Pen drive

[ron]

I've got a pen drive that isn't detected when connected to a PC.

 

I've tried cleaning inside the USB connection on the pen drive as it was quite dirty but no change, any ideas?

 

The data is important, at least if that can be retrieved.

[mattx]

Did you try:

 

http://random.busythumbs.com/users/t/tripleox/random/images/i-need-cillit-bang.jpg

 

?

[jamesreedersmith]

Have you checked that its just not being assisgned a drive letter in computer manager ?

[sj2780]

We have had this a few times, its quite often the contacts from the usb plug to the circuit board.

 

If you take it out of the casing you should be able to see if there is a broken link. I have solder fixed them before or just apply pressure to connect the links while you pull the data off.

[ron]

Did you try:

 

http://random.busythumbs.com/users/t/tripleox/random/images/i-need-cillit-bang.jpg

 

?

 

That stuff is evil, it would melt it!

[ron]

We have had this a few times, its quite often the contacts from the usb plug to the circuit board.

 

If you take it out of the casing you should be able to see if there is a broken link. I have solder fixed them before or just apply pressure to connect the links while you pull the data off.

 

Yeah I've thought of that, if there isn't any other solutions to what may be casuing it not to be detected I'll take it apart to check, I best check with the owner first before I take it apart however I don't think they will mind as if I don't try it's never going to work.

[ron]

Have you checked that its just not being assisgned a drive letter in computer manager ?

 

Yeah it's not that - damn pen drives!

[Michael]

Try logging on as an administrator and running the Add Hardware wizard in Control Panel.

[ron]

Try logging on as an administrator and running the Add Hardware wizard in Control Panel.

 

Tried that, no luck

[ricki]

Hi

 

Have you tried checking sophos is working if its out of date it stops usb sticks working.

 

Does the usb stick work in another machine?

Have you inserted too many usb devices? If too much power is being used then it will not work.

Do other usb devices work with the port it could be damaged.

Have you hidden a letter that the usb stick is assigned.

Does it appear in computer management, disk management.

is the drive formatted to somthing strange like a linux format that windows cannot read.

Have you check dished the usb drive on another machine.

 

Just a few ideas.

 

Richard

[ricki]

Sorry forget do you have any errors in hardware device manager or in the event log?

 

Do you have admin rights to the machine to be able to load the driver for the usb stick

 

Richard

[ron]

Hi

 

Have you tried checking sophos is working if its out of date it stops usb sticks working.

 

Does the usb stick work in another machine? No

Have you inserted too many usb devices? If too much power is being used then it will not work. Only keyboard and mouse attached other than pen drive

Do other usb devices work with the port it could be damaged. Yes

Have you hidden a letter that the usb stick is assigned. No

Does it appear in computer management, disk management. No

is the drive formatted to somthing strange like a linux format that windows cannot read. No

Have you check dished the usb drive on another machine. Yes

 

Just a few ideas.

 

Richard

 

Thanks for your help.

 

No errors in device manager, using full admin rights, all other pen drives or usb devices work fine, just this one in question, does sound like a connection problem inside the pen drive, they are great and everything but not robust enough.

Edited January 15, 2010 by ron

[ricki]

It sound to me like its broke.

 

Richard

[solitaire89]

We've had the odd few go like that after they've been in a blazer pocket with a mobile phone... No "physical" damage, but can't get anything off them at all... Sorry it's not more help

[ron]

I've taken it apart and there's do damage inside and the connections are all ok. I'll assume it's

[ricki]

It might have been static or just made poorly.

 

I even caught one student with a powerfull magnet placing it on the side of the computers to try and break things

 

Richard

[DMcCoy]

The problem is that they will just wear out with sufficient use. I don't believe that windows (unless 7 does) uses any sort of wear levelling for such devices.

 

We get a number of dead ones each year with no physical damage, they have just stopped working.

 

Edit: It seems some flash drives will do wear levelling, this is quite interesting from Corsair:

 

https://compatible.corsairmemory.com/_faq/FAQ_flash_drive_wear_leveling.pdf

Edited January 15, 2010 by DMcCoy