USB pen drive

[rima791]

I have a USB pen drive, that I use to storage(i know a bad idea) and transfer files between my laptop and computer and work.
Unfortunately, the none of the computers are reading my pen drive. USB Pen drive flashing once plugged in, but not being read.
For some reason, it is not showing up in my computer or device manager, however it is showing up in disk management as "-GHOSTBOOT-" and when I right click on that, everything shows up gray except "Delete Partition" and "Help". This is only happening at my work computer. My laptop and home computer is not reading this drive at all.

How can I get the data from this USB drive? Is there anyway???

p.s. the work computer is windows XP 2002.

 

[Tmagic650]

Try this:
USB Drive Recovery Tool

By the way, there is no Windows 2002... Do you mean Windows 2000 or Windows XP?

 

[rima791]

Opps I meant Windows XP 2002

 

[Lokalaskurar]

Some USB-drives start to act strangely if they are being used on computers running different OS kernels, like a Windows vs Macintosh (OS) computer. So the work computer is a XP, which OS is your laptop computer running?

Second question: how old is the USB-drive?

Just a small footnote:

@Tmagic650
Even though the first XP was released in 2001, there have been many successive mark-versions, like Windows XP Media Centre Edition (aka XP 2005) etc.

 

[rima791]

Some USB-drives start to act strangely if they are being used on computers running different OS kernels, like a Windows vs Macintosh (OS) computer. So the work computer is a XP, which OS is your laptop computer running?

Second question: how old is the USB-drive?

Just a small footnote:

@Tmagic650
Even though the first XP was released in 2001, there have been many successive mark-versions, like Windows XP Media Centre Edition (aka XP 2005) etc.

yes, the OS is my laptop....and XP is work comp......I have been using the USB for about 6 or so months!!

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes Lokalaskurar:
"Even though the first XP was released in 2001, there have been many successive mark-versions, like Windows XP Media Centre Edition (aka XP 2005) etc"...

XP is still XP regardless of 2002 or 2005. No matter what XP should be brought up to Service Pack 3. Vista to Service Pack 2 and Windows 7 to Service Pack 1. I upgrade all my XP home computers to XP Pro now...

Rima971 what OS is installed on the laptop?

 

[rima791]

USB Drive Recovery Tool does not work as the pen drive is not being read....


the pen drive shows up in the disk management...but everything is grayed!!

 

[rima791]

Yes Lokalaskurar:
"Even though the first XP was released in 2001, there have been many successive mark-versions, like Windows XP Media Centre Edition (aka XP 2005) etc"...

XP is still XP regardless of 2002 or 2005. No matter what XP should be brought up to Service Pack 3. Vista to Service Pack 2 and Windows 7 to Service Pack 1. I upgrade all my XP home computers to XP Pro now...

Rima971 what OS is installed on the laptop?

Im using Mac OS X 10.6.8.

 

[Tmagic650]

USB Drive Recovery Tool does not work as the pen drive is not being read....


the pen drive shows up in the disk management...but everything is grayed!!

So it is toast :dead:

 

[SNGX1275]

What does it say in Disk Utility in OS X? (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility)

 

[rima791]

So it is toast :dead:

is there anyway I can retrieve data or is it completely gone?

 

[rima791]

What does it say in Disk Utility in OS X? (Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility)

It does not read :/

 

[Tmagic650]

It is completely gone... Always keep important data on at least two media like CD's or DVD's or a spare hard drive. It's also foolish to use 2 partitions on a single drive for backups and the OS. I had a customer with an eMachines desktop computer. Gateway had the C backup set on a second partition same hard drive. The hard drive failed and the backup was destroyed too... Foolish indeed! The constant plugging and unplugging of a USB flash drive probably causes static discharge after time that destroys the flash memory chip. If you always used the software "it is now safe to remove the device" the flash drive might last longer, but who does this all the time?

 

[rima791]

It is completely gone... Always keep important data on at least two media like CD's or DVD's or a spare hard drive. It's also foolish to use 2 partitions on a single drive for backups and the OS. I had a customer with an eMachines desktop computer. Gateway had the C backup set on a second partition same hard drive. The hard drive failed and the backup was destroyed too... Foolish indeed! The constant plugging and unplugging of a USB flash drive probably causes static discharge after time that destroys the flash memory chip. If you always used the software "it is now safe to remove the device" the flash drive might last longer, but who does this all the time?

I have some of the data on a DVD that I keep as a backup, but I don't have all of it...and I always use "...safe..remove..device"...i don't know about others but I do that all the time, I do find it annoying, but its better to be safe than sorry!!

 

[SNGX1275]

It does not read :/

What do you mean? Does the drive itself not show up in Disk Utility at all?

 

[rima791]

^^^ nope....it doesn't show up at all!!

 

[SNGX1275]

Well, sorry to say this, but I think the guys above were correct then. The drive is toast.

Edit: Adding additional information that is just a FYI from my expierences, not directly intended to solve the issue at hand.

Reasoning behind saying it is toast is it fails to show up in 2 different computers running 2 different operating systems.

Sometimes a drive will not work in one computer and work in another, or you'll get an error in one OS but another can fix it (Sometimes OS X will tell me a exFAT drive can't be repaired, but I can put it in a Win 7 machine, run a check on it and it will be fine, then put it back in the OS X box and it also appears fine there). (Also an exFAT formatted in OS X 10.6.x will not be read in Windows, but if you format it in Windows as exFAT it will work fine in both OSes).

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes the flash drive is toast... If you ever have trouble formatting a flash drive to it's full size try using
HP Flash Drive Format Tool