Flash USB Drive
I usually keep a Flash USB Drive for my critical data. I noticed that my computer has been slowing down and I could not find out why until I saw that it was my Flash USB Drive. Someone how my Flash USB Drive has become corrupted and when I plug it in explorer sees it as a removable drive that cannot be read.
Methods I have tried that did not work (Although it has worked for others):
It seems like there are a lot of software that recover data from corrupted USB drives (must be a common thing the fact that USB drives get corrupted). Anyhow, is this link useful?
https://www.pdd.in/data-restore/usb-drive.asp
I think you can download it for free.
I have downloaded several USB Drive recovery software, but the problem is that even these tools do not detect anything on the drive - they see my pen drive as being unreadable.
When I insert the stick into a USB port the computer will see it and register a letter and name it as "Removable Disk" rather than the original name I gave it. When I click on the drive icon I get "Please insert a disk into removable disk" instead of an explorer window to show files.
The light on it no longer blinks which may indicate it is dead, but at the same time if the computer can read it as a device gives me some hope.
My very last try was to download Ubuntu, a Linux OS, as some sites said that these drives can sometimes be accessed from Linux and not Windows, but it did not work. I now have to face the reality that it is dead. The information is important, but not so important as to pay US$600-900 to recover it which is what recovery services want you to fork out to do it.
I hate to hear that you have had trouble with your USB drive. I have not had any trouble out of the ones that I use and I have had many of them for years. I do know how easy they are to depend on but it might be worth taking the time to backup your pen to a CD or DVD where possible. This way you will always have the instant access with your pen drive that you are used to but you will also have a disc backup just in case anything ever happens again. While you may only backup to disc once a month or so, you can at least have some if not all of your information.