Lost access to flash drive

[labler88]

I lost access to a flash drive while computing with my laptop on the road. The laptop went into 'hibernate' mode, and when I woke it up, the flash drive had effectively disappeared.

When I plug it in now, Windows 7 sees that a removable drive is available, and reports the manufacturer name in 'Drive Properties.' But that's all. I can't check for errors, because Windows says that it can't access the disk. If I try to access the flash drive with the command line, Windows reports that there's no disk in the drive. I've plugged it into different USB ports and into USB ports on another computer, all to no avail.

If anyone has any ideas for accessing the drive, I'll be grateful if you can share them.

 

[Zooshooter]

Check "Disk Management" in your Device Manager. It could be that the drive just needs a drive letter assigned to it. Also, if possible, try connecting the drive to a different computer to see if it does the same.

 

[labler88]

Thanks for posting, zooshooter. It does have a drive letter.

I think I have a hardware problem, along the lines of that described at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3832518249&feature=iv&src_vid=MBGBC7OGqQM&v=BwvsbUOKGLY

I should have written in my first post that the flash drive acted up another time before going south. I shouldn't have shrugged off the first episode.

I'm going to chalk this one up to experience, and put less faith in USB sticks in the future.