The cf flash drive is not detected. The computer does not see the flash drive

Step-by-step instruction By restoration USB flash drives in which I will try accessible language answer the question How to recover a flash drive independently and without much effort.

Sometimes you help a person, and then he will tell everyone that you are so good and there are already crowds of people thirsty for help. This is roughly what happened when I restored several flash drives colleagues.

Now the people bear not only their own flash drives, but also flash drives your friends, acquaintances and relatives. Well, at least someone else would bring a bottle of beer or a cookie.

It’s not difficult for me to help, but when I suggest you learn how to do all this yourself, you refuse. Next time I’ll just sew them off. If you don't want to study, pass by.

I’ll finish with the lyrics here and move directly to the topic of the post..

If your flash drive stopped be determined like a disk, doesn't want to formatted, does not allow you to write down information or something else happened to it, BUT it has no mechanical damage, then you know that all is not lost. Most likely a glitch controller and you will have to tinker with it a little. This procedure takes approximately 5 minutes.

I’ll say right away that there is no universal programs For recovery all varieties flash drives. You will need to find exactly the one that can work with your controller. flash drives.

First we need to define VID And PID non-working flash drives.

Determine VID and PID for flash drive recovery

Stick it in flash drive into your computer and run device Manager. Start – Execute - mmc devmgmt.msc.

Then go to the section Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

We find ours in the list flash drive. Usually, everything flash drives have a name USB storage device.

Press the right button on the device and open Properties.

Go to the tab Intelligence.

Select the item from the drop-down list Instance code devices or Equipment IDs.

In this window we see PID And VID.

Finding a flash drive recovery program

We go to the website FlashBoot.ru and enter the received VID And PID.

Click on the button Search.

In the results we look for your manufacturer and model of the flash drive. I have Kingston DataTraveler 2.0.

The right column will contain the name of the program we need or a link to it.

All. Now search in Google program by name or download from the link provided. Launch and follow the instructions. Usually, in such programs for recovery There’s only one button, so you shouldn’t have any questions.

That's all!

If you have any questions, ask in the comments.

Today, one of the most popular digital storage media is the USB flash drive. Unfortunately, this option for storing information cannot provide a complete guarantee of its safety. A flash drive tends to break down, in particular, there is a possibility that a situation will arise that the computer will stop reading it. For some users, depending on the value of the data being stored, this could be a disaster. But do not despair, as it is possible to recover lost files. Let's figure out how this can be done.

As a rule, problems with reading a flash drive can occur in two cases:

• Physical damage;
• Controller firmware failure.

In the first case, you, of course, can try to fix the USB drive yourself by soldering the corresponding elements or replacing the controller. But if you are not sure that you have the necessary knowledge, then it is better not to try to do this, as you may irretrievably lose valuable information. We advise you to contact a specialist who will carry out all the work on repairing the flash drive and restoring data.

If the cause of the problem is a controller firmware failure, then the likelihood of solving the problem yourself without involving specialists is quite high. You just need to reflash the flash drive, and then perform the data recovery procedure, following the instructions below.

If the flash drive is initialized in "Device Manager", but it is not readable, which means that the problem is most likely in the firmware. If USB drive is not displayed there at all, there is a high probability of its physical damage.

Stage 1: Flashing the flash drive

First of all, you need to flash the USB storage controller. But you need to immediately find out what kind of software needs to be installed on it. This can be done via "Device Manager".

1. Run "Device Manager" and open the block in it "USB Controllers".

   

   Lesson: How to open Device Manager in Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows XP

2. Find the name in the list "USB Mass Storage Device" and click on it. In order to avoid mistakes, it is advisable that only one flash drive (non-working) is connected to the computer at this time.



3. In the window that opens, move to the section "Intelligence".



4. From the dropdown list "Property" select an option "Equipment ID". In area "Meaning" information about the current flash drive will be displayed. In particular, we will be interested in data VID And PID. Each of these values ​​is a four-digit code followed by an underscore. Remember or write down these numbers.

   

5. Next, open your browser and go to the section "iFlash" on the website flashboot.ru. Enter the previously set values ​​in the appropriate fields of the window VID And PID. After that click "Find".



6. A list of software that matches the entered data will open. This can be quite an impressive list, but you should find the item that matches the capacity of the flash drive and its manufacturer. Even if you find several elements that meet the specified criteria, it’s okay, since they must correspond to the same “firmware”. Now in the column "Utils" opposite the name of the USB drive, find the name of the software that you need to install.



7. Then go to the section "Files" on the same site, enter the name of this software into the search bar, and then download the utility that will be the first in the search results. If you do not find the required firmware on this site, then try searching on the official website of the flash drive manufacturer. Search on other resources only as a last resort, since instead of the firmware there is a possibility of downloading a malicious utility.



8. Once the software is downloaded, launch it and follow the recommendations that will be displayed on the screen. You may first have to install the utility on your computer and only then run it. In this regard, the procedure depends on the specific program. In this case, the problematic flash drive must be connected to the computer.



9. After following all the recommendations displayed on the screen, the flash drive will be reflashed, which means its malfunction has been eliminated.

Stage 2: File Recovery

Flashing a flash drive means that all files on it will be deleted. Despite the fact that the USB drive has become functional again, the information previously stored on it will remain unavailable to the user. In this case, it is necessary to additionally perform a recovery procedure, which can be performed using special utilities. We will look at the algorithm of actions using the R-studio program as an example.

Attention! After flashing and before performing the file recovery procedure, do not write any information to the flash drive under any circumstances. Every byte of new data written reduces the chance of recovering old data.

1. Connect the USB flash drive to your computer and launch R-studio. In the tab "Disk panel" find and highlight the partition letter that corresponds to the problematic flash drive, and then click on the element "Scan".



2. The scan settings window will open. You can leave the default settings in it and just click on the button "Scanning".



3. The scanning procedure will be launched, the progress of which can be monitored using the indicator at the bottom of the window, as well as using the sector table in the tab "Scan Information".



4. After the scanning is completed, click on the item "Found by signatures".



5. A new tab will open showing sets of files grouped by content into folders. Click on the name of the group to which the objects being restored belong.



6. Then folders that are more specialized by content type will open. Select the desired directory and then the files available for recovery will be displayed on the right side of the interface.



7. Check the boxes next to the names of the files you want to restore, and then click the button "Restore marked...".



8. Next, the recovery settings window will open. The main thing here is to indicate exactly where you want to restore the objects. It should not be a problematic flash drive, but any other medium. Maybe, HDD computer. To specify the save location, click on the button with an ellipsis in it.



9. In the window that opens, go to the directory where you want to restore the files and click the button "Select folder...".



10. After the path to the selected folder is displayed in the recovery settings window, click "Yes".



11. The selected files will be restored to the folder that was specified in the program. Now you can open this directory and perform any standard manipulations with the objects located there.

Even if the flash drive is unreadable, you should not “bury” the data located on it. The USB drive can be revived and the information restored. To do this, you need to consistently perform the procedures for flashing the controller and restoring data using specialized utilities.

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I’m sure you have documents, photographs or videos that should never be deleted. If this happens, they will help. But what to do if the flash drive literally breaks or stops working? Why did this happen? Today I will answer these questions.

First of all, let's define the terms. When they say “flash drive,” they mean a device with a USB connector:

And what is inserted into phones and cameras is called memory cards:

But this is unnecessary complexity and can be misleading. Both types of memory drives can be called flash drives. The cards have exactly the same parts (okay, a little more compact) as USB flash drives. This identical devices. Yes, they look different, the method of exchanging data between the device and the flash drive is different, but otherwise they are similar. The only difference is where they are connected.

And their problems are similar, and the treatment (data recovery) is the same. And it’s not always easy. Remember:

The success of data recovery depends on the severity of the situation, the model of the flash drive and the amount of money in the owner’s pocket.

You need to know that repairing and restoring data are two mutually exclusive situations. When pulling out information, you will have to gut the flash drive so that it will not be possible to put it back together. But you will have the data.

What can break? And if it breaks, will it be possible to restore the files?

1. Memory chips with cells in which data is stored.

Data cannot be written to memory cells forever. Their read-write cycle life is limited to hundreds of thousands of operations. Once the limit is exceeded, the cell will not be able to hold a charge. Files will become unreadable or their contents will be damaged. And if the loss of a couple of bytes in text document threatens only the absence of a couple of letters, then for photographs, videos and archives any distortion is unacceptable.

The data is stored in such a chip. There may be several of them

To avoid data corruption, memory chips have cells that are not used during normal use. As soon as the memory begins to fail, the controller (more on it later) will prohibit work with the faulty cell and substitute a spare one in its place. Alas, there is not much spare memory; sooner or later the reserve area will be completely used up. Then plan “B” will come into effect: data recording will be prohibited. Reading will not be lost anywhere, so you can safely copy the files to your home computer or other safe place.

But this is ideal. I have only encountered a similar situation on memory cards. USB flash drives usually start to “glitch”: the saved files stop opening because they are damaged. What to do? Alas: no data recovery programs will help here!

So damage to the memory chip can result in permanent loss of data. Fortunately, the read-write resource is quite large (hundreds of thousands of cycles). Even if you completely fill up the flash drive every day and then delete everything, failure will not occur before a year of operation. And MicroSD in phones are more resistant to this, because, as I wrote above, protection is triggered and files can be copied to a safe place.

Much more often problems arise with the controller.

2. Controller(not a controller!) - a chip that takes care of data transfer between memory chips and a computer, phone or other external device.

Most often, problems arise with it. This complex component with its own memory and a set of electronic parts in which anything can break. For example, the contents of the controller’s firmware are often damaged and the flash drive is simply not detected when connected to a computer or becomes visible as a disk with a size of 0 bytes. Many USB flash drives can be repaired at home using flashing programs (the data will be lost!), but this trick will not work with miniature memory cards - they have a monolithic body (to put it simply, everything is inside one chip), which cannot be disassembled.

The controller cannot be repaired, but data can be restored. Contact data recovery companies - they will be able to connect to the memory chip, bypassing the controller, or transfer the memory to exactly the same donor flash drive.

3. Electronic “harness”. These are various electronic components (resistors, diodes, power regulator) scattered across the board.

The parts are “on the front lines”, smoothing out voltage surges due to the unexpected removal of a flash drive from the port and other electronic interference, so very vulnerable. The situation is especially bad with memory cards and monolithic flash drives: due to the dense layout, the working parts are poorly cooled, and the risk of burnout increases. Memory cards, unlike monolithic USB flash drives, are even worse: they are located inside a working device, which also heats up.

Depending on the model of the flash drive, you can either replace the parts with new ones (and the flash drive will last for some time), or connect directly to the memory chip to get the data. Of course, this requires people with the right skills and technology.

Advice: in winter, when fluffy warm clothes become a trend, static electricity kills this very “harness” once or twice. If you are wearing something that causes sparks when you take it off, before working with the computer and/or picking up a flash drive, touch the unpainted part of the heating battery - the accumulated charge will go away and the equipment will be out of danger.

4. Connector and housing.

USB flash drives and memory cards have different connectors, but the problem is common: the contacts are damaged. Oxidation, erasure, simply insufficient pressure - and now the flash drive is no longer detected when connected, and the phone does not see the memory card. The problem can be solved by cleaning the contacts with an eraser or, if it is a full-size USB connector, by slightly squeezing it so that the flash drive sits tightly when connected to the computer.

For large memory cards, the latch may break or the casing may peel off; this can be repaired with ordinary tape (wrap the casing and you’re done). The contacts can also be wiped, but if the housing is cracked, it’s a lost cause. I had no idea how fragile they were until I accidentally knocked the MicroSD off the table and ruined it. Having fallen on its edge, the card simply cracked.

I have also often seen the consequences of finding a flash drive in the back pocket of jeans. The result is always the same:

Sometimes the expression “something bad happened” should be taken literally. Photo from dannydullin.com

Repairing broken connectors is a fairly simple procedure for service center workers. After repair, the flash drive can continue to be used.

About software glitches

In addition to hardware failures, software failures also occur. Files in case software Failures are fairly easy to recover from. Usually free programs and grabs it headlong. Then format the flash drive and continue using it.

A simple way to determine the type of failure: if the flash drive does not show itself when connected to a PC or phone, the hardware is broken. And if it is recognized, but there is something wrong with the files, the problem is software. Usually the algorithm of actions is as follows:

1. Retrieve information using data recovery programs.

2. Format the flash drive (right-click on the drive in the “This Computer” folder - Format - Start).

The only one software problem, which cannot be solved by formatting - changing the size of the section. Appears after installing a large flash drive in old cameras. The camera, unaware that such capacious flash drives exist, creates a partition that is smaller than necessary. It will help you to work with disk partitions. Can using Windows: Control Panel - Computer Management - Disk Management - right-click on the partition on the flash drive - Delete volume, then Create volume, you need to select FAT32 instead of NTFS. This will rebuild the file system from scratch with the correct size.

Hardware failures

So, what to do if the controller burns out or the flash drive breaks in half, and there is important data there? How to restore them?

This is where the difficulties begin. Data mining methods can be divided into three conventional types. It all depends on what is broken and what type of flash drive - regular or monolithic.

1. Transfer memory to a working flash drive.

Specialists install a memory chip from a damaged flash drive onto a donor of exactly the same model.

Ideal option: after repair, the flash drive connected to the computer is recognized as normal removable drive, documents are easily and simply copied to a safe place. You can’t pull off this trick with memory cards; the components are too tightly packed and cannot be soldered, or the case is completely monolithic. But the following option is suitable.

2. Read memory directly.

To access memory, you can do without a controller. Specialists connect directly to the outputs of the memory chip and read its contents in “raw” form, then use specialized data recovery software to retrieve the files.

But this is not always the case. Sometimes there are several memory chips and/or the controller operates according to its own algorithms, which only the manufacturer knows about.

3. Data recovery from monolithic devices.

It is not possible to quickly connect to the memory of MicroSD cards and some models of SD and USB flash drives; you need to do difficult work at least to access the pins of the memory chip. Retrieving data requires expensive equipment that most laboratories do not have and a lot of time. That's why prices are high. The minimum price for restoring monolithic flash drives, which I found on the Internet, is 12 thousand rubles.

Connecting to a memory chip on a monolithic flash drive. Photo from gillware.com

Working with monolithic flash drives is a complex and painstaking process that does not always end in success.

Why are monolithic flash drives bad? The fact is that instead of the good old board, they use a thin substrate and parts soldered with wires less than a hair thick. All this stuff is covered in varnish. The result is a monolithic structure that cannot be disassembled. Specialists use a microscope to peel off layer by layer, and then, when the tracks become visible, they solder them to the desired contacts. This is a temporary measure; after removing the data, the flash drive goes to waste.

Photo from blog.acelaboratory.com

An important point: when restoring monolithic flash drives, a donor is often needed. To understand which contact is responsible for what, you need to look using logic analyzer and, possibly, an X-ray machine, just like how exactly the same intact flash drive works.

Monolithic flash drive under x-ray. Photo from the site habrahabr.ru

Such work requires appropriate payment, so not everyone can afford to pay for data recovery from monolithic flash drives. If I were an employee of a laboratory with a similar service, I would insert an advertisement here, but I do not work in this area, so I will tell the victims one thing: I sincerely sympathize. It’s especially sad when a flash drive from an unnamed Chinese manufacturer breaks. Maybe I don’t know something and the nameless flash drives are as similar to each other as two peas in a pod, but something tells me that this is not so.

When a flash drive from the Chinese brand XEDIAN gave up life as a wife, I began to look at it (the flash drive, not my wife) in the hope that it had service contacts. These contacts simplify access to memory and, accordingly, reduce the cost of the recovery process. There were no contacts, but under the top layer of paint I found the inscription “SanDisk Extreme Plus 32 GB”. It was applied crookedly, which indicates a fake, and there are no memory cards similar in appearance on the SanDisk website. Rhetorical question: how much will it cost to recover data from a flash drive from a Chinese manufacturer that stamps its nameplate on counterfeit memory cards? It’s difficult to find a donor, because under the card with that name they hide different models, judging by the photos and reviews on Aliexpress. This is a case where a recovery attempt can cost a pretty penny and is unlikely to be successful.

Why do flash drives break?

Have you inserted a flash drive into your computer, it is not detected and cleaning the contacts did not help? This does not mean, that you are unlucky. Any Technology tends to break down when used. Defects, power surges, temperature changes, hands from the wrong place - everything can cause a breakdown. You just have to accept it and move on with your life. Well, or look service centers with data recovery service.

To avoid sadness, in advance make backups. Many have already forgotten about the existence of DVD, but this is a good way to store archival photographs, videos and other digital data dear to the heart. Or buy an external hard drive.

Phone owners: you can install Yandex.Disk, enable auto-uploading of photos to the cloud and you will never lose memorable entries. Only 10 GB is available for free, but until July 3

Read, what to do if Windows does not display the connected device. How to restore functionality to such a device if this is the reason. A flash drive or any other USB drive should be automatically detected by the computer and displayed in Explorer and the “This PC” folder after connecting to the USB port.

Diagnosis of the problem

The first thing you need to do if connected USB disk not shown in file manager Windows, you need to check the tool Disk management.

To open Disk management in Windows 8/10, right-click on the menu Start and select "Disk Management". In Windows 7, press the combination Windows keys+ R to open dialog box "Run" and enter the command in it diskmgmt.msc.

Check the list of drives in the window Disk management and find the USB drive that is not detected. It should appear here even if it is not in the folder "This computer", and match in size. Sometimes it is defined as "Removable device", but not always.

If you do not see your disk or flash drive even in Disk Management, then try the following:

• Turn on the disk, if there is such a function. Some external hard disks have a separate power cable or are turned on using a separate key designed for this.
• Connect your device to another USB port. Disconnect the flash drive from this USB port and connect to another. Perhaps one of the USB ports on your computer has failed.
• Connect the device to your computer without a USB hub. If the flash drive is connected to the computer via an extension cord or USB hub, try disconnecting it from it and connecting it directly to the computer. Perhaps the reason is in the hub.
• Try another computer. Connect the flash drive to the USB port of another computer and see if it is recognized by it. If the device is also not detected by another computer, then most likely the problem lies with it.

Solution

If the problem options described above do not apply to your case, then your problem can most likely be solved using one of the methods described below. Depending on what you find in Disk Management, there are options for solutions to the problem that has arisen with identifying an external storage medium.

If Windows sees the disk, but cannot read it, then this means that it has a file system that it does not support. In this case operating system will prompt you to format the disk before using it. But don't rush to do it! This will destroy all your data.

If other computers see the flash drive, but yours doesn’t

If other computers detect your USB drive, but yours does not, then most likely there is a problem with the device drivers.

To check this, open Device Manager and look for Disk devices And USB controllers. See if there are any devices marked in yellow in these sections exclamation point. If there is such a device, right-click on it and select Properties. The properties will contain information about the error and driver status.

To fix the driver problem, right-click on the device, select Properties / Driver / Update.

If the disk is visible in Disk Management

If the disc is visible in Disk Management, but it does not have a letter, then it is for this reason that it may not be displayed in Windows Explorer. In order for the system to start displaying it in Explorer, such a drive must be assigned a letter.

To do this, right-click on it and select "Change drive letter or drive path". If there is no such item in the pop-up menu, this may be due to the absence or unsupported file system type of the storage medium.

In the menu that opens, you will see that the drive does not have a letter assigned - assign it. To do this, select Add / / Ok.

If the disk is visible in Disk Management, but it is not allocated

If the disc is visible in Disk Management, but it is not distributed, which means that it is not formatted. In order for such a disk to become operational, right-click on it and select "Create Simple Volume".

Select the maximum suggested partition size and assign a drive letter suggested by the system. After this, the disk will be normally detected by the system and ready for use.

If the disk is visible in Disk Management but cannot be formatted

If for some reason the disk cannot be formatted, then to restore its functionality, you can completely erase it and then re-create the partition.

Note. As a result of such manipulation, all data from the disk (as well as flash drives or memory cards) will be permanently deleted. Therefore, worry about their safety in advance - scan the disk or flash drive using Hetman Partition Recovery, and save your data in a convenient place.

To clean the disk, open Command line as administrator and clean it up using the command diskpart – "clean".