Bricked pendrives: is there a way to recover them?

[pousinha]

Sometimes it happens. Until yesterday, your dear old pendrive was perfectly working and the day after, you switch it in the USB door and your device is unable to read it. You switch your dear old pendrive in a second USB door, even in a second device and it doesn't work any more the same. Any suggestion?

 

[gwolf666]

In my experience, when a USB drive suddenly stops working, it's usually due to file system problems or physical damage to the drive itself. The first thing I would do is test it in different USB ports and other devices to rule out a port or compatibility issue. If it doesn't work in any of them, the drive might be damaged or the file system might be corrupted. In that case, I would try using specialized data recovery software, such as Recuva or EaseUS Data Recovery, to attempt to recover the information before formatting it. However, if the drive isn't recognized by any device, the problem might be physical, and in that case, data recovery can be very difficult or expensive. Personally, I always recommend making frequent backups to avoid losing important information in these situations.

 

[pousinha]

Luckily, I had stored the same files of the corrupted pendrive in a second one that is newer and still working (and yes, my old pendrive isn't recognised by any device, nor works in whatever USB door).

 

[Min George]

The pen drive must have fallen down and hit the floor badly. Nothing can be done than to replace the drive.

 

[Starmix]

Your is drive might be loaded so it can't release images using the pen drive. Maybe you already have manipulated in solving such kind of sickening problem.

 

[neku]

In some cases malware may corrupt the data or the pen drive is not of good quality. Can you provide more information like the brand name, capacity of the pen drive?

 

[pousinha]

The pen drive must have fallen down and hit the floor badly. Nothing can be done than to replace the drive.

No, it didn't. It simply stopped to work from a day to another. I must say it's a very old stuff (purchased about 12 to 15 years ago: not really sure if the obsolescence matters).

Your is drive might be loaded so it can't release images using the pen drive. Maybe you already have manipulated in solving such kind of sickening problem.

My netbook reads whatever else pendrive, less that one. So it's not the device that matters.

In some cases malware may corrupt the data or the pen drive is not of good quality. Can you provide more information like the brand name, capacity of the pen drive?

Zero malware: it's clean. It's a Toshiba pendrive, 16 GIGAs. So the brand is really one of the best. Good capacity. Not sure if the obsolescence is the cause.