USB stick no longer recognised

I have an 8GB Transcend USB stick which - as of yesterday - is no longer recognised as such. When I plug into a USB port it shows as a new drive but clicking on the drive in Windows (XP) Explorer brings up the message "Please insert a disk into drive X:".

Looking at the drive Properties shows Type: Removable Disk, File System: Unknown, Capacity: 0 bytes.

Is there any way of rescuing this drive - more specifically the data on it?

TIA

paoloricardo

Posted 2011-08-24T23:53:59.543

Reputation: 141

possible duplicate of USB flash drive no longer works and is not recognized by software, Disk Management reports "No Media" with 0 bytes size

– bwDraco – 2015-02-01T14:41:20.693

@DragonLord - according to the accepted answer, it looks like this one isn't a duplicate. Might want to add the accepted answer to the list in yours. – fixer1234 – 2015-03-07T07:21:49.580

Unfortunately, electrostatic charges can cause this, and I've noticed it more frequently with less expensive models (I've found Transcend's products to be in the "high quality" category). I'm hoping that someone will recommend some software that can attempt a recovery from these types of devices as I have use for it too. Good question (+1). – Randolf Richardson – 2011-08-25T00:02:34.217

1Have you tried the stick in another computer? – BillP3rd – 2011-08-25T01:27:25.313

Here is a discussion you might be interested in, they're talking about an external hard-drive but most of the same concepts should be the same. Also check this out. – John – 2011-08-25T01:44:38.587

@BillP3rd - yes, tried it in different USB ports on 2 different laptops. – paoloricardo – 2011-08-26T01:13:06.203

@johnthexiii - the JetFlash Online Recovery service will wipe the disk first so the data is gone. However if doing that will restore the USB stick I'll give it a try. Thanks. – paoloricardo – 2011-08-26T01:16:37.167

Answers

Well, that's very interesting. I've just launched the Disk Management service in the Computer Management console and the USB drive is recognised and shown as healthy. I had changed the drive letter to Z a couple of weeks ago and I guess Windows Explorer, for some reason, hadn't recognised the change.

Anyway the USB stick is now shown in Windows Explorer (as drive Z), and PhotoRec now 'sees' the USB stick.

Thanks to all who responded.

paoloricardo

Posted 2011-08-24T23:53:59.543

Reputation: 141

If the partitioning has been corrupted you may be able to recover the stick using this HP utility:

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197

NB: This will wipe the stick so if you want to try some data recovery first this might help if it can see anything on the stick:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

PhotoRec works with hard disks, CD-ROMs, memory cards (Compact Flash, Memory Stick, SecureDigital/SD, SmartMedia, Microdrive, MMC, etc.), USB memory drives, DD raw image, EnCase E01 image, etc.

Linker3000

Posted 2011-08-24T23:53:59.543

Reputation: 25 670

"Photorec ignores the file system, this way it works even if the file system is severely damaged." That sounds like it could be a possible solution especially as Windows is reporting the USB file system as unknown. Thanks. – paoloricardo – 2011-08-26T01:20:03.157

Unfortunately PhotoRec doesn't 'see' the USB stick - it only 'sees' my internal HDD. – paoloricardo – 2011-08-26T01:28:16.237

Try with Transcend recovery tool - usually it helps http://www.transcend-info.com/products/online_recovery_2.asp

Nenad Bulatovic

Posted 2011-08-24T23:53:59.543

Reputation: 528