Usb storage mass stopped working

[xsamx]

Hello everyone, i'm new to the forum.:wave:

My problem is with my usb storage drive, it was working fine on my pc and i have saved loads of word document files which are incredibly important, however all of a sudden every time i try to load it from "my computer" i get a message asking me to format the drive, if i do this will i lose all my work? if so, is there a way round it? :suspiciou

I would appreciate any help i can get. :grinthumb

Thanks.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Not sure what you ought to do about a fix, but I am sure someone will chime in at some point with advice. Just figured I'd give you a heads up; If you format the drive it will clear the drive of data, perform a chkdsk and lay out a new file structure on the drive. In other words: you'll lose your work.

 

[xsamx]

Yeh thanks for confirming, i hope someone can help, i think i may have used all the space on the stick, but if i cant open the it, then how am i supposed to move some of the files onto another drive (nothing can be deleted all too important).

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Try using the command line utility to copy the files to your HDD. Start>Run>cmd>Ok. Now you should have a black box sitting in front of you that you can type in. It should automatically put you at "C:\Documents and Settings", if you want the files copied here, leave this as your directory, if you'd like to copy the files somewhere else you'll have to change this directory. To make things easy on you, if you navigate to the directory you want to copy the files to using the Windows graphic user interface you can just copy and paste the directory into the command prompt.

Okay so, lets say you want to copy the files to your desktop, navigate there using Windows, type "CD" with a space, then copy and paste the directory into the command window (you'll have to use your mouse, you can't use keyboard shortcuts in the command window). For instance, to change the directory from "C:\Documents and Settings" to my desktop I'd have to type this:

CD C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop

Anyway, when you decide where you want the files copied just navigate there via command prompt and then type the following:

xcopy "The flash drive's letter here":

So, if your flash drive has been assigned the letter E: (you can check this under My Computer) you would want to type the following:

xcopy e:

This should copy all the files you have on that flash drive to your HDD (hopefully anyway). If you have any questions don't be shy.

 

[xsamx]

Thanks for the reply but no success

Thanks for explaining so well this potential solution but i tried it and it said "invalid drive specification, 0 files copied".

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Try this:

Start>Run>diskmgmt.msc>Ok

If your flash drive is detected here, right click on it and click "Properties". Click on the "Tools" tab and then under "Error-checking" click "Check Now...". This might take a few minutes, but when it completes try to access your drive again.

 

[Tedster]

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic45834.html