Restoring USB flash drives has its own characteristics. The good news is that these devices, unlike SD cards, are repairable. Therefore, if you cannot exchange a flash drive under warranty, why not take advantage of the 60-70% chance to have it repaired.
The article will discuss various cases, typical problems associated with flash drive failure, and options for solving them.
Recover data or repair a flash drive?
These are not the same thing, although the concepts are interrelated.
The main task that the repair solves is to restore the functionality of the flash drive so that it:
- was defined as a storage device in Disk Management,
- was correctly defined in Explorer,
- read and wrote data.
As a result usb repair A flash drive can easily lose all the data on it, but it will still be available for writing and reading.
File recovery is only possible on a working USB flash drive.
The main reasons for failure of a USB flash drive
How to understand that a USB flash drive needs repair:
- When a flash drive is connected, the LED on its case does not light up;
- The device is not recognized on another computer/laptop;
- The flash drive is detected as an unidentified usb device.
Damaging a USB drive is as easy as shelling pears. Like any physical device, flash memory is subject to external influences (shock, thermal effects, water ingress, etc.). In addition, there are a number software errors, due to which the flash drive does not work.
The contacts of the USB connector are damaged
Often, the problem lies in a damaged contact between the controller and the USB connector.
How to check. To check the flash drive for this problem, test it on another computer. Alternatively, insert another flash drive (if available) into the USB port of the same computer.
If other flash drives can be read on a PC without problems, the problem is probably in the current storage medium.
If you are unable to read data from a flash drive only on this computer, the problem may be in the USB sockets motherboard PC or laptop.
How to fix.
- Here is a link to a third-party guide on how to repair a USB connector: DIY USB connector repair on a laptop.
- If you don't want to fiddle with wires, it's better to give away a PC or flash drive with a broken usb port for repairs. The approximate cost of USB replacement is $20–50.
Hardware/mechanical problem: controller damaged
Most often, everything depends on the flash drive controller, which is the main link in the operation of the drive. The controller contains important microcircuits, and disconnecting a contact or burning out a leg will make data recovery on a flash drive very problematic.
How to fix a flash drive.
- Replace the controller yourself (which is unrealistic at home).
- Take the USB drive to a service center - but repairing the flash memory will cost a lot of money. You won't find a controller for a USB flash drive on sale. The laboratory can find a donor flash drive and “transplant” the faulty controller.
- If the data stored on a flash drive is vital and you would like to recover it, the laboratory may use an expensive hardware and software system to retrieve the data bypassing the hardware controller.
You can find out the cost of services directly from specialists at a company that repairs flash drives in your city. It can start from $30 and go up to $500 - 1000.
Reflashing a damaged flash drive
The USB flash drive contains firmware - microcode with service data. If the USB firmware is damaged, the USB flash drive will inevitably stop working.
How to fix. Such a flash drive cannot be formatted using ordinary universal software like SDFormatter; it will require complete “trephination” - flashing. To do this, you will need a proprietary utility from the manufacturer.
However, you can reflash the flash drive only by finding out the name of the controller. The difficulty is that manufacturers, as a rule, use different types and models of controllers and can implement not only their own, but also other people’s developments. Therefore, it is not always possible to immediately determine the type of flash memory controller.
Fortunately, there are special programs that allow you to determine the VID&PID* type for Transcend, Silicon Power, etc. drives; We will list them with a link to the installers.
(* VID – manufacturer identifier, PID – device identifier.)
After the warranty repair, all the photos on the smartphone and on the SD card disappeared.
Answer. A very vague question. Produced warranty repair what - mobile device or memory cards? All your claims against the performers are governed by your contract.
As for data recovery on an SD card, use specialized applications, which, in fact, are what this site is dedicated to.
A 2GB flash card from an old Nokia phone, the phone sees the flash drive perfectly, the tablet and other phones do not see it. My equipment sees other people's flash cards.
Answer. If other flash cards do not open on your, as you say, old Nokia, it is most likely because the phone simply does not support new technologies. Review the documentation and specifications for your device. Perhaps it's time to upgrade your hardware?
My 32GB micro flash drive broke in half. How can I recover information on this flash drive? Please tell me where and who can help me, how to fix the flash drive?
Answer. Alas, this flash drive cannot be repaired or at least somehow reanimated. If the firmware on your flash drive crashed, then you could give it some chance of recovery. As for physical damage, it all depends on the damage. If the flash memory chips are intact, you can read the data through a PC 3000 Flash reader, etc.
Only Possible Solution(if the files are not particularly important) – purchase a new microSD card.
The flash drive does not open, does not appear as removable drive, does not appear in Device Manager. Physical impact is excluded, because There are three such flash drives, different people worked with them.
Answer. You haven't specified the type of memory you are working with. In any case, if a flash drive or SD card does not open, I would advise checking the operation of the flash card on other devices. Test it on other phones or devices that you can connect it to. If it is an SD card, try connecting it to your PC via a card reader.
Check if the connected device is detected in Device Manager. If yes, use any disk partitioning program or standard Windows tools, or proprietary software available on the flash drive developer’s website to format the flash drive in NTFS or FAT.
While formatting the flash drive (transcend), the flash drive was pulled out from the PC. It was clear that it would no longer work, a check confirmed this. The computer does not detect the flash drive, the indicator blinks all the time, it is not in “my computer”, it is in the device manager, it says that it works fine, it is defined as a storage device. Help me restore the transcend flash drive!
Answer. The file table on your flash drive is probably damaged. You can still restore the operation of a flash drive if you create a partition on it and format it. You can revive a flash drive, as already mentioned, using specialized utilities like Acronis Disc Director, etc., but it is best to use the TestDisk application to partition and restore a transcend flash drive.
The flash drive was encrypted in TrueCrypt, I reinstalled the OS, mounted the flash drive, the files were displayed, but when I tried to open them, it gave me an error - access denied. Tell me, is it possible to save information if the flash drive is not detected after encryption?
Answer. You will need a client program to work with Truecrypt. Alas, on this moment The truecrypt.org website is unavailable and the project itself is closed. So try to find the application somewhere on the Internet. After this, when opening files, you will be required to enter a password to access your files.
The flash drive is reset and the system requires formatting the flash drive, but I need to save very important and expensive files. Help!
Answer. Under no circumstances agree to format your flash drive! Instead, use data recovery software and try to recover the missing partition on your storage device. You can safely copy all saved information to HDD and then search among these rubble for exactly what you need.
There is a JetFlash Transcend 8GB flash drive. No longer determined by the system. I formatted it with JetFlash Online Recovery and it deleted all data from the flash drive. Is it now possible to recover the Transcend flash drive, that is, the data on it?
Answer. The Unformat program is suitable for restoring a Transcend flash drive. The chances of recovery depend on the depth of formatting. Anyway, use the deep scan option. Alternatively, try Recuva with a similar scanning option.
Sooner or later, most users encounter a situation where the flash drive is displayed incorrectly (here you can try formatting first) or the information on it suddenly disappears. But do not despair - it is likely that you yourself will be able to revive the device and successfully restore the photos and documents stored on it or “bring to life” the file system.
Thanks to our recommendations, you can save not only on the services of a specialist, but also on special programs- we will consider exclusively free software for repairing flash drives. However, it is also worth keeping in mind that for devices from different manufacturers There are different utilities.
If you don't know the model of your USB drive
do the following:
Go to the Start menu and in the “Run” line write mmc devmgmt.msc, then press Enter. Under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, find your USB Mass Storage Device, select it, and click right click mice. Open Properties, then go to the Details tab and in the dropdown select Device Instance Code (or Hardware Codes). Write down or remember the PID and VID.
Then go to the FlashBoot.ru website and enter the VID and PID data in the special field. After this, you will receive information about your device and the utilities that are best suited to repair it.
Recovering a Transcend flash drive
To restore devices of this brand, the official Transcend RecoveRx utility is best suited. With its help, you can conduct an in-depth search for already deleted files, which you can later also recover: photos, documents, audio and video files.
By the way, RecoveRx supports all types of storage devices, including memory cards, MP3 players and external hard disks. This program works extremely simply - you just need to specify the type of files or select all.
The second method is online recovery of flash drives from the JetFlash Transcend series. To use it, you must download JetFlash Online Recovery (you must have an active Internet connection). Once launched, the tool will automatically restore all your data.
Silicon Power flash drive recovery
If you have a Silicon Power flash drive, you are in luck - the manufacturer cooperates with Recuva. File Recovery tool provides clear interface, will allow you to quickly scan your device and mark those that are subject to reincarnation. You can read more about the operating features of this program.
Kingston flash drive recovery
If you have lost files on media from this company, a flash drive recovery utility can also help you. If you have problems with the operation of the device, then most likely you will have to format it, and this cannot be done Windows tool, and the official Kingston Format Utility. Just launch it, select your device and click “Format”.
Recovering a SanDisk flash drive
USB drives from SanDisk have a five-year warranty, so if you suddenly encounter problems, feel free to go to the store or contact the manufacturer (e-mail.
Comfy.ua
First, do some basic steps to eliminate typical problems on the computer side. Connect your device via a different USB port. If it doesn't help, restart your computer.
If the system does not respond at all to connecting a flash drive, first read.
Check the drive for programs that may interfere with its correct operation using .
Following further instructions, you can only restore the functionality of the flash drive itself, but not the information on it. If the USB device does not store important data, then feel free to continue.
Otherwise, first try to recover the information using . And only then follow the steps listed below to repair the drive itself.
Use the flash drive repair program from the manufacturer. Transcend, PQI, ADATA and other USB flash drive developers have such utilities. You just need to go to the manufacturer’s official website, find the necessary software there, download it to your computer and use it according to the included instructions.
If the manufacturer of your drive does not provide support software or it does not help, use third party program for repairing flash drives. You are unlikely to find such a utility for macOS; this option is designed for Windows users.
This method can either help or harm the drive. If you're not sure, don't risk it.
The essence of the method is as follows: you need to find out the VID and PID parameters of your drive, use them to find a program compatible with the flash drive and use it for recovery.
To find out the VID and PID, connect the drive to your computer, install the program and run it. In the program window, click on the name of the drive - below you will see the values of the necessary parameters.
To find a suitable utility by VID and PID, copy their values into the appropriate fields on the website and click on the Search button. If information about the model of your flash drive is in the catalog, then among the search results, along with your drive, you will see a link to download a program to repair it.
If none of the above helps and the drive refuses to work on other computers, then try returning it under warranty or contact a service center for help.
Step-by-step instructions for USB recovery flash drives in which I will try to answer the question in an accessible language How to recover a flash drive independently and without much effort.
Sometimes you help a person, and then he will tell everyone that you are so good and there are already crowds of people thirsty for help. This is roughly what happened when I restored several flash drives colleagues.
Now the people bear not only their own flash drives, but also flash drives your friends, acquaintances and relatives. Well, at least someone else would bring a bottle of beer or a cookie.
It’s not difficult for me to help, but when I suggest you learn how to do all this yourself, you refuse. Next time I’ll just sew them off. If you don't want to study, pass by.
I’ll finish with the lyrics here and move directly to the topic of the post..
If your flash drive stopped be determined like a disk, doesn't want to formatted, does not allow you to write down information or something else happened to it, BUT it has no mechanical damage, then you know that all is not lost. Most likely a glitch controller and you will have to tinker with it a little. This procedure takes approximately 5 minutes.
I’ll say right away that there is no universal programs For recovery all varieties flash drives. You will need to find exactly the one that can work with your controller. flash drives.
First we need to define VID And PID non-working flash drives.
Determine VID and PID for flash drive recovery
Stick it in flash drive into your computer and run device Manager. Start – Execute - mmc devmgmt.msc.
Then go to the section Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
We find ours in the list flash drive. Usually, everything flash drives have a name USB storage device.
Press the right button on the device and open Properties.
Go to the tab Intelligence.
Select the item from the drop-down list Instance code devices or Equipment IDs.
In this window we see PID And VID.
Finding a flash drive recovery program
We go to the website FlashBoot.ru and enter the received VID And PID.
Click on the button Search.
In the results we look for your manufacturer and model of the flash drive. I have Kingston DataTraveler 2.0.
The right column will contain the name of the program we need or a link to it.
All. Now search in Google program by name or download from the link provided. Launch and follow the instructions. Usually, in such programs for recovery There’s only one button, so you shouldn’t have any questions.
That's all!
If you have any questions, ask in the comments.
USB flash drive - external storage information, working on the principle hard drive. Just like hard drives, flash drives are subject to typical failures associated with short circuits boards, cluster failures and low product quality. When faced with such problems, users are forced to seek the help of specialists to restore the flash drive.
Determining whether a flash drive is inoperable
USB drives were created for the convenience of storing information so that the user could save the necessary file on any computer at any time or exchange the necessary information with another user. It is precisely because of the frequency of use that the media quickly wears out, as a result of which the microcircuits fail, the contact group becomes loose and the computer ceases to recognize the flash drive or identifies it as an unreadable disk.
The main signs of a flash drive failure:
- Frequent file system crashes. Instead of NTFS, FAT32 becomes RAW and unknown file system, as a result of which the user has to format the media, which leads to the complete loss of all information stored on the flash drive.
- The computer detects the media is intermittent.
Treatment of removable media
If the user encounters a problem with his or her removable media, don’t immediately fall into despair and throw away the flash drive. You can try to restore it before throwing it away using various software. Typically, each manufacturer provides for a force majeure event that a buyer of their products may encounter, and issues diagnostic and software to restore a flash drive. You can download the programs on the manufacturer's official website.
There are also universal programs that can try to cope with such a task as curing a flash drive.
Programs for USB recovery:
- SDFormatter performs low-level formatting, the so-called flash drive disinfection, after which you can try to recover files from a working flash drive.
- D-Soft Flash Doctor also deals with low-level formatting, but at the same time it detects damaged sectors and can restore them by reassigning them to backup ones.
- The site is a universal assistant for the user during recovery. The iFlash section has all kinds of programs for any drive.
Data recovery
If the treatment procedure was successful, all the information will remain on the USB drive and you can continue to use it as usual. But if you had to resort to regular or low-level formatting, then after such a procedure all information will be destroyed. You can try to recover the necessary data using special programs:
- Recuva. The program is distributed free of charge. Thanks to a simple, intuitive interface, any user can understand the functionality. But information recovery rates are at a high level.
- Wise Data Recovery allows you to restore from various types media, such as: mp3 player, cameras, phone memory cards.
- Pandora Recovery - lesser known version free program recovery deleted files, but copes with its responsibilities no worse than its more popular counterparts.
Similar programs work according to the same scenario.
A full analysis of the marked disk partitions or selected drives is performed. The user can then select the recovery method - express or manual, and also mark the file types that require attention. After the analysis is completed, the user must select the folder into which the files will be restored and wait for the process to complete.
After which you can check the files for integrity and operability. If the restoration procedure does not produce results, it can be repeated, changing the type of analysis to a deeper one.
If the result is negative again, you can try using another program until the desired result is achieved.
If you use removable storage carefully, choose a well-known company, do not expose the device to external factors and do not insert it into unreliable computers, then the equipment will serve without failures for many years.