There are a lot of drives based on NAND memory, but there are also reasons for their failure.

For a better understanding, I will divide all types of faults into five groups:

Logical faults;

Mechanical breakdowns;

Electrical and thermal damage;

Controller malfunctions;

Failures and wear of flash memory.

There are times when one drive can have several faults at the same time.

Let's move from words to action. I will look at each malfunction in more depth, to better understand what each of the malfunctions implies..

1. First on my list is logical faults in the operation of the drive. In practice, such a malfunction is visible to the naked eye and is easily diagnosed. In such a situation, you need to turn to specialists, because independent attempts can only do harm, and restoring information after formatting or a logical failure in the laboratory has every chance of success.

Manifestation of the problem:

Such malfunctions include formatting, deletion of information, file system failure (hereinafter simply “FS”). The first two problems can be solved by most computer industry specialists, but file system failures are a more complex task and require the use of specialized equipment. FS failures usually manifest themselves in errors: “disk is not formatted”, FS is displayed as RAW, destruction of file system tables.

Causes:

Among the main reasons for such malfunctions is the “human factor,” which implies destructive actions of users (deleting information, formatting the drive), and unsafe removal of the drive.

2. Mechanical breakdowns .

Such “troubles” most often become disastrous for users, and people often create problems for themselves. The USB interface of the drive and the drive casing are most often affected. Often the case of flash drives is not well protected from strong impacts (stepped on, run over by a car, etc.), water ingress, “playing football with a flash drive” and other situations.

IMPORTANT: if the flash drive is exposed to water, especially sea water, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS IT NECESSARY TO INSERT A FLASH DRIVE INTO USB port, it can " CLEAR ALL DATA FROM THE DRIVE».

After bathing, we kindly ask you to take the drive to a specialist for proper washing of all contacts, parts, connectors without haste and premature connection to the PC. If these prices are for you, then take care of saving them - contact CVI Kiev Data Recovery or similar companies.

In case of physical problems with the flash drive, we will carry out all the necessary manipulations to restore the work, as well as the information on the flash drive (repair work is carried out only in cases where this is possible and justified).

3.

Poor, unstable operation of switching power supplies, as well as static discharges, cause flash drive failure. In addition to unstable power supply and voltage surges (most flash drives are powered by a voltage of 3.3 V), the cause of the malfunction can be banal savings and the race for the ruble of companies producing Flash drives (cheaper due to simplified electrical circuits and poor protection against voltage surges). Don't forget about " human factor ", which carries many dangers for any electronics. When connecting the USB port on the front panel to the motherboard, the polarity may be reversed, which leads to failure of the flash drive. Don’t forget about overheating of the drive due to poor build quality or low-quality components. In theory, the memory chip can withstand overheating up to 125ºС, but in practice problems (the number of BAD sectors increases greatly) begin already at 70 degrees.

4.

Such failures can be easily diagnosed based on several signs. The most common manifestations of such malfunctions include the following options:

The flash drive is not detected (read example);

The drive is detected, but with a “zero size”;

Displays the message “Insert disk”;

No disk access;

The disc is write protected.

In such cases, the flash drive can be revived using proprietary utilities (each controller type has its own utility). But if there is important data there, then repairs are out of the question. Data recovery from flash drives from Kiev Data Recovery specialists is an ideal price-quality ratio.

IMPORTANT: After flashing the controller, all data will be irretrievably lost without the possibility of recovery .

If the operation of a flash drive is not categorical for you, but the data is very important, then you need to contact a service center for data recovery from flash drives. In case of controller failure, there is no way to do without specialized service with professional equipment (We are certified users of the hardware and software complex - PC-3000 Flash). If the memory chip remains working, it means that the information can be restored safe and sound.

5. Wear, NAND memory failures

Memory chips- the most reliable component of any flash drive and is one of the rarest faults. Flash drive memory has one unpleasant feature - a limited number of cycles up to 100 thousand write cycles and up to 10 thousand in cheap drives. In cases where the number of cycles comes to an end, the flash drive becomes unreadable or access to data is lost (the number of BAD sectors increases). In addition to wear and tear of memory cells, physical damage to memory chips is also possible (a crack in the case, a break, overheating of the chips). In cases of memory wear or failure, repairing the drive is impossible, since memory chips are the basis of any Flash drive.

Which results in the USB drive not being recognized. From damaged USB ports to USB formatting issues, the list of possible scenarios is varied. It should also be noted that before applying any of the methods below, the user must ensure that the cause is analyzed and the problem is identified correctly.

The list of reasons that lead to a flash drive being unreadable and which users encounter most often includes the following 5 scenarios:

1. USB ports don't work.
2. You need to update your USB drivers.
3. The operating system (OS) is not updated.
4. The USB storage device is faulty.
5. The USB firmware is corrupted.

You can find more than one USB recognition program on the Internet that will ensure that the data is retrieved, but it is better not to use these programs as they can pose security risks, possibly compromising the data.

Below are some of the factors that can lead to flash drive recognition problems. It should be noted that these problems need to be resolved as soon as possible:

1. Problem with USB formatting. This is the most common type of problem where the user fails to format the drive before first use. The error message states that formatting could not be completed.
2. Driver problem. USB drivers are not available or need to be updated.
3. Hard drive problems. If the hard drive of the OS and its associated system is not working properly, it is most likely a problem with the hard drive.
4. OS related problems: OS if not updated on time also leads to these problems. The only solution is to update the components.
5. Port related problems. This can be either hardware or software. If the ports do not recognize USB, professional help is recommended.

USB formatting problem is the most common type of problem

4 Ways to Fix Problem with Flash Drive Not Recognized by Windows

Method 1: Scan for USB problems

Step 1. Insert the flash drive into the USB port.

Step 2. Make sure that the flash drive appears in the “My Computer” section. Then, right-click to open the “Properties” section.

Step 3. Enter the "Service" section.

Step 4. Then you need to click on the “Check Now” button for a new menu to appear. Here, both options should be selected and the run button should be clicked to scan the device and fix the problem (some may just say "Check", then you need to click "Check" and then "Check and repair disk").

Method 2: Reformatting USB

Follow this process:

Step 1. Right-click on the flash drive under My Computer to select the Format option.

Step 2. Now, to solve the problem, you need to format the flash drive using NTFS instead of FAT32 or vice versa:

On a note! All information from the flash drive will be deleted!

Method 3: Update drivers

The process looks like this:

Step 1. You need to open the Run window (Win+R), and then enter devmgmt.msc as in the screenshot below:

Step 2. This will take you to the Device Manager (you can also open it through the built-in Windows search, you just need to type “Device Manager” in the search box and Windows will return the desired result).

Step 3. You need to find “Universal Serial Bus controllers” as in the picture below:

Step 4. When you have found the controllers you need, you need to right-click on them and select the option to update drivers, then “Automatically search for updated drivers.”

Method 4. OS update

To update your OS, follow these steps:

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security.

Step 2. Now you need to make sure that the “Check for updates” option is selected.

The OS will be updated.

Then you need to restart the system to ensure that the problem is resolved.

Software to recover lost data on hard drive

Once the USB recognition problem is resolved, it is recommended that you save all important data to ensure that the problem never happens again. You should also check that all folders are saved and that nothing is missing. Wondershare Data Recovery tool is the most advanced and modern tool designed specifically to solve the problem of file loss. It is better to download it from the official website.

Note! Only 100 megabytes of lost data are free.

Recovering files with Wondershare Data Recovery occurs in 3 steps:

Step 1. First you need to select what types of files you want to recover.

Step 2. Then you need to select the device from which you want to recover these same files.

Step 3. You also need to select the location where these files will be restored.

It won’t be difficult, and the intuitive and simple interface will only help with this.

Video - Flash drive not detected - solution to the problem

There can be many reasons why a computer or laptop does not see a flash drive. And it’s quite difficult to determine what’s wrong. After all, the reason may be related to both the PC and the USB device itself. There is only one way out in this case: try all possible options.

And to make this task easier for you, below are 8 recommendations on how to fix this problem. The tips are universal and are suitable for all PCs and laptops running Windows XP, 7, 8 or 10.

If the flash drive is not recognized by the computer, then first of all check whether it works at all? The easiest way is to connect it to another laptop or PC.

Look at the USB device LED (available on all modern models). If it does not light up, then the flash drive is probably no longer working. Although you could simply extract it incorrectly. In this case, I recommend reading.

Checking USB ports

The second reason why the flash drive is not recognized by the computer is that you connect it to a non-working USB connector. Even if it worked yesterday, it still needs to be checked. To do this, connect another device to the same port - a mouse, printer, smartphone. Or you can connect a USB flash drive to the connector on the rear panel.

Configuration update

If the flash drive is not displayed on Windows 7, 8 or 10, go to “Device Manager” (it can be opened through Start - Control Panel).

After that:

1. Find your flash drive. It is usually located in the "USB Controllers" or "Other Devices" section and may be named as a mass storage or unknown device (or the standard name - Kingstone, Silicon Power, etc.).
   
2. Select it, right-click and click Delete.
   
3. In the top menu, select Action – Update configuration.
   

Installing a utility from Microsoft

After this, you need to open the settings (“USB Configuration”). Since there are many BIOS versions, the path will be different in each case. For example, in the screenshot below, the required item is in the “Advanced” section.

Open it and check that next to “USB Controller” the option “Enabled” is indicated. If this is not the case, select the appropriate item.

Changing the device letter

To fix this error:

1. Go to Start – Control Panel – Administrative Tools.
   
2. Select the Computer Management shortcut.
   
3. On the left, go to the Disk Management tab.

   Disk Management Tab

4. Select the flash drive (it is labeled “Removable device”), right-click and select the “Change drive letter” line. To check which letter is not in use, look in My Computer.

   

Driver Update

If the flash drive is not recognized on the laptop, the reason may be outdated drivers. In this case, they need to be updated. Easiest to use (they do everything automatically).

By the way, if you have an old PC, then flash drives with a capacity of 32 GB or more will not be displayed on it.

Hello, dear friends!

There are several reasons why you may encounter the fact that the computer does not see the flash drive.

This problem can occur on any OS. It occurs on both Windows XP and Windows 10.

If the computer does not recognize the connected flash drive, then you may encounter one of the following variations:

1. The computer says “insert disk”, despite the fact that you have already connected the flash drive
2. Connection sound and notification, but the flash card is not in Explorer
3. It says that it needs to be formatted because the disk is not formatted
4. A message appears indicating that a data error has occurred
5. After connecting the flash drive, the computer freezes

How to fix?

The simplest and at the same time effective methods will be located at the beginning of the article.

If any method does not help you, move on to the next one. Also, write a comment below to the article about your problem...

If all else fails, check the flash drive for serious physical damage - it may make it impossible to repair the flash drive.

1. Check through Disk Management

First of all, you need to check whether the computer sees the connected flash drive.

Run Disk Management Utility: Win + R and then enter the command diskmgmt.msc and press Enter

In the disk management window, pay attention to whether the flash drive appears and disappears when you connect and disconnect it from the computer.

If the computer sees the connected flash drive and all partitions on it (usually one partition) are able to "Good"- then this is the ideal outcome.

In this case, just right-click on it and select “Make partition active”, and perhaps assign a letter to the flash drive - this will be enough.

If the partition is faulty or deleted, the status will display "Not distributed."

Try right-clicking on it and selecting "Create Simple Volume" to create a partition.

This will create a partition with formatting and deletion of all data that was on the flash drive.

If the mark is displayed "Unknown" or "Not initialized" and one section is able "Not distributed", this may mean that the flash drive is damaged.

2. Further actions after verification

We launch the device manager and check whether your device is displayed as unknown; it may also be located in the “Other devices” section.

The drive can be called either by its real name or as a “USB Mass Storage Device”.

Right-click on the device, select Delete, and after deleting it, in the Device Manager menu, select Action - Update hardware configuration.

Perhaps this action will be enough for your flash drive to appear in Windows Explorer and be accessible.

In addition, you can do the following:

If you connect the flash drive to the computer via an extension cable, try a direct connection.

Try connecting to all ports on your PC.

Turn off the computer, disconnect all third-party and USB components, except for the mouse and keyboard - if they do not have a built-in card reader, as well as the flash drive being tested. Turn on your computer.

If after this the flash drive works, then the problem is in the power supply to the USB ports of the computer - the reason is a weak PC power supply.

Using third party programs

Programs designed to remove all USB device drivers.

What is this for? To eliminate erroneous interactions between installed drivers and connected devices.

Windows installs the driver for the USB device the moment it is connected to the PC.

When connecting a new device, it is possible that an attempt will be made to use the already installed driver for the new device.

If the driver and device are incompatible, both an error and a computer freeze may occur.

Such programs include, for example, DriveCleanUp and USBOblivion.

Drivers for USB components are located in the registry, and such programs remove them from there - there is no other way.

My personal opinion is that you should use such programs only when everything is very bad when working with flash drives.

Third-party programs with incomplete compatibility can lead to new problems in the interaction of flash drives with the system, for example, the PC will stop seeing ALL flash drives.

Reinstalling USB devices in Windows Device Manager

If the computer does not see a single flash drive, and the above recommendations did not help, try the following:

1. Launch Device Manager. Open the “Run” menu by pressing the Win + R buttons, and then enter in the field devmgmt.msc
2. The device manager will open, go to the USB controllers tab.
3. Next, you need to delete, by right-clicking and selecting the appropriate item, devices with the following names:
   • USB root hub
   • USB Host Controller
   • Generic USB Hub
4. After that, select the action - update the hardware configuration

After reinstalling USB devices, check if the USB drives work on your computer or laptop.

Additional actions

1. Check your computer for viruses
2. Check the Windows registry, namely the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer . If there is a “NoDrives” parameter, remove it, and then restart your computer
3. Go to the Windows registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control.If such a "StorageDevicePolicies" key exists, delete it.
4. You can also try to completely disconnect the computer/laptop - turn it off, disconnect it from the network/battery, and then press and hold the power button for 10 seconds. After this, turn on the computer. The method is strange, but sometimes it helps.

This is where I will end the article.

After reading it, you learned about possible ways to solve the problem of an unidentified USB drive.

I hope the information was useful, and if there was a problem, you were able to fix it.

All the best.

See you again, friends!

If your computer or laptop that perfectly recognized the flash drive suddenly stopped recognizing it, “doesn’t see it point blank” or began to recognize it as an “unknown device” - this is not yet a reason to take your computer or laptop to a service center.

Let's try to solve this error ourselves.

First of all, try inserting the flash drive into another USB port. Perhaps your USB port is the one you always use stopped working for different reasons. If you work on a Personal Computer, problems most often occur when connecting to the USB port on the front panel of the computer. Therefore, to check, use only the port on the rear panel, which are built into Motherboard.

Another reason why the Computer or Laptop does not see the flash drive may lie in a system failure of the USB drivers.

To understand the driver, you can do the following:

Open the device manager; to do this, place the cursor on My Computer and press the right mouse button.

Click on Properties.

In the appeared Device Manager find USB Controllers Red arrow and click on check mark Black arrow.

Remove all USB devices (in Device Manager and reboot, all devices will be automatically detected and installed).

If this does not help, you need to reinstall the driver for the chipset. Thus, drivers for absolutely all controllers are regulated. This can also be done through Driver Pack Download. You can see how to use this program

Another common reason is – viruses. If you connected a flash drive to someone else’s computer (Internet cafe, institute, etc.), that is, in places where you can catch a virus, open the flash drive at home using Windows Explorer . If you find unknown files on it, delete .

In order to see all files on your flash drive (There are files that are not visible because the Windows system does not show hidden files by default). Therefore, you need to do the following.

In the Folder Options window that appears, click the View tab. IN additional parameters go down and click Show hidden files, folders and others…..Click OK.

Hidden files will appear on the flash drive. If the file appears autorun.inf or another file with the same extension *.inf or *.bat, Recycle (recycle bin), feel free to delete these files through the context menu (right-click on the file -> Delete ).

Another reason why the flash drive is not visible - Perhaps the settings have gone wrongBIOS, rarely, but it happens.

Go to Settings BIOS and check the parameter:

USB Legacy Support. The value should be Enabled…….How to login BIOS look .

If in Task Manager -> Universal Serial Bus Controllers – the flash drive is recognized as Unknown device. On the menu My computer and in Taskbars…

It’s not there, most likely the flash drive can be thrown away, the built-in electronics are burned out. The data is saved on it, the memory there is non-volatile, and if they are really needed, then specialists will be able to restore them using special programs, but it is expensive and you have to weigh the value of the lost information and the cost of recovery. Although you can do this yourself, which I will definitely write an article about .

Also keep in mind The service life of flash drives is not that long like hard drives and with daily use, the average lifespan is about a year. To reduce the cost of producing flash drives (have you noticed how prices for them have dropped sharply several times), developers are using various tricks, including making memory cells thinner - this reduces the number of write-rewrite cycles by 2-3 times, manufacturers they promise 5000-7000 times, but even this number can be reduced. The number of connections to the computer is also finite, usually 1000-2000 connections.

There are also such situations: when you try to write some information to a flash drive, you receive a message The USB device is not formatted, format it?.

This indicates that your flash drive has begun to “die” and storing important data on it is dangerous. Formatting in most cases helps to revive it and write files to it, but the next time you try to write, it (the flash drive) may again display such a message. This way you can format it before each attempt to transfer files.

If you receive this or a similar message, then it’s better to download a recovery utility, they are different for each brand of flash drive (Kingston, Transcend, A-Data) . Look for them on manufacturer's official website.

If the newly purchased flash drive is not immediately identified, then there are two options:

• Old drivers;
• Burnt out when first connected (This happens too).

In the first case, go to the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard, download new driver and install.

In the second - go back to the store, exchanged under warranty.

Thank you for visiting our Site. Leave your Comments and advice, and also share our articles with Your Friends on Social Networks by clicking on the labels below. Subscribe to our website.