[lejhoom]

Hello,

I have a HP 4 GB pendrive. It's rather a thumbdrive. I have copied several important documents into it.

Today while I inserted it in the laptop, the the system seemed to have recognized it and after the perfunctory messages indicating that it was working I tried to copy some more files to it. Out popped the message: Insert a disk in drive E. When I went to My Computer to check the status I found it marked as Removable disk E: and there was no indication of the name that I had assigned it.

Clicking it open doesn't entail anything. It merely states: Insert the removable disk. I am worried about the data that is in it. What could be the problem for the thumbdrive not being recognized?

I remember a couple of days back I inserted it in the USB drive of one Onida DVD player to check if really can play some mp3 files that I have in it. Actually I was checking the audio set up of the player. No sound came because the wiring was done wrongly. However, the DVD player issue was sorted out later. Could the storage device gone kaput because of using it in the DVD player?

Another curious thing I noticed was as soon as I inserted the device in the system I could hear a mild grinding noise from inside. It sounded as if the hard disk is making noise. I was able to eject the device by clicking on the Safely Remove Hardware icon. It got ejected and the noise too subsided. I tried to insert the device in the Dell desktop that I use. It too made similar grinding noise till I ejected it.

Please help!

[NetfreakBombay]

This is strange. Pendrive should not make any noise since it does not have any moving part.

You can try booting into Linux and see if it works there.

Download a bootable image from ubuntu.com and boot your PC with it. No need to install or change anything on your PC.

[drdeepudev]

Hi,
I had faced similar issue with a transcend 2gb thumbdrive. When I took it to the dealer, he told me that when you connect it to any faulty usb ports, it can happen like this. He blamed electricity for the damage. Sadly I had to give up that and purchased a Kingston 4gb. It works fine. I would suggest you to take it to the dealer who had supplied this to you. I think other techies in tbhp could help you sort out the problem.

[indiagenie]

There are 2 separate issues here -
1. Pen drive not being recognised/data potentially lost
2. Unusual/unexpected sound

For the 1st issue, I suggest checking the pen drive in another computer/laptop. My initial impression is that some rough usage (pulling the drive from the port while data trf was in progress etc.) has corrupted the drive. If so, formatting it again could solve it, provided its recognised in another computer.

If its not recognised in any computer, I am afraid you have lost your data as well as pen drive. there isn't much that any repair guy can do in this case. If the data is really crucial/sensitive, you can pay for it being retrieved by data recovery professionals.

For the 2nd issue, assuming the 1st issue gets sorted by formatting in another computer, pl post if the noise persists in other computers as well

[lejhoom]

Thank you netfreakBombay, drdeepudev and indiagenie.

I think what I wrote regarding the noise is a bit confusing. The sound came not from the pendrive but from inside the system. I checked it both on a Toshiba laptop and a Dell desktop. I felt the system was making a sort of angry grinding noise when the pendrive was inserted.

I tried to format the device in both systems. Then the message comes that there is no disk. Strange!

Right now I am rifling through all the drawers in the house for the bill and warranty card. I bought it only a few months back. At least I will be able to claim a replacement for the device. Probably that will save my day.

In case you stumble upon a remedy, please broadcast.

Regards.

[NetfreakBombay]

Do you have important data in the drive?

[SirAlec]

the pendrive usb interface part is working. But the memory chip (probably samsung or hynix) part got damaged.

In short your pendrive is damaged. If data is important. open it up, go to a mobile repair guy. Tell him to use the solder station on it. He should know how to use it and know what temp to use and to how much air speed. Or he will blow away miniature smd stuff from it.

If data is not important and its in warranty get it replaced

[navan49]

Hi friends on this isuue,

We always learn by mistakes. The documents seems to be not recovered. In the future it is always better to have all documents back up in the system as well as the external hard disk. So that your datas will be used at any situation. With pen drives it is common to happen. I had lost my datas like that but now a days I keep back up. My 3 pen drive got corrupted and irreparable. So now a days if it is with in warranty I get replacemnt other wise I buy a new one,

[Ponmayilal]

Pen drives should always be used to transfer critical data immediately or at the latest, to another computer or backup station if you use one (before the original data source gets wiped out by design.). They should never be used as a storage device to hold such critical data for an indefinite time. It always pays if you use one for all your critical and important files and one for all your non-critical music, photo and video files which you use as a media source. In short never combine these to functionalities in one drive.

With mass production and plummeting prices, the quality is sure to go down and I will not be surprised if they go the way of the 3.5" floppies did.

[navan49]

You are right Ponmayil. It is better to keep one for the music. I have 2 4 GB ones one for the Tamil Music and the other for Hindi and the other language for the guests. Datas I always keep in External HDD. Even the music also I have one back up in the EHDD for the future loading in case ,If I loose or something goes wrong with the present Pendrives.

[lejhoom]

Originally Posted by navan49

Datas I always keep in External HDD. Even the music also I have one back up in the EHDD for the future loading in case ,If I loose or something goes wrong with the present Pendrives.

Here is the irony. I had an HDD. That conked off without warning. Probably all the data in it are safe even now! Couldn't figure out a way to retrieve that.

The pen drive had some important office data, mostly used for day to day work. Luckily for me I scoured both systems at home that I work with after office hours and pulled out most data, almost. (Sigh!)

Today I even found the blister packet that the USB came in. It was bought six months ago. It has the serial number and name of importer etc. on it. I had bought it from Big Bazar. The bill got faded. I guess it was a thermal print. Nothing is there on it anymore. I should take it back there to find out where I should go to claim the warranty.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

What is the difference between a pendrive and a thumb drive?

I prefer the word "USB Stick". ;-D

I have a stick cum MP3 player which would not work on any windows computer (office, friends' places, and a laptop running Vista) due to some hardware issue with the pen drive. But on Linux, using the command line, I can write and read from it, though the kernel will spew several error messages.

It is currently doing duty as an MP3 player.

[Ponmayilal]

Originally Posted by lejhoom

.... I had an HDD. That conked off without warning....

I would suggest that you upload important and critical data files to the Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive in addition to your Back-up HDD. Gives you 25 GB storage space free.(Maximum file size 50MB). I keep a copy of a handful most critical bread and butter files there.

If you have a broadband connection at your office, you could in fact upload your files to the SkyDrive and then download/work on it online from home, without relying upon the tiny pendrive liable to be misplaced or lost.

[SirAlec]

I don't recommend uploading any sensitive data on any online data storage sites.

[Ponmayilal]

We are talking of ordinary mortals and critical and important data for these mortals and not company trade secrets, strategies, top-secret defence files and the like.

And this online storage, as a second copy of what resides in one's own back-up hard drive as a redundancy, or what you carry from office to home to work with as a means of transfer.

What one has to remember is that no company or government department will allow you to carry any crucial and sensitive data with you beyond the realms of their own highly secure network.

Just to cite an example, I am not going to store my credit card information, User Ids and Passwords on to the online storage.Even if, I shall with encryption of some sort.

I have voluminous data on my share dealings for the current financial year, on sales, purchases, receipts, payments, contract notes etc., etc., which if I lose in a hard-disk crash, is going to make life hell and miserable for me. It may take months of toiling to recompile all these data.

Every week I back it up on an external HDD and also load it to the online storage. I care two hoots if someone steals it. It will all be trash for him.

I also care less if by chance all the data on the online storage gets wiped out by accident (It did happen with one particular online storage facility). I still have it on my computer and Backup HDD (I can lose these two at one stroke in an electrical surge, fire or theft. The probability of losing all three simultaneously is next to nil). Amen.