It's unable to open an unformatted pen stick without formatting when Windows PC says you have to format the USB stick, since formatting means to data loss. Solution #2 - Format flash drive without losing data in Windows If the open option nor the Explore option are both grayed out here for usb drive, you may try the #2 solution which would definitely work. How to open disk management? This route: Right click 'This PC' -> Manage -> Disk Management. And it would help open and get access to the usb drive files. The open option is available if you right click the usb drive in disk management. You may open usb stick in disk management if it does not open in computer file explorer. Solution #1 - Open usb drive in Disk Management without formatting
This page tells how to open a pen stick (also called thumb drive) without formatting or losing any data when it needs to be formatted after connected to Windows computer like Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10. How to open pen drive without formatting/losing any data - 3 solutions
