Corrupted USB flash drive

[wildboar]

Hi,

When I plug this USB flash drive into my computer it takes a long time to show up in as a drive in My Computer (the pop-up window doesn't even appear). When it does show up as removable storage, I have no way of accessing it, since whatever I do (double click, right-click on it) the My Computer file just freezes, it stops responding, and whatever program I try to access it with just ends up freezing as well (I use Windows 7 by the way). When I unplug the USB drive everything comes back to normal. I tried accessing it via CMD and tried to run the chkdsk as well, but nothing happens. Formatting the drive is out of question since everything just ends up freezing, so I have no way of doing so.

Any ideas? I would like to make the flash drive functional again.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[DelJo63]

1) disable ALL autoplay on your system. This is a protection to avoid all kinds of virus issues that could be in play here.
2) reboot to ensure the change is active
3) retry the USB insert

regardless of it's condition, the system should be active and you can then inspect the condition of the partition table...
it should NOT be raw

 

[wildboar]

Thanks for the quick reply! I disabled autoplay and rebooted. However, I don't know how can I check the condition of the drive. If I try to open up Disk Management, it just loads endlessly: "Connecting to virtual disk service". MiniTool Partition Wizard won't open at all while the flash drive is inserted. The Device Manager just shows the device letter of the flash drive with a yellow exclamation mark; if I go to properties it says that the "device cannot start".

 

[DelJo63]

Thanks for the quick reply! I disabled autoplay and rebooted. However, I don't know how can I check the condition of the drive.

• If I try to open up Disk Management, it just loads endlessly: "Connecting to virtual disk service(VDS)".

what OS? I've never seen the VDS

• MiniTool Partition Wizard won't open at all while the flash drive is inserted.

never seen this either

• The Device Manager just shows the device letter of the flash drive with a yellow exclamation mark;

yellow here is typical of a missing driver. Does any other USB insert and work correctly? Where did the bad thumbdrive originate from?

• if I go to properties it says that the "device cannot start".

even a drive without a partition table mounts and you can see it is missing.
IMO, you've loaded some software that is interfering with Windows. hint: MiniTool?

 

[wildboar]

what OS?

I use Windows 7.

I don't think software interference is the problem since I tried it on different computers and the same problem arises every time.

 

[DelJo63]

I use Windows 7.

I don't think software interference is the problem since I tried it on different computers and the same problem arises every time.

ok, but where was the USB device created?

 

[wildboar]

ok, but where was the USB device created?

I'm afraid I don't fully understand your question. Where it was manufactured?

 

[DelJo63]

Not manufacture - - where was it last written

 

[bazz2004]

A few years ago these were expensive items but even the supermarkets in the UK have well known makes with high capacity for silly money. Just buy a new one.

 

[DelJo63]

Sometimes there's data that needs to be recovered . . .

 

[bazz2004]

The chances of retrieving data won't be good. It is hopefully a backup for data on a system elsewhere. If you have belt and braces and the belt goes good old braces save the day.

 

[DelJo63]

Yes, I believe that is the real issue, fixing the partition table to access the existing data :sigh: