Question Two USB flash drives make connect sound but never mount. Dead?

Mugsy

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May 12, 2004
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A friend needs my help figuring out what's wrong with several of his USB (2.0) thumb drives. Three of his 5 drives simply went dead.

When I plug them in (both his PC and mine), Windows makes the "connect" sound, but the drives never mount (so I can't scan or even reformat them.) Windows "Disk Management" does not detect them either. I've tried multiple ports (both USB2 & 3.0) and it makes no difference.

Are the drives trashed?

PS: Linux does not detect them at all.
 

punkncat

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I have to admit a significant level of variation in the dependability of USB (flash) drives. I have a couple of SUPER old ones that have been washed, dried, bent, left sitting unused for years and still work, and others that failed the second time I tried to use them. Even if they aren't in a format that modern install can't read, they should either throw a warning for that or shown in some way via Disk Manager.