flash drive all of a sudden not recognised by windows

[AustinInDallas]

So my driver worked yesterday. not today

When i plug it in nothing happens.
windows explorer does not see it

disk management DOES see it, and i get an initialize disk prompt. Both MBR and GPT partition styles fail and i get a "THE DEVICE IS NO READY" pop up

it shows up as disk 2 "unknown" and "not initialized"
any ideas how to save it? no physical damage. I did format it a few weeks ago

thanks

 

[AustinInDallas]

Also in cmd, diskpart sees it, but shows it as zero mb. Let's me clean, but not partition or format

 

[Bubbaleone]

Try assigning a drive letter, using Disk Management. If the drive isn't currently assigned a drive letter then it's unmounted, and Windows sees an unformatted drive.

 

[AustinInDallas]

Try assigning a drive letter, using Disk Management. If the drive isn't currently assigned a drive letter then it's unmounted, and Windows sees an unformatted drive.

how do you do that when it doesnt show up as a volume?

 

[Bubbaleone]

Before going to more complicated fixes try this; Disconnect the flash drive, open a command prompt and type in; diskpart, press enter. At the diskpart prompt type in; automount enable, press enter.

Exit out of diskpart then command prompt, and reboot. Post back with what happenened when you connected the drive, after booting back into Windows.

 

[corkyg]

This is getting too complicated too fast. There are two easy steps that should precede all diskpart, etc. Try a different flash drive in the port in question. If it too fails, chances are the problem is the USB port.

And, try the so-called defective flash drive in a different port, or, better yet, a different machine. If no go there, chances are it died. Yes, flash drives do die.

Then start all the recovery processes.

 

[Bubbaleone]

This is getting too complicated too fast. There are two easy steps that should precede all diskpart, etc. Try a different flash drive in the port in question. If it too fails, chances are the problem is the USB port.

And, try the so-called defective flash drive in a different port, or, better yet, a different machine. If no go there, chances are it died. Yes, flash drives do die.

Then start all the recovery processes.

Please explain what it is that you find "getting too complicated too fast" about spending thirty seconds to open a command prompt, type three words, and reboot the computer. If you feel the need to critique my suggestions in the future, PM me.

 

[corkyg]

Why not determine whether or not the port is good or bad first?

Sorry if you thought I was "critiquing" your suggestions - my poor choice of words.

I have several clients for whom the command prompt is a foreign country.

Peace!

 

[AustinInDallas]

Before going to more complicated fixes try this; Disconnect the flash drive, open a command prompt and type in; diskpart, press enter. At the diskpart prompt type in; automount enable, press enter.

Exit out of diskpart then command prompt, and reboot. Post back with what happenened when you connected the drive, after booting back into Windows.

already tried all that... it shows up as disk 2 in cmd, but has a size of zero b and a free space of zero b

 

[AustinInDallas]

This is getting too complicated too fast. There are two easy steps that should precede all diskpart, etc. Try a different flash drive in the port in question. If it too fails, chances are the problem is the USB port.

And, try the so-called defective flash drive in a different port, or, better yet, a different machine. If no go there, chances are it died. Yes, flash drives do die.

Then start all the recovery processes.

lol. i tried other usb ports on this computer, and others before posting here.

oh, and also the power cord is plugged in. That should really be the first thing to check before things get too complicated

 

[Red Squirrel]

It could be you've hit the write limit on it, and it just so happened that when you did, it was in the middle of writing to the file allocation table so it just corrupted the whole thing. Just a guess though... I've had them die on me from reaching the write limit but they never go undetected, you can see the files that were there, and you just get an error in the middle of copying the file, and may end up with a couple foreign file names in the same folder.

 

[AustinInDallas]

It could be you've hit the write limit on it, and it just so happened that when you did, it was in the middle of writing to the file allocation table so it just corrupted the whole thing. Just a guess though... I've had them die on me from reaching the write limit but they never go undetected, you can see the files that were there, and you just get an error in the middle of copying the file, and may end up with a couple foreign file names in the same folder.

so that just kills it?...dead?....no defibrillation?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yep. Though it's the first time I hear of it actually causing it to be completely inaccessible though, so I don't know if that's really what happened, but I would not rule it out.

I've killed many 32GB flash drives before I built my HTPC. I used to just put a movie on it and use the SneakerNet(tm) system and plug it directly into the TV. After about 50+ movies (4GB+) being added/deleted over time it would be dead.

 

[VirtualLarry]

try wiping it with vconsole.com 's USB flash drive tester program, if you just want to try to save the drive and not the data.

 

[AustinInDallas]

Yep. Though it's the first time I hear of it actually causing it to be completely inaccessible though, so I don't know if that's really what happened, but I would not rule it out.

its not 100% inaccessible. diskpart in cmd kinda sees it, and when i plug it in, i get the windows noise

 

[AustinInDallas]

 

[fitzm]

Nice Lighthouse. The same thing happened to me over past couple years. Seems when yanking drive out it sometimes does it. Recognizes the drive on different port but with W7 wanting to "Repair" it-DON'T EVER PICK THIS OPTION! Just cancel prompt out and data has always still been there afterwards. Prompt to 'repair' is ALWAYS prevalent though. Now, I'm spooked to treating flash drives as Apple does and I dismount b4 yanking most of the time.