USB Reports 0Mb

[TechSupp]

Benn handed a USB stick that is recognised by the PC is given a drive letter in Admin tools but reports 0 capacity. Is there a fix for this or am I wasting my time? Going to try another OS when I get chance but wondered if there is anything else I could try?

[SYNACK]

does it have some kind of funky encryption or partitioning? gparted live cd may give you a bit more information quickly

[TechSupp]

Right, bit of an update....usb stick now deceased...however...in the mean time I was handed a Seagate portable drive (2.5 disk rather than solid state) and this is recognised by W7 is allocated a drive letter but when you try to browse it it just says invalid argument and then asks if you want to format it. Ran a chkdsk with all the options, it scanned it, found some errors and eventually finished but still gives same message when you try and browse it. Any suggestions, the data is there as I saw file names listed when it was scanning,

Could I just replace the MBR? Or would that wipe the files?

Format then use a recovery prog to recover the formated files?

Think I have a copy of Spinrite (data recovery) somewhere...I think?

If I use partition magic or gparted what options would I choose to try and recover it?

Option C which I'm hoping someone will offer.

Dont want to give up on this even if it needs gettibg rid off once data is recovered.

[difinity]

I'd try a Linux boot disk like Mint and try and access the disc that way. I have far better success with problems like this than Windows.

[jonnykewell1]

when things like that happen I tend to format and then use recovery software but first take the drive out of it's enclosure 9/10 it's the USB board that has gone and the drive still works.

[kctesting]

if you only need to get the data from it, just format and then try to recover; use something like OnTrack and in RAW mode chances are that all data is recovered.

[TechSupp]

Update, all attempts at formatting failed and most software failed either to find files or would just not run but before I gave up I came across EraseUs software, free version allows 2Gb data recovery and it worked a dream. Computer management in W7 reports it in the RAW state and it still wont format or read but was surprised how well EraseUs software still found and recovered the data. Only issue was if you let it find 1,000's of files (it was a Seagate 1Terabyte portable drive) it crashed going to the recovery stage so had to search for docs then other files etc in separate searches.

[kctesting]

u mean EaseUS ?

great that it worked.

[TechSupp]

Yes sorry, that's the one. Now I have all the data of it (from using the drive I think this all may have been caused by the cable connection to the drive as its not very good and if nudged disconnects from windows) tried formatting the disk again and it fails part way through process. It still reports it as being RAW, is there any other way to format it just so I can use it to transfer the files back to the owner. If not I'll just have to use my memory stick and tell her to buy a new one.

[kctesting]

try with diskpart or with a low level tool like HP Format; I think Seagate has quite a few tools as well for format and diagnostics: Downloads: Hard Drive Installation and Computer/PC Diagnostic Software | Seagate

[TechSupp]

OK, Tried Seagate and it failed and is under warranty still, so its going to go back. Thanks

[kctesting]

then probably the small board is faulty; if you have a SATA disk reader, just open the case and connect to the disk directly.