OT - USB memory stick has suddenly died ...

Ron Beaufort

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Jul 2002
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Charleston, SC
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pass me the crying towel please ...

I've got a little 4GB USB memory stick - Verbatim brand - that I've been using for several years without a hitch ...

now suddenly it's dead ... and NO, I did NOT just "pull it out" without the "Safely Remove Hardware" step ... it was working fine one minute - and the next time I plugged it in - well, not so good ...

I can read the name "STORE N GO" but that was always burned in from the manufacturer ... all of my stuff seems to be gone ...

yes, I do back this thing up from time-to-time - but not as often as I wish that I had ...

anyway - does anyone know of any super-geek recovery methods? ... I'll spend the next several hours of my life Googling like a madman - but this looks BAD ...

TIP: back up and save often - these things don't last forever ...

format_now.PNG
 
Have you tried it in another computer? I had that happen once. Just before I was about to go ahead and give up and re-format it, I decided to check another computer. It worked fine (long enough to get my data). I copied the data and then changed devices.
 
and NO, I did NOT just "pull it out" without the "Safely Remove Hardware" step ...


Hey Ron...

I never do that and never had issues, try cleaning your USB port on the PC or use another port... odds are the USB connection on the flash drive is just wearing out so try cleaning them with some alcohol

The longevity of a (quality brand) flash drive is around 100,000 writes (according to Wiki) and there is virtually no limit to the amounts of reads. Other articles state that flash drives have around 10,000 - 100,000 writes.

USB connector hardware is specified to withstand only around 1,500 insert-removal cycles, so most USB Flash drives fail earlier than their write cycle simply by inserting and removing them from a computer.

I have worn out more then my share of USB ports testing my products
 
I have experienced this once or twice... as others have said, try a different USB port. I've had two different USB ports on one of my laptops fail - to the point where the connector actually came out... but that is another story.

My latest frustration is with 2 of the high capacity (16 & 32GB) encrypted Corsair ($$$!) drives that have started being flaky... plug them in, and the computer - any computer - will recognize the drive, but not be able to read or write to it. Unplug it, then plug it back in, sometimes 2 or 3 times before I can work with it. Maybe it is time for a new set...

Backup, backup, backup!
 
thank all of you who have responded so far ...

I've tried several computers - including my "old-faithful" IBM ThinkPad 600X running XP-Pro ...

I've plugged and replugged - but still replugging ...

Google led me to something which looked extremely on target ... freeware called "Find and Mount" ... it "scanned" - but found "no visible partitions" ...

I'm still hoping and praying ... there's probably nothing on there that I couldn't find on a backup disk - or else just rebuild from scratch - but it's the TIME that it would take to do that ...

thanks again ... still trying ...
 
I feel your pain....

I have had a Lexar 32GB (we bought a few) that decided to die one day, loaded up with loadsa backups...
Contacted the company, who said that they only sold us the hardware, no responsibility for the content (or loss of it).
I found a free tool on the web, that said it could recover my data, so I tried and the 32GB was multiplied a number of times...some files were obvious what they had been, other just junk.....so no recovery possible.

Also had a USB stick from a supplier - fancy one in the shape of an MDF Press that they manufacture. Thing is about 3 inches long. Used that a couple of times in my laptop, but never noticed that it broke my only USB3 port - the blue plastic got stuck in the USB stick..so now my USB3 port does not work..have to think about getting a second hand motherboard to replace said hardware...:mad:
 
I have lost so many USB sticks, and so many have gone bad on me.
I use USB sticks and SD cards for secondary backup only, so that when traveling I have 2 backups that are not stored in the same place.
 
people ask sometimes why I like the little 4GB sticks - and not something with a larger capacity ...

simple answer: 4GB will fit on a DVD ... so from time-to-time I burn ALL of the files on the stick over to a DVD (usually multiple copies) and store one DVD at home, another at the office, and a third in the safe deposit box at the bank ...

so - I've got SOMETHING to fall back on - but I know that there's going to be some amount of TIME wasted in picking up the pieces on this little problem ...

nothing from Google has helped so far - I'm close to giving up hope ... the partition says "Raw" ... that can NOT be a good sign ...

thank you all for the input ... I appreciate it ...
 
I have recovered one using some software called I think easeus. You might try it worked for me a few years ago. I can not access the site form my work PC due to those pesky IT guys so I can not link you. Should be able to google easeus though. I no longer have the PC it was installed on But I am pretty sure this is the one that worked after trying a few.
 
Its this reason I've moved to cloud based back ups. Set up a Dropbox for business for £80 a year for 1TB

I have got into the habit of copying my current work projects into the Dropbox folder 10 minutes before home time and let it do its thing. At the very worst I've got yesterdays back-ups available anywhere in the world, even if its a laptop failure.

If i'm away then I do the same but at the hotel so it's sync's over the wi-fi.

Don't get me wrong though, before every trip, I still back up the VM im using to a widi passport and the project to a USB and Dropbox.

Too many times I've spent hours re-writing because of a physical memory failure.

Once the project is complete, it's dumped onto the server and deleted locally. Never rely on just 1 back-up I guess is the moral of the story.
 
the easeus program looks VERY promising ... at least it's showing me the names of files on the disk - nothing else has been able to do that ...

I'll be working on this tonight (midnight oil) and let you know what happens ...

THANKS TO ALL ...
 
I have a customer that bought a thousand 2GB business cards, they put a video tour of their facility on them and hand them out at trade shows.

I have a handful of them and some of them get hot (so hot I am surprised the plastic doesn't melt), about half of them totally die if left in a computer for over a half hour, and then some last like they should.

I only buy name brand flash drives at Staples or Best Buy - my luck with Ebay flash drives is either they are not the size advertised &/or they fail quickly.
 
Hey Ron...

I never do that and never had issues...

I've never damaged a drive by removing it without first stopping it, but I have discovered that files I thought I had successfully copied to the drive were not actually there. Since then, I always stop the device prior to removing it.

I had one stop working on an XP machine once, and was able to read it on a different machine running Win 7. I copied all of the files to the Win 7 machine, reformatted and reloaded the files. I was then able to access the drive on the XP machine.
 

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