Ronino
asked on
USB flash drive - partition not recognized
I have an 8Gb Corsair Voyager thumb drive, worked fine for about a year, not a glitch.
One day, out of the blue, unreadable.
Device manager recognizes it as Mass Storage Device / Generic Volume
But Disk Management snap-in says "Disk 1, removable, unreadable".
And in My Computer it shows up as "Removable Disk". When I double-click, it says "please insert disk into drive E:".
So far PC Inspector Smart Recovery, Easy Recovery Pro, Recuva, don't seem to be working. OnTrack Data Recovery Pro, it seems, doesn't do flash drives at all.
I don't really care about the drive - but the data on it was not backed up. That WAS the backup. What are my chances and options to try data recovery?
One day, out of the blue, unreadable.
Device manager recognizes it as Mass Storage Device / Generic Volume
But Disk Management snap-in says "Disk 1, removable, unreadable".
And in My Computer it shows up as "Removable Disk". When I double-click, it says "please insert disk into drive E:".
So far PC Inspector Smart Recovery, Easy Recovery Pro, Recuva, don't seem to be working. OnTrack Data Recovery Pro, it seems, doesn't do flash drives at all.
I don't really care about the drive - but the data on it was not backed up. That WAS the backup. What are my chances and options to try data recovery?
ASKER
That is another one that I tried... no luck
Try changing the drive letters. Right click on my computer and go to Manage. Click on Disk Management and you should see your USB drive below. Make sure the drive your clicking on is the right one by comparing size and everything. Right click on the drive and choose Change driver letter and paths. Then change the drive letter to something else. This will make sure nothing is interfering with the drive read. happens a lot with network drives interfering with the USB drives.
Get a LiveCD of Knoppix or something. See if you can get it from there.
Try it on another computer too.
Clean USB's contacts with cotton bud & a drop of (alcohol) cleaning fluid .
I would also reinstall USB controller drivers. First check the drive on any other PC to see that your USB bus controller is not the problem. If other PCs see your drive well and work with it then you need uninstall USB bus via Device Manager, then restart Windows and let it install them again.
ASKER
Thanks guys
I have tried the USB drive on several computers, one of them a brand new laptop. I've also tried other USB drives on my main machine, and they work. [I think that rules out dirty contacts, bad USB bus drivers...]
Will try Knoppix and... changing the drive letter, and will post results.
I have tried the USB drive on several computers, one of them a brand new laptop. I've also tried other USB drives on my main machine, and they work. [I think that rules out dirty contacts, bad USB bus drivers...]
Will try Knoppix and... changing the drive letter, and will post results.
Well, being you've tried it on other computers, I'm venturing to bet that it is done, but Knoppix would be the last resort. It's a different OS entirely, and I've seen it pick things up that Windows just won't see. Man, I wish you the best.
ASKER
Ok, MrMintanet, you are very comforting :) Thank you - and for the suggestions, too. Knoppix couldn't read the drive either.
Any other suggestions, anybody else?
And why would it die / how can I prevent other flash drives from dying? There was no shock / EMP / untimely unplugging from a PC during a file transfer / no formatting... and it was fairly new.
Any other suggestions, anybody else?
And why would it die / how can I prevent other flash drives from dying? There was no shock / EMP / untimely unplugging from a PC during a file transfer / no formatting... and it was fairly new.
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GetDataBack for FAT
Free at the above URL. Not sure how long it will be there, though.