When your Sandisk Cruzer Blade flash drive stops working as expected or shows signs of corruption, it can be quite frustrating especially if you had important data stored in it. Fortunately, there are several ways to recover the lost files from a damaged SanDisk USB drive using professional recovery software and built-in tools on Windows computers.

Before diving into the main topic let's briefly understand what causes Sandisk flash drives to fail:

1. Physical damage: Dropping your external hard drive or subjecting it to physical stress can result in permanent data loss due to mechanical failure.

2. Corrupted file system: If there is an issue with how files are organized on your USB stick, you may not be able to access them anymore.

Here are some steps you can follow:

1. Check for loose connections

First things first - ensure that the SanDisk Cruzer Blade flash drive is properly connected to a working port on your computer via its USB cable or OTG adapter (if using an Android device). Sometimes, simple reinsertion of both ends may resolve connectivity issues.

2. Run disk cleanup and scan

Open File Explorer > This PC/My Computer > right-click the Sandisk Cruzer Blade drive letter under 'Removable' section > Properties > General tab -> click on 'ReScan' or 'Check for Errors'. Wait until Windows finishes scanning your USB flash drive completely.

3. Use third-party data recovery software

If none of these steps work, it might be time to resort to more advanced solutions like professional file recovery tools designed specifically for recovering lost data from damaged external hard drives including Sandisk models such as EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro or Stellar Phoenix Flash Recover (formerly known as Photo Salve). Follow their respective instructions carefully while running the software:

a) Download and install EaseUS PartitionMaster onto your PC.

b) Connect the SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB stick to an available port on your computer using a USB cable.

c) Launch EaseUs Data Recovery Wizard Professional Edition from Start > All Programs > Easeus or double-click its icon located inside C:\Program Files (x86)\EaseUS\DataRecoveryWizardPro directory depending upon 32-bit/64bit operating system architecture you're currently running on your computer.

d) Select 'External Hard Drive' as the device type where your Sandisk Cruzer Blade flash drive is listed under 'Device' panel at left side bar; then click Next button to proceed with scan process which might take several minutes depending upon size of data present within target USB stick.

Once the scanning procedure has finished successfully, navigate through ' Recovered Files' section located on right-hand side panel. Here you will see all recoverable files including documents (DOCX), spreadsheets (.xlsx), presentations (.pptx) pictures etc., organized based on their respective categories such as Documents Pictures Videos Music etc.

4. Use built-in tools

If using third-party software still doesn't work for whatever reason, there are some integrated options available within Windows itself that might help recover your lost data:

a) Open File Explorer and double-click the SanDisk Cruzer Blade drive icon under 'This PC' or 'My Computer'.

b) Right-click anywhere inside the window then select Properties from context menu.

c. Click on 'Check' button under 'Tools' tab to run an automated disk check for any errors.

After following these steps, you should be able to access your lost files again if they were not permanently deleted during the corruption process. Remember always backup important data regularly across multiple storage devices and keep a copy of critical information offsite (e.g., cloud services) as added protection against potential hardware failure or loss/ theft scenarios!

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