Mother-******* USB Stick

[Vandalhart]

Okay, so I have a USB stick that I've been using to transport work and today when I plugged it into my computer it became "unreadable".

I did some Google Searches and found people with similar problems, but for whatever reason whatever they did to fix theirs, isn't working for me.

It's a Sony Microvault USM-16GB-J drive. After I plug it into the computer it gives it a new drive letter than it used to and when I double click on it, it says to insert disk. If I go to the Disk Management area it sees the drive, but labels it as "Unreadable".

Has anyone seen this and been able to repair it?

Oh yeah, I just want to get my files off if I can. I did some work that I'd prefer not have to do over. Not to mention I have some files backed up on the device. I'm probably going to buy a new one anyway, but I'd like to repair it long enough to at least get the files.

I've installed various EzRecovery programs, all of which none worked. It's like the computer itself just don't recognize the drive anymore. It worked last night when I ejected it from XP at home and sit it on my night stand over night.

Any information or help is appreciated. Let me know if you need more details.

I'm just trying to get my files off it. I'm most likely going to replace the drive anyways.

I've tried to format it via windows, and use the check disk option, but neither actually gives the dialog to proceed. Anytime I try to explore the drive also, the OS just acts like I didn't do anything at all.

[toonces]

I do not know how to repair it, but USB sticks die more than ppl think. I learn the lesson the hard way to. Hopefully some wiz can help you. I got about 3 in the closet that need help too

[nitsuj]

Try a different computer. And it's at least possible that your drive has mapped a different drive to that letter and now both the new drive and the USB stick are trying to map to the same letter.

I've had that happen.

[Vandalhart]

Yeah, I tried 4-5 computers at work. I brought it home and now I can get it to detect, but it's showing up as a RAW filetype for the drive itself.

Oh well, guess I lost everything on it. I can't format it or anything, I suppose I could try to repair it with a Windows CD, I think I've heard of doing that for this in my research today.

[Isiolia]

Have you tried the Convar utilities? http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?language=1 is one, they have another that's made for flash drives/cards more. I've used both successfully before. I did see you mentioned using some tools already, but for me those actually worked where others didn't.

[Spekkio]

have you also tried processing it on a different OS? i've had drives before (though they were HDD and not flash media) that windows just refused to admit existed b/c they were badly distressed at that point but my linux box was willing to try on and after a freeze and a long recovery time, i got every last bit of data i wanted off of the drive.

are you sure the drive is a legitimate sony product? where did you buy it from? there's a lot of phony flash media out there (check out this writeup by bunnie's site for some good information if you're interested http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918 ) and most of it is of $#!7 quality. if you have a knockoff drive with a sony branding on it, you may be in hot water.

[Vandalhart]

I tried it in Ubuntu, but the same problem seemed to show. The OS will show the drive, but only as 512b or kb drive. When I try to format it says that it doesn't have any media in the drive.

Oh well, I already purchased a new one over the weekend. Learning the hard way sucks, but I may keep trying to get the data off it at some point if I can. I've heard of people working hard enough to get access to it. I'm just not sure how to go about doing it.