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Resolved Question

Kingston flash drive no detected (Hardware problem)

Aug 9, 2012 4:03AM PDT

I have a Kingston flash drive 8gb usb 2.0 just like this one:

http://www.hk-juhuang.com/bigpic/12/13/20100604165531.jpg

but for some reason it's not working on my pc/laptop/ps3 and any other computer I tried it on.

when I plug in the flash drive I don't get any detected sound on my windows and it's not there on my computer either, just like as if it wasn't plugged in at all, I tried using different usb ports and it's the same, I'm guessing it's a hardware problem with the flash drive itself not software at all.

I don't care about the flash itself but the files inside the flash are really important to me I just need to copy them on my PC and that's it.

I'd really appreciate your help guys.

Discussion is locked

JackBauer241 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Not always user recoverable
Aug 9, 2012 5:53AM PDT

If the PC can't see the flash drive, then its a goner or very close to it. The flash drive has crapped out due to real h/w fault or has been zapped by ESD(static). However, some flash drives have disconnected innards, like a fallen component or broken wire. If you want to check that possibility, you disassemble the drive for a look see. If nothing seems out of place, then some component is gone. Flash drives do go belly-up at some unwanted time and they go w/o warning. You can try using some "recovery s/w" but these all work they got to see the flash drive.

You're last option is to use some recovery service like: http://www.drivesavers.com -OR- any other similar service.

http://www.eprovided.com/ppc/usb-drive-recovery.html?gclid=CKzfz_Go27ECFUU0QgodZDEAww

http://www.google.com/search?aq=1&oq=flash+drive+recovery&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=flash+drive+recovery+software

The more you try to recover, the more likely you corrupt or demise any latter recovery services efforts, so its up to you and how you value your data.

tada ------Willy Happy

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Answer
Link, comment.
Aug 9, 2012 4:12AM PDT

Link: http://www.wikihow.com/Repair-a-Flash-Drive

Comment: if you feel this is too difficult for you, it's time to contact a professional data recovery company. That won't be free. On the contrary, that will be expensive. That's the price for not having a backup.
As should be well known by now, weat we have only internal hard disks for permanent storage. For backup and transport we have web storage (like Skydrive, Dropbox), CD/DVD, USB stick, external disk. But not for permanent storage.

Kees