What are some common reasons why USB flash drives may stop working?

Incorrect usage: USB flash drives are sensitive to power surges and can be easily damaged if plugged in or unplugged while the computer is on. File system corruption: USB flash drives can become corrupted if they are not properly formatted or if the file system becomes corrupted. Physical damage: USB flash drives are prone to physical damage if dropped, stepped on, or exposed to extreme temperatures. Wear and tear: Over time, the components inside a USB flash drive can wear out and cause it to stop working. Malware: Malware can infect a USB flash drive and cause it to stop working.

What steps can you take to diagnose issues with a USB flash drive?

Check the USB port to make sure it is properly connected and that the drive is firmly inserted. Check the USB port for any physical damage or corrosion. Check the USB flash drive for any physical damage or corrosion. Try connecting the USB flash drive to a different computer or device to see if it works. Check the device manager of the computer to see if the USB flash drive is listed and if there are any error messages associated with it. Run a disk check on the USB flash drive to check for any errors or corrupted files. Try reformatting the USB flash drive to see if that resolves the issue.

What is the difference between a physical and logical failure in a USB flash drive?

A physical failure in a USB flash drive is a failure of the actual hardware components of the drive, such as the casing, connectors, or circuit board. A logical failure is a failure of the software or firmware on the drive, such as a corrupted file system or bad sectors.

What is the purpose of chkdsk and how can it be used to repair a USB flash drive?

Chkdsk (check disk) is a command line utility used to check and repair the file system of a storage device. It can be used to repair a USB flash drive by detecting and fixing errors on the drive's file system. It can also be used to scan for bad sectors and attempt to recover any data that may have been lost due to corruption or damage.

What is the recommended way to back up data on a USB flash drive before attempting repairs?

The recommended way to back up data on a USB flash drive before attempting repairs is to use a reliable data backup program such as Acronis True Image or EaseUS Todo Backup. These programs allow you to create a complete image of your USB flash drive, including all the files and settings. This ensures that you have a complete copy of your data, in case anything goes wrong during the repair process.

Fixing a Faulty USB Flash Drive: A Comprehensive Tutorial

Author: Vladimir Artiukh
Editor: Oleg Afonin
Updated: 8.05.2024 14:59

Discover the essential guide to repairing a USB flash drive in this comprehensive tutorial. If you’ve encountered issues with your flash drive, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered with expert solutions and step-by-step instructions to restore functionality to your device.

Fixing a Faulty USB Flash Drive: A Comprehensive Tutorial

Quite often the file system comes to be recognized as RAW, the flash drive cannot be formatted or even accesses… What can be done if that is your problem?

This manual for repairing a flash drive is intended to deal with all sorts of USB drive issues except cases of mechanical damage. The drive manufacturer does not matter, in fact, be it Kingston, Silicon Power, Transced, Data Traveler, A-Data etc. All actions to be taken are given step by step.

Contents

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How to Fix Flash Drive Errors: The Drive Can’t Be Recognized, Wrong Size, RAW File System 🛠️👨‍💻🤔

Getting To Know Flash Drive Parameters (Manufacturer, Controller Model, Memory Size)

It may seem very easy to know the flash drive parameters, especially when the manufacturer and memory size are specified on the drive case. The matter is that USB drives, even belonging to one model range and made by one manufacturer can have different controllers. Hence, a simple conclusion – in order to repair a flash drive you need to know exactly the controller model so that you can select the right fixing utility.

To determine the controller model there are special digital and letter values set by parameters of VID and PID.

VID – vendor ID (manufacturer identifier);
PID – Product ID (product identifier, i.e. identifier of a particular model);

These will be different for various controllers!

If you are not going to waste your USB drive, do not use utilities which are designed for VID/PID other than yours. Very often, a wrongly chosen utility can “kill” your flash drive.

How Do I Find VID and PID?

You can find VID and PID with the help of special utilities, but it can be done without them as well. First of all, go to Device Manager.

In Device Manager, a flash drive is usually recognized as a USB Flash Disk, so you need to right-click on the device and go to its properties.

In “Details” tab select “Parent” parameter to see VID/PID. In our case they are as follows: VID: 0204, PID: 6025.

Choosing The Necessary Utility to Repair The Drive (Low-level Formatting)

Knowing VID and PID we need to find a special utility suitable to restore our flash drive. It is better to use a search engine, Google or Yandex (a sample query: Silicon Power VID 0204 PID 6025).

Before launching such utilities we recommend disconnecting all other flash drives from USB ports (so that the utility cannot format another disk by mistake).

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How to Fix a Flash Drive for a Computer, TV or Car Audio in 2019 🛠️👨‍💻🤔

After treatment by such utilities (designed for low-level formatting) a problem-ridden flash drive should work properly again, recognized quickly and correctly by your PC.

Certainly, this repair manual is not the simplest one (you can’t do everything by clicking one or two buttons) but it can be applied in many cases to almost all flash drive types manufacturers.

Yet before you start low-level formatting you should understand it means erasing all user information without a chance to restore it. That is, the part of the drive where data is contained will be cleaned completely. Standard Windows formatting does not do that but only applies quick formatting which is basically remarking your drive.

Partition Recovery™ 4.9

The tool recovers data from any devices, regardless of the cause of data loss.

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So if you used your flash drive to store some important data before the problems began, and now you need the data to be recovered, it is possible but only before you start low-level formatting. This operation requires special data recovery software. The best choice to suit your needs will be Hetman Partition Recovery.