Faulty USB Drive

katvn · 03-26-2007, 06:27 PM

Hi, I have a thumb drive which has worked fine up until a week ago. Now when I plug it in, the computer recognises that I have plugged in a USB drive, but no drive letter shows up to access it. I tried it on another computer and the same thing happened. It shows up in disk management, yet I still cannot access it or any files.

I really hope someone can help. Do you think the drive has been physically damaged?

**PanamaGal** · 03-26-2007, 07:48 PM

The drive is likely bad. Hopefully it's still under warranty. If not, at least they have become quite inexpensive.

katvn · 03-26-2007, 08:27 PM

I am not worried so much about the drive, I know they come cheap now. But I would really like the data off. I am happy to throw the thing away afterwards.

**smz** · 03-27-2007, 04:45 AM

Stupid question but is the drive showing up as Healthy in the disk manager on the second machine? If so is when you right click, do you have the option regarding Change drive letter? That can also mean add or remove. Just curious if you've gone down that path. Also, do you have a program like partition magic? It's a comprehensive version of windows disk manager but sometimes can tell you a few more things or correct the partition table if it was detected incorrectly. Finally, once in a while a partition could simply be in Hidden Mode. PqMagic has the option of unhiding as well. Though with a thumb drive, it's doubtful.

katvn · 03-27-2007, 05:25 PM

The drive did show up as healthy in Disk Management, but I had no options available. I came to the unfortunate conclusion that the drive was dead :( So I changed my tack, and started to try my luck with data recovery. Most programs can't help because they only recover deleted files, not dead or damaged drives. I found a wonderful program called iRecover http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm It recovered all my files and I bought a new drive :) The only thing is that now I am too tight to pay the money for the program, so I am stuck recovering the folders one at a time

Thanks for your help!

03-26-2007, 06:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
katvn Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Faulty USB Drive Hi, I have a thumb drive which has worked fine up until a week ago. Now when I plug it in, the computer recognises that I have plugged in a USB drive, but no drive letter shows up to access it. I tried it on another computer and the same thing happened. It shows up in disk management, yet I still cannot access it or any files. I really hope someone can help. Do you think the drive has been physically damaged?

03-26-2007, 07:48 PM	#2 (permalink)
PanamaGal Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Panama Posts: 1,240 OS: WinXP Pro SP2; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista Ultimate; Vista Business	Re: Faulty USB Drive The drive is likely bad. Hopefully it's still under warranty. If not, at least they have become quite inexpensive. __________________ It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

03-26-2007, 08:27 PM	#3 (permalink)
katvn Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Re: Faulty USB Drive I am not worried so much about the drive, I know they come cheap now. But I would really like the data off. I am happy to throw the thing away afterwards.

03-27-2007, 04:45 AM	#4 (permalink)
smz Hardware Tech Specialist Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 705 OS: Mac OS X / W2K3 Server / XP Home/MCE/Pro / Vista Ultimate / Ubuntu Linux My System	Re: Faulty USB Drive Stupid question but is the drive showing up as Healthy in the disk manager on the second machine? If so is when you right click, do you have the option regarding Change drive letter? That can also mean add or remove. Just curious if you've gone down that path. Also, do you have a program like partition magic? It's a comprehensive version of windows disk manager but sometimes can tell you a few more things or correct the partition table if it was detected incorrectly. Finally, once in a while a partition could simply be in Hidden Mode. PqMagic has the option of unhiding as well. Though with a thumb drive, it's doubtful. __________________ {{{{ Scott - 25+ Years HW & SW Expertise - Dos, Linux, Mac OS X, & Windows }}}} Abit IP35 / Core 2 Quad Q6600 / APC 650 UPS / Antec 900 ATX w/Antec Trio 550 PS XFX GeForce 8400GS w/512MB / 320GB Maxtor SATA II HD / 4GB Corsair CAS4 DDR2 HP Laser P1006 & PS 2610 / D-Link DGL-4500 Router / Dell 24" LCD / Asus G1 Laptop

03-27-2007, 05:25 PM	#5 (permalink)
katvn Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 3 OS: XP	Re: Faulty USB Drive The drive did show up as healthy in Disk Management, but I had no options available. I came to the unfortunate conclusion that the drive was dead :( So I changed my tack, and started to try my luck with data recovery. Most programs can't help because they only recover deleted files, not dead or damaged drives. I found a wonderful program called iRecover http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/irecover.htm It recovered all my files and I bought a new drive :) The only thing is that now I am too tight to pay the money for the program, so I am stuck recovering the folders one at a time Thanks for your help!