USB Flash Drive Help

[Warri0R]

So i've tried googling it and I get the same answers and none of them work...unless i'm doing it wrong or something...

I've got a usb stick flash drive that was working fine yesterday but now the drivers won't work/install and my pc won't recognize it...
The only thing I have on it is a video that I rendered and need to transfer it to my laptop...
Ya, i do have other memory sticks but I'm just trying to fix this one in case it happens again....

I've tried uninstalling the driver and re-installing it, restarting my PC, trying it on a different pc, unplugging/taking out the battery of my laptop and letting things reset...as well as a combination of either suggestions or all...
I'm guessing it's my flash drive itself the light indicator still works...

any ideas....

[chrisat928]

There's likely something wrong with the USB connections on the stick.

[Sly]

How old is it?

Let me give you a tip. It's only a tip, mind you, and it'll only take a minute.

Clean the connections.

If that doesn't work then employ the cardinal rule of fixing things; if it's already fucked, open it up and take a look inside. See if the board has signs of damage. Did it get wet? Did it let the smoke out anywhere?

[bass.exe21]

So the PC doesnt even recognize it? Not showing in device manager?

[Warri0R]

it'll light up and it'll show up but as an unknown device, sometimes the pc will try to install the drivers or whatever but it always ends up failing...i've plugged in other usb devices to all my computers and they work just fine

so ya, it's probably the connectors in the flash so i'll try cleaning it an all that jazz...

[bass.exe21]

If its still recognized as a drive, maybe check out recovery programs.

[Warri0R]

I just now tried that... programs don't detect it...

I don't have much on it so it's okay... * sigh *
I just don't understand how it was working perfectly the day before then suddenly stop working on me...

I'll see if I can download the drives from somewhere...otherwise if that doesn't work then i'm done... oh well

[Sly]

That's why I asked how old it is. These things have a duty cycle and a ceiling of read/write cycles before they wear out. So if it's one you've had a long time, or have rode hard and put away wet it'll give out on you sooner. I had a bootable thumb drive I was running Ubuntu off at work so I wouldn't be stuck with Windows all the time. That thing gave out after a couple of months of daily use at about 10hrs/day.

[bass.exe21]

It may have been dying for a while now but only gave up totally now. Its why there are programs with SMART test to see the health of hard drives. If its video, try photorec.