USB help

[Eru]

A friend of mine gave me a USB that they said was no longer being registered on their computer and asked for my help to fix it. For anyone that may be inclined to help, yes I am well aware that fixing the drive may mean formating it and as a result losing all the data.

Here's all the information I have with the problem:

- the device is not showing up in the my computer menu

- however it does show up on the disk managment page

- on the properties window of the drive from the disk managment page it shows as having no capacity

- I can't find the option to format the drive, however I do have the option to format my other HDD's (so I'm not just retarded)

- the problem started when the device was accidentaly removed while pictures were being veiwed off of the USB

And as a side note, yes I already told the person it would just be easier to fork out $15 on another 4GB USB

 

[BaMb1N0]

seems like the flash chip is dead. can you delete the partition on that thumbdrive and create a new one?

 

[chudley]

I agree with Bambino, that should work, ona side note Bambino, you should be part of our Bench Team, - if you fancy it

Ich wuerde mich erfreuen

 

[fcb]

You may try using the diskpart tool built into Windows 7 to see if you can format it.

 

[Eru]

I tried using cocacola's method and followed this youtube video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSxBFEY-hs8

However, once I tried the clean command for the USB drive I got the following error,

"Virtual Disk Service error:

There is no media in the device"

Where it says the status for the disk it reads "no media" and the size reads as 0GB, I think I'll just tell her it's completely dead at this point.

 

[BaMb1N0]

there may be a way to recover it should you know someone operating the computer forensics software "Encase" or similar. may be able to recover it. usually such a software is used by forensic investigators, police....