Here is a good question from a reader about her flash drive that will not read.

Question

“I checked on your site but had no luck…my flash drive all of a sudden stopped being recognized by ALL computers..is it broken/corrupted?? Is there any way to get the data off of it? I’ve since purchased a new one that works great and is being recognized by my computer so I know that it’s not my computer”. Maria

See my answer below

Maria,

If you have tried to read the flash drive in several different computers, then I would say that the flash drive is broke. Since it is a solid state device, then recovery of any data is probably not possible.

I am sorry for your loss and hope that the data on the flash drive was backed up. One of my rules for data storage and back up: Flash drives are not back up storage devices.

Happy computing,

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Have you plugged in your USB drive and received the following message from Vista or XP?

So you click the message and you get basically the same message and no obvious way to solve the problem.

To fix the problem and have XP or Vista recognize your USB drive and show up in My Computer:

1. Book mark this page.

2. Reboot your computer [turn completely off and turn back on]

3. Plug in your USB drive and see if it appears in My Computer.

4. Return to this post using the bookmark you created in step 1.

5. Go to this post and follow the steps outlined.

My Computer Does Not Recognize My USB Drive

6. If step 4 does not work, go to this post and follow the directions.

USB Driver Not Found

7. Maybe your USB is defective, click here to get a new USB flash drive .

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