Reformatting USB drive

[chelsey923]

I have been using my 16 GB SanDisk USB regularly for the past year. Today when I plugged it into my computer a screen popped up that says, "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable." Then another screen pops up that tells me I need to format my USB. Is there a way I can format the USB without losing all of my files currently on it? Thanks.

 

[Alec Mowat]

Negative.

The files were corrupted at some point. You could potentially find a product online that can attempt to recover the data.
http://lifehacker.com/5237503/five-best-free-data-recovery-tools

The life expectancy of USB drives are not great. Always back it up.

 

[chelsey923]

Thank you for your help.