for example: Kingston, Kingmax, A-data, etc. The utility was chosen as an example. It, like many others, is designed to work in the OS environment - MS Win XP. The Kingston DT100/1GB flash drive was chosen as the “experimental” one.

The utility kit includes:
1) SK6211_20090828.exe – the actual main module.
2) SK6211_User_Manual.pdf – instructions for the program in English
3) SK6211BA_Skymedi Flash Support List _20090828.xls – “Flashlist” - a list of memory modules that are supported by this version of the utility. (Useful for determining “CodeBankVer” by date)
4) SK6211BA R-W Performance_Capacity List_20090828.xls – Summary table of speed tests various modules memory in single-channel and dual-channel modes in Win XP sp2 & Win 2k sp4 OS.
5) SK62XX_FAT_20090505.exe & SK62XX_FATool_UserGuideV1.pdf – auxiliary utility for flash testing.
6) ErrorCodes.txt – list of error codes.
7) DrvSwitch.exe – factory driver.
8) Driver_Using_manual.pdf – instructions for using the driver.

1. Preparation

We connect the flash drive and find out the VID/PID, for example using ChipGenius 3.0. The test subject has VID = 0951 PID = 1607.
Run the utility “SK6211_20090828.exe” and select default in “Configuration Selection”.

We see that in the first window (DUT1) the flash drive has been identified (SAMPLE – No Match), but it is not ready for firmware yet! SAMPLE = example, No Mach = No Match. This means that the current settings (default) do not correspond to the internals of the flash drive. The utility has already determined that the flash drive is built on a controller that responds to its requests and has already read information from its firmware.
This information can be viewed by double-clicking on SAMPLE.

Here we see the contents of the firmware:
1) SK6211 controller
2) Memory FID (AD D3 14 A5 34) and its name (HY27UT088G2A)
3) CodeBank version: C080512A_F080516A
4) Firmware version: CodeSwap-0512
5) The rest is not so important (date of manufacture / utility version / configuration name = “engraving on the USB connector” / VID&PID codes, etc.)
6) Channel: Byte Mode (Single channel mode. May be useful in settings!)

Everything is fine here! But what to do when the firmware crashes so that most of this information is missing!?

Controller Version: SK6211BA
Flash Part No.: No matched Flash Part No.
Flash ID 01: 0x89 0x95 0x94 0x1E 0x74
Flash ID 02: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 03: 0x89 0x95 0x94 0x1E 0x74

Here the utility read the FID from the flash drive, but could not use it to select the memory from its list!
Conclusion: try another utility or check your contacts. Sometimes restoring contacts on the Data Bus between the controller and the memory changes the ID number and the utility, using the correct ID number, finds a match in its Database.

Controller Version: SK6211BA
Flash Part No.: I29F32G08AAMD1_S
Total Flash Size: 8192 MB
4K Page, MLC
Flash ID 01: 0x89 0xD7 0x94 0x3E 0x84
Flash ID 02: 0x89 0xD7 0x94 0x3E 0x84
Flash ID 03: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 04: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 05: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 06: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 07: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 08: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00

Here the utility found memory in its database. But the Code Bank version is unknown! We find it by searching for the date by the name of the flash chip in the file SK6211BA_Skymedi Flash Support List _20090828.xls

Now we are looking for suitable Code banks.
Open the file:
…\SK6211_PDT_20090828\CodeBank\2806\CBVer-1.2.2.44.ini

We find version 09.03.09 by date: C090309A_F090309A

2. Settings

Let's return to the experimental subject. Click the “Advaced” button to go to advanced settings. Password – 123456.
1) register VID & PID: 0951 & 1607
2) Vendor Name: Kingston
3) Product Name: DataTraveler 2.0
4) Revision: 8.2 (leave unchanged)
5) Disk Type: Removable (leave it unchanged)
6) S/N: 001478544881SK8703120829 (this is the test subject’s own serial number)
7) S/N Gen: (3) Don't Change SN
Below you can skip to
8) Fixed Flash Size = 1024 (set the original size of the flash drive)
9) When you set the checkbox to Erase All, the message appears: Warning Message: System information will be eliminated after erase all!!!
(Warning: system information will be destroyed after setting the “delete everything” mode!!!)
Go to the right window Flash Options
10) Select a controller: SK6211BA
11) Select Code Bank Ver: C080512A_F080516A (the one that the utility gave by double clicking on SAMPLE) Now I expect that in the Flash Selection section it should be possible to select the desired memory - HY27UT088G2A, but this does not happen. What is the reason? Perhaps in the utility version! After all, the firmware version indicates: PDT Version: SK6211_PDT_20080616_BA, and I use SK6211_20090828! We follow the path of choosing a flashlist. We find the date - 04/02/2008, but I don’t find names with such a date in the list and Code Bank versions with the closest date are not suitable either! The assumption of matching the date from the flashlist is not suitable for this flash drive. Only a complete search helped! When selecting C090828A_F090828A, the utility gave the opportunity to select the desired memory!
12) Next select Channel Mode: Single
We don't change anything else.

We receive the READY status

Now the utility is “ready” to flash the flash drive.
Click Auto-LLF

3. Work on mistakes

44 -
2 -
when changing read/write test error 37 -

The jackdaw on ERASE ALL helped

45 -
(Status READY, error in LLF process)

It helped: switching to test mode by shorting 31-32 legs to the memory m/s
and re-flashing
_______________________________

101 -

We need a more recent version of the utility that supports new memory.
ps: in previous version 20090709_BA (34 - )
_______________________________

94 -
1 -
When trying to flash - (Access error)

We removed the USB extension cable that was causing the losses.
_______________________________

The experience of forum users was used to work on bugs: Vitorrio, SeeJay, E1haZ and others.

Discussion of the article and problems with recovery are discussed in this forum thread.