Colleague's USB pen drive not showing in Windows Explorer, Disk Management or Device Manager - Optio

MarcLister

MarcLister

MarcLister

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A colleague gave me his USB pen drive today saying it wasn't showing up on his computer. I put it in my pocket and forgot about it until I got home. Hey, it was a hectic day. :p

I've plugged the pen drive into 4 different USB sockets and nothing from Windows 7 to show any detection or recognition of the device. There's nothing showing up in Windows Explorer, Disk Management or Device Manager. I've refreshed all three several times to see if Windows catches up but to no avail. Windows 7 isn't showing any little info bubble from the start bar next to the clock to show its installing the drivers.

Is there any hope for this pen drive? Do I need to get a Linux Live CD to boot from and use that to either fix or copy data off the pen drive?
 
Does the BIOS see it?

If not, I would say it was dead. Your only hope after that is a data recovery specialist, if the data is worth enough.
 
Haven't tried that. I've got to restart for some Windows Updates so I might try that out then. Will a Linux Live CD not do anything at all?
 
If it's not in the BIOS, and you know the BIOS is capable of detecting USB drives, I would expect that a Linux Live CD will act the same as MS Windows and you'll get nothing. Is there any light on the drive to indicate power?
 
Oh dear! :( From what I understand not much happened to it that could have caused this. Going to restart now and see if BIOS can detect it.

BIOS can detect USB devices but I couldn't get mine to show information about them. All I see is "Removable Dev" for USB devices. I'll have another look at work.
 
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Usually if it detects a Removeable Device it will display a serial number or some sort of ID in the boot order settings that will help identify it, especially if it's a named brand.

The fact that there's nothing at all in windows (especially device manager), suggests that it's dead. I just hope your colleague has exercised good practice and has a backup elsewhere.
 
i would place a bet that the usb socket has been damaged. Does it feel loose? If so take the plastic off and see if the pins have come away from the board. THat sort of recovery will cost you under £100 or you could give it a go with a soldering iron yourself, depending on how important it is and if there are backups of course ;)
 
What make and model drive it is? There are some Youtube videos that have some tips how to DIY repair and recover some.
 
Uhtred said:
i would place a bet that the usb socket has been damaged. Does it feel loose? If so take the plastic off and see if the pins have come away from the board. THat sort of recovery will cost you under £100 or you could give it a go with a soldering iron yourself, depending on how important it is and if there are backups of course ;)
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Hmm I didn't check that. I'll have a look at work.

.Jay. said:
What make and model drive it is? There are some Youtube videos that have some tips how to DIY repair and recover some.
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Yellow one of these: http://www.integralmemory.com/product/splash-usb-flash-drive
 
Well I'm at work and the USB pen drive has been plugged in since I turned my PC on. Not a flipping dicky bird on my work PC.

How much are we talking for a data recovery specialist? And what chance of actually getting data off intact? I'd like to be able to tell my colleague how much this'll cost and the likelihood of it actually working.
 
MarcLister said:
Well I'm at work and the USB pen drive has been plugged in since I turned my PC on. Not a flipping dicky bird on my work PC.

.
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is the connector bit lose? last few data recovery's I did for people was a case of break off the plastic cover and squeeze the 4 metal bits from the USB connector onto the 2 metalic pads on the PCB...
 
edscdk said:
is the connector bit lose? last few data recovery's I did for people was a case of break off the plastic cover and squeeze the 4 metal bits from the USB connector onto the 2 metalic pads on the PCB...
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I had a quick look this morning. It seems fine to me. When you say PCB do you mean on the USB port on the computer?
 
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