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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March 7th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Yup i agree with you. Back up storage devices are very important. Thanks for the useful information ! Thats a great answer.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I guess maybe more people are seeing flash drives as potential backup options now that they are getting larger and larger capacities.This post will hopefully act as a word of caution.One option I keep meaning to use is online back-up just using my website I get with my ISP via FTP. Worse case scenario, the house burns down, all my pics etc are safe.
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Thats unfortunate, and similar to when my hard drive got corrupted :/The only real safe backup is the kind that is stored online from a hosting company.-Jack
March 24th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Thanks, I was looking for this!!Keep up the good posts!
April 27th, 2009 at 10:44 am
My 2G flash-drive has plenty space in it, however, for some reason i can use only so much of the free space (1/3 approx) because a message appers and tells me that it is full. Does anyone know why this occurs and how I can solve it?
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June 24th, 2009 at 5:43 am
One must always keep in mind that computer storage devices are not eternal, and for mission critical system one must always have not just one, but it would be a great idea to have multiple copies of your backups.Talk Tech to Mes last blog post..Email Archiving Technologies
November 26th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Do you have a flash drive? if yes what kind? I have the sony micro vault tiny. I got the cheepest one it is smaller than a digital camera chip and mine holds 512 mb. but they make one that holds 2 GB!!Please answer! this is a school project. we have to ask a bunch of people a question for a survey that I have no idea what we are going to use it for.what you say?
December 16th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I disagree with you. I actually worked in a computer memory store and had to deal with these sorts of cases. The fact that it is a solid state memory device actually means that the data is still there even if you can’t access it (unlike a volatile memory device like RAM). If you get a hard drive repair utility, it can often give you access to the flash drive because the flash drive is recognized by the computer in the same way as any drive. In most cases, the data is recoverable. -Mike
December 26th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
if you unable to open your flash drive using windows you can try open it using linux.. works for me. remember to always backup your data somewhere else
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March 4th, 2010 at 5:02 am
I use my extern hard drive as my back-up. I’m wondering if it’s really such a good idea. But it’s working for me.
Good answer on the question, keep on helping people
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