PC has stopped reading my USB

[Calcium20]

Earlier this morning I was working on an assignment off my USB. A few hours later when I tried to continue work, the USB didn't appear in my computer any more. The red light appears signifying that it is getting power from the computer but it doesn't appear anywhere. I checked diskmanager and devicemanager but it doesn't appear anywhere (the device's driver appears in devicemanager but not the physical drive). I tried the USB port with a different drive and the port seems fine. I used the USB on a different computer and that computer doesn't read it either. It seems that the USB is the problem and not the computer.
Unfortunately, due to my stupidity I failed to backup my work before this happened so I have effectively lost my work.
Are there any ways I get get a computer to either read my USB or is there a way to extract data from it? Fast reply would be greatly appreciated due to an assignment being due tomorrow and I would be depressed if I had to completely restart.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Calcium20.

I assume you are referring to a USB flash drive when you say "USB", but please correct me if I'm wrong. Are you sure that it does not appear in Disk Management, not even as a drive saying "no media"? Check if it's recognized by your BIOS/UEFI.

Unfortunately if the BIOS/UEFI does not see the flash drive, chances are that it won't be detected by any data recovery software you try or operating systems. However, if it's recognized, you could try accessing it via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if it's properly recognized and if you can get to your files. Another option would be to try it out with data recovery software and hopefully it is able to retrieve your information: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html & http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm.

Hope that helps. I hope you are able to get to your data. Good luck!
Boogieman_WD

 

[Shaun o]

I doubt there is much you can do if the usb flash or pen drive is now failing to show up on any computer when you connect it to a usb port of the system.

The question is where you having any problems at all with the storage device before the current problem happened, when trying to save or read data from the flash drive.

Flash drives, and the Nand memory used in them can be known to gradually fade in performance and start to produce warning signs when the Nand memory is wearing out due to too many read and writes performed on them.

At the first sign of any problem data should be backed up, and the device should be avoided for use.

It is possible for the control chip or bios firmware of a usb flash drive to be damaged or corrupted due to a overvoltage from the usb port it is connected to.

This can happen when the usb pen is left in the system, and the system it`s self goes into low powered, hibernation mode or sleep mode to reserve power.

Upon wake up of the system a surge of power can damage the flash drive.
Though it`s not well documented, it happens.

And why you should never leave a usb flash drive in a system when it has power saving features enabled.
To enter sleep, hibernation mode of windows.

As I said what can often render a flash drive to not respond when fitted to any system or usb port.
Is that the firmware file of the physical usb drive is impaired, or corrupted.

And a new firmware may need to be forced or programmed back to the flash drive in order to get it to work and be seen by windows again.

Depending on the brand and type when fixing the firmware, it can result in the flash nand cell being reset or formatted on some drives.
Where on others by fixing the firmware, The old data and files can still be found or intact.

You need to know the model no of the pen drive and the brand to do this.
And the firmware chip used by brand and model.
That means you need to crack the case open to read what firmware chip is used.

Then you go and get the correct flashing application from the link bellow with the firmware file for the exact model and brand of usb flash drive you have.

It`s not an experience for novice users though.
But can be used for any usb flash drive with corporate data or information on it where retention of it is vital.
You will find a list also of recovery tools used for different brands of usb flash drives on the link bellow.

Good luck I hope you retrieve your data.

http://www.flashdrive-repair.com/