Issue with PC

[Karn's Return]

Somehow, the other day, I managed to completely mess up my USB flash drive, corrupted it somehow to the point where I'm unable to fix using basic command prompt actions via check disk or disk partition.

Pictures of the error below, will give what system information I can.


Windows 7 Home
Intel i3-2100 3.1Gh processor
1TB HDD (no issue with the main drive here itself.)

Culprit being a Kingston Traveler 2.0 USB drive, as far as I've seen, it does not seem to have a physical switch for write protection.

Screenshots I've taken of my efforts to figure this thing out...

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

 

[CupofJoe]

I will bow to others with greater technical knowledge but as far as I am concerned...
Flash drives [and SSDs] do just die. No warning, dead.
With Flash drives I've seen it happen mainly when people do not use Eject and just pull the stick out of the computer. I learnt that lesson the hard way!
You could try it on another computer but I would expect the same results.
But if by some luck it does appear, I would copy everything off it and reformat the stick [and not the quick way] before doing anything else.
No, on second thoughts. If you can get stuff off it, do that and then I would suggest buying a new flash drive.

 

[johndsal]

There are several free programs on the web that purport to repair/recover data on usb/flash drives. I can not recommend any because I have never had the need.

 

[Brian G Turner]

You could potentially recover data from the drive - see if any of these help:

Best data recovery software of 2024

Restore deleted files and folders on any device

www.techradar.com

 

[Foxbat]

Something I didn’t know about SSD and I presume the same will apply to flash drives given that, they too, are solid state. It has a finite number of times it can write data (measured in TBW…terrabytes written) and the numbers sound like a lot but most PCs are writing often when in use...even when not in use, will be writing whilst performing scheduled tasks.

Some warranties are only valid if below the stated TBW.

Bottom line: unwise to use either to back up important info unless using more than one and staggering their age/usage to ensure that if one fails, the other is young enough to give you time to make another backup on a new device.

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www.enterprisestorageforum.com

 

[tinkerdan]

Flash-drives:
Thumb-drives:
When I use any removable usb drive I always go for redundancy.
I have either three or five devices that contain the same data.
The reason for this is that my experience is that the drives are not robust enough to continually be removed and reinserted, and they definitely will fail if you are carrying them around with you where ever you go.
typically they last at the best about one year and I've had some that didn't last that long.

I rarely use the smaller or thumb-drives because the higher density or anything above 32gigabyte are most prone to dying unexpectedly.

I have about a dozen 1 and 2 and 4 gig that are still in use while every 64 and 128 gig drive I've bought are all dead and those lasted much less than a year each.

larger-terabyte drives.

These also can fail but usually because of mishandling.
For these, if I'm inserting and removing them--usually as backup drives--I keep the package they came in because that generally has the packing mold that was made for transporting the drive. They go right back into that and into the original box if I disconnect them. This way I know that they have the highest protection that that manufacturer felt necessary.

Even with that I try to monitor the age of the drive and replace the older drives.

Of the half dozen of those I have, I have one that is now an interesting paperweight.

For portable drives I use mostly the terabyte drives.
like these::mostly the seagate drives

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CRG7BBH/

I save this box with it's internal plastic packing.