Flash drive shows in My Computer but can't be accessed

I have a flash drive. When I plug it into my (Dell, Windows XP) computer it appears in My Computer as an empty drive - not a disk with no files on, a drive with no disk in! Double-clicking drive J: gives the message "Please insert a disk into drive J" (I get the same if I type in "J:" to the address bar, too...)

Someone suggested going to properties and entering a name but it won't let me type in this box. I've looked in the disk manager and again it appears as an empty drive.

I'm thinking that it might be fried...Can anyone give me any advice on how to either fix it or tell for sure that it's gone?

Mr_Chimp

Posted 2010-01-27T11:51:16.200

Reputation: 183

1"He's dead, Jim" (c) – Art Gertner – 2014-07-09T10:11:03.660

1Have you tried plugging the flash drive into another PC to see whether the problem is reproduceable? (sorry to state the bleedin' obvious if you have tried this already!) – Richard Lucas – 2010-01-27T11:54:45.770

I have and it does the same thing on all other PCs. – Mr_Chimp – 2010-01-27T12:06:29.097

possible duplicate of USB flash drive not working or is appearing as an empty disk drive, Disk Management reports "No Media" with 0 bytes size

– bwDraco – 2015-03-03T05:47:21.623

Answers

I would think your drive is not formatted.

Under Windows 7 I would recommend the computer management, with its disk section, where you could look at the drive and its partitions.

Try to add a new partition with any program you like, it should work then.

FreXxX

Posted 2010-01-27T11:51:16.200

Reputation: 19

-1

You could try a product like File Scavenger from Quetek

The version available for download is a trial version that at least tells you whether it can find anything. You can then decide if it's worth purchasing.

There are other products out there for recovering data, just that I have used both of Quetek's products for both flash and hard drives and had good rates of recovery for hard drives, mixed results with flash drives.

They have quick guide on recovery recommendations.

Enigman

Posted 2010-01-27T11:51:16.200

Reputation: 737