USB flash drive not seen by PC

[jeffk]

Acer Aspire 5732Z
Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit, SP1
32GB USB2 thumb/flash drive

Someone removed my 32GB flash drive without using the 'safeley remove hardware.....' function & now it's unreadable. If I plug it into the laptop above the light on the flash drive goes on/off very slowly, & keeps doing that as if the comp's trying to read it. It's listed in Computer as a removable disc, but if i try to access it i just get a "insert disk" message. I've tried it in several comps & even when the comp installs the drivers & tells me the drive's ready to use, it still can't be read.

i guess it's big time corrupted......is there anything i can do about this?

TIA

[miloske]

If you don't have important data on it try formatting it.

Removing a drive without clicking 'safely remove...' usually doesn't create problems, but it can

If you have an access to a Linux machine, or if you can run a live distribution on your's try accessing your drive in that way. Often times Linux is able to read drives that Windows sees as corrupt.

[patio]

Removing a drive without clicking 'safely remove...' usually doesn't create problems, but it can

It does...

[jeffk]

Removing a drive without clicking 'safely remove...' usually doesn't create problems, but it can

Thanks Miloske, but Patio's right, it often does. Even if the drive's finished reading or writing there's still a +/- 0.25 second delay before it's safe to remove it......that's the whole point of the 'safely remove...' dialogue. Mine must have had write caching enabled (default is disabled), though I don't remember doing that.

I've tried formatting it but I just get a "there is no disk in drive..." message. The comp seems to recognise that something's in the port, but isn't able to access it.

Trying it via Linux is a good idea, thanks! I'll post here to say how i get on.

Cheers

[miloske]

It does...

Sure, but it is rare occurrence, at least in my experience. I always click "Safely remove..." when I'm at home, but in both places where I worked I was criticized by senior co-workers for wasting my time with it. In a repair shop where I worked we had 3 flash drives that were being plugged in and out (unsafely) dozens of times every single day and all of them were at least 2 years old. We only formatted when we got them infected. I also have lots of friends who couldn't be bothered with "Safely remove hardware" and only a few of their flash drives had problems.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

Sorry but when a pen drive shows those symptoms the memory chip has failed. Which is pen drive failure, not caused by unplugging when it is not safe to do so. There is nothing that can now be done to get the pen drive to work.
 

[jeffk]

i've tried it in a linux machine, but same symptoms....i guess it's one dead drive!

maybe your right about it being pretty rare, miloske...based on my previous experience i thought so too, but since this happened with mine i've heard or read about quite a few instances of it......?

Lisa, this happened immediately after it was unplugged while still in use & although it was new-ish i'd never had any problems with it before, so it seems a bit coincidental that it would fail just then. why do you think that would happen?

[Geek-9pm]

That has happened to me.  Many times.
Cheap or bogus flash drives are being sold.  That has been discussed on this and many other forums.
Even eBay warns buyers.
BEWARE of FAKE 128GB/256GB USB Flash Drives on eBayeBay

Since October-2006, eBay has decided all sellers could no longer hide their BAD feedbacks. Simply enter seller's eBay ID and watch for Negative/Neutral feedbacks wordings such as 'fake' and 'counterfeit' before buying at (link removed.)
A very high percentage of all USB Flash Drives listed on eBay are counterfeit items and have fake & overstated capacities. Most No Name to 512GB USB Flash Drives are mostly FAKE!