Hi, My brother's usb flash drive/pendrive is showing no drives when connected to computer. He said it started last week. I've tried to connect the flash drive to my computer but it shows as if it's never been connected. No drives showing. What could have caused this? What to do to bring it back to life?
I'd try plugging a different flash drive into your brother's computer. If that drive is recognized, it would indicate the original flash drive is defective. Over the years, I've had many flash drives stop functioning, they don't last forever. I'm obsessive about backing up, so when that happens I just destroy the drive and replace it. They're too cheap to waste time trying to resurrect them. I'm guessing it is defective because it is also not recognized in your computer.
@LenC I've tried plugging my flash drive into his computer. It works fine. And his flash drive doesn't work in either his or my computer. Has the flash drive died? Or is there any way to revive it? I've scanned it with WSA, MBAM and HMP. But no drive shows so I've scanned the whole computer with them and the flash drive plugged in. No malware or threat found.
It sounds pretty dead to me. Someone else more knowledgeable than myself might offer an idea to get it working again. But even if you do get it working again, you shouldn't trust it or continue to use it. I would pull important files from it and retire it.
I've had this issue before. There are some obscure USB partitioning/repair programs floating around on the internet that will fix it. I don't remember which ones I've used but I know you can fix it (provided your's is a similar issue), so get to googling. I think I also may have used a bootable linux distro and GParted to reformat the drive as well.
I had a couple of USB sticks dying suddenly. No way you can fix them as no bootable CD or OS will be able to see them. I don't trust USB flash memory sticks anymore.
I trust them - but just a little I might use them to transfer data or some other TEMPORARY use. I never store anything important on them.
@LenC Thank you for the advice. I have asked my brother and he said all the files were fortunately backed up in the hdd of his pc. @CrusherW9 Okay I'll try Googling. But that would lead me to sites with complex guides. I wanted to get a simple and easy guide here in the Wilders. @aigle That's just sad. Flash drives should last sometime. The flash drive in question has lived like six years or so. They are cheap nowadays. But he wanted to make it live.
Life Expectancy of a USB Flash Drive: The life expectancy of a USB Flash Drive can be measured by the number of write or erase cycles. USB flash drives can withstand between 10,000 to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the memory technology used. When the limit is reached, some portion of the memory may not function properly, leading to lost of data and corruption. Should You Use Flash Drives to Store Important Files? The best usage of flash drives is to copy and transfer files from one computer to another. If you want to use it to store important files such as family photos and videos, it is recommended to make duplicate copies. http://www.flashbay.com/blog/usb-life-expectancy
6 years! You are lucky. None of my flash drives lasted so many years. Don't waste your time over it I think.
Not just cheap in price but cheap in quality and reliability too. They were never designed to be used for permanent storage. More for transporting files from home to work for THAT day only. I'm with aigle - I don't trust them either. I use them while troubleshooting computers when I make house calls because they are easier (most of the time) than using bootable DVDs, but I never use them to store any valuable files for any length of time.
@Compu KTed Okay understood. Thanks for the advice. Good thing my brother didn't use the pendrive for backing up files. Only as a mean to carry files and use them on pcs. @aigle Yeah you're right. Better get him a new one. @Bill Bright Point taken. Thanks.