USB Flash Drive "not formatted"

I have a USB 512MB Flash Drive/Stick which is a few months old and had been working fine on different PCs until recently. (UFD-200033)

Now I get a message telling me that it is "not formatted", and I can't access it at all.

I have tried it on a couple of PCs, including the one it was first formatted and used in, but the same thing happens. (I have tried it in a laptop, but the laptop crashes and I get a blue screen as soon as I plug the stick in.)

The 'Recover disc' utility on the driver disc that came with the stick has a read/write test, but when I use it it says "After running Recover Disc, all data will be lost."

I have had a look around the internet, but all I can find are fixers for memory cards for digital cameras.

Any ideas on how I can get access to my memory stick again? Or what has caused this / how I can avoid it happening again?

 

Maybe go to the manufacturers website and download the driver that relates to your card. I know that OS's later than W98 probably automatically recognise the Flash drive using a Generic Plug and Play driver, but it may be worth trying to an original driver.

Another idea, and I have never tried it, might be to Format z: (where z is your flash drive ID on "My Computer". You will lose all your info on the Flash drive, as you are probably aware, if it works. Keep us informed how you go, to increase our knowledge. Bazza
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As an experiment for you, I just copied all my stuff from my USB 256mb JumpDrive to c:\jumpdrive. I then formatted my jumpdrive by typing the command format Z: where "Z" is the jumpdrive. It worked perfectly. I now have a blank formatted JumpDrive.

It should work on your USB flash/jump drive.

If it does work, or doesn't work, let us know and we will try further ideas. Bazza