How do I repair an unmountable USB flash drive?

[reidun]

Re: How do I repair an unmountable USB flash drive?

It does not show up in Testdisk, but it does in PhotoRec and I was able to recover some old files off it just for kicks. So yeah, I don't know what to call it, and I'm wondering if it doesn't show up, does that mean that it's too dead for the computer to even find it if I did know what to call it. For instance, if i called it the same thing that my working one is called. Or would that work?

[Qqmike]

Re: How do I repair an unmountable USB flash drive?

"For instance, if i called it the same thing that my working one is called. Or would that work?"

You want to be careful NOT to accidentally wipe out your regular hard drive while experimenting like this! Because it didn't show up in TestDisk, I'd be wary of it. Just for kicks, the other acid test would be to see if Knoppix sees it, Knoppix known as a stand-by rescue disk that sees everything. Might be a fun experiment.

But, with flash drives on sale for as low as $2/GB on 4GB-8GB units, I think I'd consider retiring it. I'd say it gave you good service and that old drive doesn't owe you a cent. You wouldn't want to risk your good data/photos on it. Newegg is running a flash drive sale today.

[dibl]

Re: How do I repair an unmountable USB flash drive?

If the device is not even recognized on the USB connection, that means it has a serious failure (not just the memory/media part) -- it has lost its "personality". In other words, it's broken. I'd be taking advantage of that Newegg sale, as Mike suggests, and not spend one more minute on the old dog.

[wtbennington]

Re: How do I repair an unmountable USB flash drive?

I once had a SD card I almost threw away as bad, I was using windows and when I would plug it in it would not be recognized that it was even in the drive. Then I downloaded the following format tool and it found it and formatted it and I have used it every since. I don't know if it will work for you and it is available only under windows.

http://hddguru.com/content/en/softwa...l-Format-Tool/

Good luck, and be carefull.

[reidun]

Re: How do I repair an unmountable USB flash drive?

Ok, I'm going to take the advice to throw it out. As Qqmike said, it doesn't owe me a cent, especially since it was a freebie in the first place. And as he also pointed out, I probably wouldn't want to trust it with any data worth saving anyway. But thanks everybody for all the help that got me to this decision. I don't like throwing away stuff that can still be used, but obviously this one isn't salvageable.

[Snowhog]

Re: How do I repair an unmountable USB flash drive?

Free but dead. Says it all.

At least, during this effort, you've learned some things that will likely serve you well in the future.