Any chance of recovering dead flash drive?

[hamstar]

Hey guys,

Got.. well, had me a dse flash drive - chip brand OTi, and samsung. Unfortunately now it has died.

Did say not recognised on my dads xp machine, nothings comes up in my linux - even on lsusb, and neither my brothers computer nor the ones at work will read it.

But I can't remember if there was anything important on it.. (and it's not really mine)

So I was wondering if there is a trick to fix em, or recover data like say... sticking it in a freezer? ;-) I doubt that tho...

Cheers,
hamstar

[Speedy Gonzales]

Is it still under warranty? If it is, take it back.

[hamstar]

mmm doubt it... but, the guy who owns it does work for dse and is how he got it, but he opened it and probably statisized the components leading to its downfall...

[kingdragonfly]

I'm guessing unerase utilities would recovered accidently deleted files, like any hard drive, but I think "dead is dead."

It's not like a bad hard drive, where companies specialize in replacing motors and bearings to resurrect 'em. I’m not even sure if trace charges are left on the memory chips.

[Graham L]

Usually, what is lost is the simple FAt directory. The data are still intact. There are recovery programmes ... one of the (more expensive) manufacturers used to provide one with the unit ... but I think they charge for it if you haven't bought their drive. But there will be free ones, and some which you pay for if a demo version shows a useful amount recoverable.

If you've got a Linux box which has used one of these devices, so you know what "/dev/..." it uses you can try dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=512 | strings ("/dev/sda1" only as an example ...) which will give an indication of what text files there are.

[hamstar]

sweet thanks dude... give that a try when I get home.

[braindead]

I don't know how different these USB drives are to the USB SD memory cards in digital cameras. When I accidentally scrubbed the images off my SD card, I used THIS (http://www.objectrescue.com/products/photorescuepro/) program to bring them back from the dead. Pics are just data, so it may work for flash drives.

[somebody]

My USB drive died this morning.... I decided that i'd try 2 computers... then dunk the USB plug part into isopropyl alcohol several times to try and clean off any potential debris.... then dried it... tried it again - didn't work...then stuck it in the freezer for a fe wminutes... didn't work.... went back to isopropyl alcohol... dried it off with the heat coming out of my CPU fan.... tried again... didn't work.

Put it down on my desk. Started hunting for a replacement drive online.... tried it again - and it works now. Absolutely no idea what the problem was, or how I fixed it.

[zqwerty]

A discontinuity in the space time continuum????

[braindead]

Copy your flash drive data to your hard drive. Format the flash drive. Reinstall the data. Maybe keep an encrypted copy of the data on your HD, if necessary.

:)

[somebody]

My USB drive died this morning.... I decided that i'd try 2 computers... then dunk the USB plug part into isopropyl alcohol several times to try and clean off any potential debris.... then dried it... tried it again - didn't work...then stuck it in the freezer for a fe wminutes... didn't work.... went back to isopropyl alcohol... dried it off with the heat coming out of my CPU fan.... tried again... didn't work.

Put it down on my desk. Started hunting for a replacement drive online.... tried it again - and it works now. Absolutely no idea what the problem was, or how I fixed it.

AARGHHH.. it's died again.

[Speedy Gonzales]

I had a similar prob with this digital cam, it wasnt completely dead tho.

It did everything BUT take photos.

After 5-6 emails to Creative, something stuffed up the internal memory whatever you call it.

All I had to do was format it in XP lol.

[somebody]

My problem is that windows says: "USB Device Not Recognised" and hence a drive letter does not appear.

[Speedy Gonzales]

You could try whats here (http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20790258.html) Or reinstall XP/Windows.

Even tho u may not have a camera, the following may apply.

Step 1: Remove Hidden Devices

1. Click Start. Click Run. Type cmd and press OK.
2. Type "set DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS=1" (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Type "set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1" (without quotation marks) and Press Enter.
4. Type "start devmgmt.msc" (without quotation marks) and click press Enter.
5. Click View. Click Show hidden devices.
6. Click "+" to expand Imaging devices, Unknown devices and USB devices.
7. Are there any digital camera devices and unknown devices (including grayed out devices)? If so, please right click it and click Uninstall.

Step 2: Remove all oem*.inf files

=========================

1. Click start and click run then under the run line type in the command "cmd" (without the quotation marks)

2. In the command line, type in the following (without the quotes) and press enter after each command:

"cd \windows\inf"
"ren infcache.1 *.old"
"ren oem*.inf *.old"
"del C:\windows\setupapi.log"
"exit"

Step 3: Removing all entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Enum/USB that start with VID

================================================== ================

Removing the VID entries from the registry will cause them to be redetected at restart.

CAUTION: If you have a USB keyboard or mouse, do not remove the VID entry for these devices, otherwise, Windows may not restart correctly.

1. Click Start and click Run. Type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.

2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\U SB.

3. Highlight and delete all the VID_.... entries.

Permissions may be set allowing the deletion of the VID_ entries by following the steps below:

a) Right-click the key to be deleted, and then click Permissions. The VID_... Permissions window will open.
b) With Everyone highlighted in the Group or User name section, select Full Control in the Permissions section.
c) Click Apply, and then click OK.

4. Turn off the computer.

Step 4: Reconnect the digital camera to the computer system:

=============================

1. With the computer system turned off, reconnect the Sony DSC-P50 camera to the USB port.
2. Restart the computer.
3. After the Windows operating system has finished restarting, plug the digital camera into the electrical outlet.
4. A New Hardware Detected window should open and reload the drivers.

[hamstar]

thats not much help if EVEN linux can't see it tho eh?

[Speedy Gonzales]

Well either get another flash drive or reinstall windows.

BUT it sounds like the flash drive is screwed.