USB flash drives are no doubt a great choice for data transfer and storage. Their lightweight, portability, and high storage capacity are some of the great features they provide. Despite these advantages, like all storage devices, USB drives or pen drives are often prone to corruption, or input-output errors in USB, and data loss at some point in time.
This article has covered one such common error, USB shows empty but is full. When you encounter this USB full but empty on Windows or Mac, you may find that your pen drive is working properly but all the data saved on it is hidden or missing.
Why can't I see the files saved on my flash drive?
There are many reasons for the pen drive showing empty. Some of the common causes are as follows;
- The USB device is virus/ malware-infected.
- USB drive is corrupt or damaged.
- Bad sectors in the USB drive.
- Files are hidden or deleted from the flash drive.
- Flash drive is improperly inserted or connected to your computer.
4 ways to fix the USB is full but shows empty issue:
Method 1: Show Hidden Files
Sometimes it is possible that the files in the USB drive are hidden and hence your USB is empty. In order to make sure this is not the inherent problem, unhide files using the following steps to fix the flash drive full but no files show the issue.
- Connect your USB flash drive to your system.
- Go to This PC and click on File at the top left corner, then navigate to change folder and search options.
- In the pop-up window click on the View tab and in the Advanced settings navigate to Hidden Files and Folders select show hidden files, folders, and drives. Then click Apply to see the hidden items option.
Now, check if the files and folders on your USB are showing up or not. In case, if your USB shows full but empty, then proceed to the next method.
Method 2: Check USB Drive For Errors
You may check and resolve issues on your USB drive using integrated methods like checking for errors:
- From your home screen, go to This PC. Select the USB Drive that appears to be empty but is actually full. Go to Properties by right-clicking on it.
- Go to the Tools section of the Properties pop-up menu and click the Check.
- "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" and "Automatically Fix File System Errors" are the two possible approaches. Select one of the choices and press "Start."
This procedure should identify and fix any errors in your Drive. You can try both solutions one after the other to resolve the error.
Method 3: Run Anti-virus
A virus on your USB device may be causing it as well. To rule out this issue, run an anti-virus scan on your USB device.
This can be done either using Windows Defender or any third-party anti-virus application. If you find any viruses on the pen drive, get rid of them. If the scan shows that your USB device is free from any threat, you can proceed to the next method.
Method 4: Run the CHKDSK command
If you're familiar with your Windows PC's Command-Line, you could use this way to fix your USB Drive.
- In the search panel on your home screen, type "cmd" and select the Command Prompt option that appears.
Note: Make sure you run the command prompt as an Administrator.
- In the Command Prompt window, type chkdsk #: /f and click Enter to execute the command. ("#" in the command "chkdsk #: /f" must be substituted with the Drive letter for example your USB drive shows drive f then use f).
After this command is executed, all of your data may reappear, and your USB Drive may show as full once again. If you’re still seeing your USB drive full or empty go through the next method.
Method 5: Use Remo Recover Software
If the previous methods didn’t totally resolve the USB is empty but says full, your USB flash drive has become corrupt.
USB drive corruption can occur for a number of reasons, including inappropriate ejection methods, disconnecting the pen drive while data transfer is in progress, and connecting USB flash drives to severely virus-infected devices.
During such an instance, it is recommended that you first recover data from a corrupt USB that is showing empty and then go ahead with other troubleshooting methods.
The best way of recovering data is by making use of Remo Recover software.
Remo Recover is an advanced data recovery tool built specifically to recover data from memory sticks, USB drives, SSD, external HDDs, etc. that are severely corrupt or showing empty. This tool is designed with an extremely intuitive interface and is compatible with all the latest versions of Windows and Mac operating systems including Windows 11 and macOS Monterey.
Download this tool for free now!
Note: You can recover data from memory sticks with the help of the Remo Recover tool.
To Recover Files from the USB drive Showing Empty or Full:
- Download and install Remo Recover software on your Windows or Mac.
- Launch the software and select Recover Partitions from the home screen.
- Now, select the USB drive that is not showing your files on Windows or Mac and click the Scan button.
- Once the scanning process completes, you can find all your files from the USB drive showing empty in Data View and File Type View.
Note: Make use of Deep Scan if the severity of USB drive corruption is high or if you have formatted the flash drive.
- Now, select the files which you wish to recover and click the Save button to restore them to a preferred location.
Wait for the scan to complete to fix the USB drive showing as empty issue. Once the CHKDSK scan completes, you can access all your files from the pen drive. But if the USB drive corruption is severe, then you cannot fix the issue using this method. In such an instance, you need to format your drive on Windows or Mac to fix the problem.
Conclusion:
If your USB drive is full but still appears to be empty, you should be concerned about the security of your data. Either try to repair it or use the Remo Data Recovery tool to safely extract all of your data from the infected USB Drive.
Tips to manage your USB drives better:
- In order to avoid USB devices showing no files or empty, always make sure you remove the device using Safely Remove Hardware.
- Secondly, don’t interrupt a data transfer process. This means, that if a data transfer between USB and your system is in progress, don’t interrupt the transfer or remove the device midway.
- Avoid connecting USB flash drives to virus-infected devices.
