Fixing Broken Flash Drives?

Hi! I have two flash drives that broke during large file copy operations. When I insert them, I don't get a complaint from Windows about a bad drive, but, when I try to open them, they're not there. Is there possibly a way to get them to appear in This PC so I can reformat them?

 

Do they appear under diskpart? If so then you can clean them, then format them. This will remove all files from the USB drive.
Right click start>powershell with admin & enter:
Diskpart
List disk
Select disk X (where X is the number of the USB thumb drive)
Clean

Then open disk management & format the drive.
Do this for both drives.

 

When I type list disk I get:

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 953 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 1 No Media 0 B 0 B

Might it be Disk 1?

 

When I type clean, I get:

Virtual Disk Service error:
There is no media in the device.

 

Disk 0 is usually the Windows installation/drive.
You should see the make of the USB, if this isn’t showing then the drive may be unrecoverable.

 

I just came back here and tried this solution on another flash drive and found an error again. This time, the problem is that, while the drive registers in This PC, it is inaccessible: Windows asks me to enter the disk. Also, I get the same errors as stated here. I have only one flash drive that's both working and unused, and I need it to eliminate a password on a Win7 laptop I just got because another one broke. BTW, I like its GUI and remember it from a WinVista tower I had a long time ago. Can I get it on Win11/64? I think I have Home Edition but am not sure.

 

I can soon buy some more flash drive but need to go to my mother's house first, because I really don't quite have my own finances but don't know when I will be there. I might have an empty and working flash drive still and need to check, but I may soon need an extra flash drive. Worse yet, a program to fix the administrator password on two computers at a day program--the one I had doesn't boot anymore--broke two flash drives. It was a trial-basis program, when others required money. I forgot the URL, though, and it's neither open in my browser nor in my Favorites. I'm wondering if there's another way to get them to work. I'd better continue trying....

 

EaseUS Data Recovery, free version.

 

I just tried your suggestion, but it seems to recover lost data, not lost hardware. Also, the free version recovers up to 2GB, while each broken flash drive is worth 32GB. Also, I don't think the flash drives have any data that needs to be recovered.

 

I went ahead and did a Google search and found Fix Unreadable USB/Pen Drive with Free USB Repair Tools in Windows 10, but it didn't work. The site said that the drive in unrecoverable. I'll try another flash drive now.

 

Update: one of the flash drives that were corrupted won't register in diskpart at all. Also, DiskGenius and ThisPC don't register it either. I'll look back at the web site.

 

Nothing worked: the drives are totally inaccessible.

 

If none of those utilities see the drive, they're borked.

 

Okay. Thank you.

 

Here's one of my favorite drive health tools. Usually pretty accurate...
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hard_disk_sentinel.html

 

The page says it's for hard drives and SSDs. My problems are with flash drives.

 

SSDs are flash memory. There are some RAM based exceptions.

 

Good news! I recently found three flash drives I can recycle. I also found a missing flash drive earlier today.

 

Did you explore the application? Lots of useful information under the tabs.

 

I don't understand.

 

Some applications make it difficult for MS-DOS?Windows to recognize them intrinsically, even "diskpart." But if you have been using an "app" that actually "bricked" two flash drives (i.e., damaged them physically beyond repair) I'd consider it MALWARE, not a helpful app, and immediately delete from my system, to prevent further damage to other flash drives, or ultimateely the entire system.No "good" utility or app is supposed to destroy flash drives beyond repair/recovery.

 

You're right, and I thank you. I stopped using the application, and it's no longer causing problems. The web site did say it was free for trial purposes, a possible sign of malware, when every other program cost money.

 

Many programs offer a free trial period, and the great bulk of these are not malware. In fact, I can't recall ever having run into one that was. All one has to do is actually research the candidate application (read what the developer has to say, check reviews, etc.) before installing something new and, if it is something that could terminally bork your machine, create a restore point first. Ideally, one would use a drive imaging program regularly.

I suspect that you, Mr. HarryPotter, having read a number of your posts here, have a tendency to go into things without a safety plan. I could be wrong, but...

 

Umm...you're right.

 

Especially when using ancient hardware and OSes, it pays to be careful...and ALWAYS take care when using a machine you absolutely depend on. An ounce of prevention, as they say.