Member Avatar for markaw1

Hi,
My pen drive appears completely dead when I insert it. I can't select in anywhere and the light is not coming on. Is there any way of getting the information from it before it goes in the bin?

Thanks.

Windows Vista Home Premium

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Quick, practical checklist and follow-up notes for anyone who finds a USB stick “dead.” This complements the thread: ’s follow-up shows a solder repair can work, and earlier replies from , and point to physical/age issues — here are safe, concrete steps and cautions to try before deciding the drive is unrecoverable.

First triage (do this before opening the stick): test the drive on another known-good PC and different ports (avoid unpowered hubs). On Windows look in Device Manager and Disk Management; on Linux check dmesg, lsusb or lsblk to see if the controller enumerates. If the OS never sees the device at all, avoid repeated plugging; that can make intermittent faults worse.

If the drive is seen even briefly, make a raw image immediately and work from the image. Boot a Linux live USB if needed and use a cloning tool (example commands): ddrescue -n /dev/sdX usb.img usb.map or dd if=/dev/sdX of=~/usb.img bs=4M conv=sync,noerror. Always verify the device node first with lsblk/dmesg — writing to the wrong device destroys data. Recover files from the image with file-recovery tools rather than working on the original.

If there is no enumeration, inspect the PCB/connector for broken solder joints, corrosion or cracked pads (this is what and were suggesting). Simple connector reflow or re-soldering sometimes restores access (as experienced), but opening the case voids warranty and risks damage. If the controller or NAND is dead, professional “chip-off” labs can sometimes recover data — they are specialist and can be expensive, so get a quote and ask about encrypted-controller handling first.

Do not try myths like microwaving, submerging in liquids, or magnets. Prevention: treat USB sticks as transient storage — follow a 3-2-1 backup rule (three copies, two media, one offsite), refresh and replace aging drives, and avoid relying on a single pen drive for irreplaceable data.

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All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for jbennet

how old is it and what have you been using it for (please dont say windows readyboost...) it may have just worn out

Member Avatar for caperjack

Hi,
My pen drive appears completely dead when I insert it. I can't select in anywhere and the light is not coming on. Is there any way of getting the information from it before it goes in the bin?

Thanks.

Windows Vista Home Premium

are you sure it the drive and not the usb slot ,try plugging in elsewhere

Member Avatar for OlyComputers

I've never heard of anybody recovering data off of a dead flash drive. I'd strip off the case and look at the guts of it, it might just be a broken connector that you could patch to transfer data, if not then you're probably going to lose it.

Member Avatar for markaw1

It's a Sumvision pen drive, just used to save regular files from Word or Interactive Whiteboard etc. It's a couple of years old. I've tried it in 3 different machines, dead every time.

Cheers

Member Avatar for jbennet

if its a few years old, it probably just wore out / battery died if it had one

Member Avatar for markaw1

Are there people who can sort that kind of thing at all?

Member Avatar for jbennet

not really. If so, they will probably charge like $1000.

Member Avatar for caperjack

Are there people who can sort that kind of thing at all?

its possiably just broke ,wore out no way of fixing ,but its also possible that one or more of the 4 connection to the MainBoard is broke away from the MB,if you can take it apart to check if solder is broken ,i have a usb wireless device that is broke away and i took it apart to solder the joint again !now it works

Member Avatar for OlyComputers

Yep, There are some basic connections that you could repair yourself, at least well enough to get the data off. But if you're not a solder tech it would probably just be the USB pins you could work with.

Because of the nature of flash drives the data is stored on a proprietary chip, connected to the board by dozens of small solder points. I doubt anybody would recover the data for you if the board couldn't be repaired.

Member Avatar for markaw1

My brother cracked open the sealed unit and managed to solder it and get it working to burn the data on cd. Thanks for all the responses everyone, they saved me from a whole world of stress! Note to self...back up your pen drive immediately!!
Cheers

Member Avatar for caperjack

My brother cracked open the sealed unit and managed to solder it and get it working to burn the data on cd. Thanks for all the responses everyone, they saved me from a whole world of stress! Note to self...back up your pen drive immediately!!
Cheers

great news ! gotta like it when someone gets takes the bull by the horns and gets it done!!!!

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