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My new USB Stick with important data can't be opened by my or my friend's Windows Computer anymore. I can tell that it is recognized by it since a "device" is "mounted" under E:/ and my computer makes a sound when I connect it but it won't show the USB's original name nor does it allow me to access the data.

When I click on it it asks me to insert a USB-Drive.

  1. I have tried already to deactivate and reactivate the USB Stick
  2. to deinstall and reinstall drivers for the USB-Stick
  3. to rename the driver letter from E:/ to P:/ and back to E:/
  4. and put it into the freezer for 20 minutes (my friend recommended this)

I hope anybody can help me out with this as the data is really important to me.

Here is the data that my system gives me for the Stick:

  • Device Name = Port_#0003.Hub_#0001
  • Description = Samsung Flash Drive FIT USB Device
  • Device Type = Mass Storage
  • Connected = Yes
  • Safe To Unplug = Yes
  • Disabled = No
  • USB Hub = No
  • Drive Letter = E:
  • Serial Number = 0329516090014309
  • Created Date = 25.12.2016 18:22:06
  • Last Plug/Unplug Date = 25.12.2016 16:54:20
  • VendorID = 090c
  • ProductID = 1000
  • Firmware Revision = 11.00
  • USB SubClass = 06
  • USB Protocol = 50
  • USB Class = 08
  • Service Name = USBSTOR
  • Service Description = @usbstor.inf,%USBSTOR.SvcDesc%;USB Mass Storage Driver
  • Driver Filename = USBSTOR.SYS
  • Device Mfg = Compatible USB storage device
  • USB Version = 2.10
  • Driver Description = USB Mass Storage Device
  • Driver Version = 10.0.14393.0
  • Driver InfSection = USBSTOR_BULK.NT
  • Driver InfPath = usbstor.inf
  • Instance ID = USB\VID_090C&PID_1000\0329516090014309
  • Capabilities = Removable, UniqueID, SurpriseRemovalOK

Edit 25.12.2016 - Opposed to another question posted here I have no access to the storage size information of my flash drive - hence it must be a different problem.

Den Den
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1 Answers1

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If even chkdsk cannot access the stick, it is possible that the stick is formatted in a file system that Windows does not recognize - possibly ext{2,4}. You can do one of these:

This tutorial (http://www.howtogeek.com/112888/3-ways-to-access-your-linux-partitions-from-windows/) cites three tools/drivers to access to extX from Windows directly:

Apart from that, there are two ways that you can easily deploy Linux without interrupting your Windows installation:

  • You can install Virtualbox and add a lightweight and easily installed Linux distribution (such as Lubuntu, or Puppy Linux) as a VM.
  • You can install a lightweight and easily installed Linux distribution (such as Lubuntu, or maybe Puppy Linux) to a USB (provided that you have at least two USB ports, or a USB hub).

In USB installation, you can easily copy the contents of the disk to the Windows partition. In the case of Virtualbox VM, you have to define a shared folder, so that Linux and Windows can share files.

S.C
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  • thanks for your reply - but the USB Stick has worked on my computer before and I have tried connecting it to a linux PC already. – Den Den Dec 25 '16 at 19:48
  • Is it ever mounted on Linux? What did happen? Can you provide some more information. If the case is that the disk is corrupted, I will recommend a tool to extract the filesystem in it. – S.C Dec 25 '16 at 19:50
  • I tried mounting on Ubuntu VirtualBox but it won't mount nor show up in dmseg | tail etc. – Den Den Dec 25 '16 at 19:53
  • Kernel For Windows Data Recovery (https://www.kerneldatarecovery.com/windows-data-recovery.html). FAT and NTFS file systems may get corrupt esaily when data writing process is interrupted. This utility will find and report the files first and then charge you if you want to recover them. I used that for a 500 GB HDD and recovered a large portion of important data. – S.C Dec 25 '16 at 19:55
  • By the way, if it does show up in ls -t /dev | grep sd, you can try it mount it manually? – S.C Dec 25 '16 at 19:57
  • You can also try dosfsck to check FAT drive from Linux as per this link: http://askubuntu.com/questions/147228/how-to-repair-a-corrupted-fat32-file-system – S.C Dec 25 '16 at 20:03
  • ls -t /dev | grep sd gives me a couple sda which I believe sda2 is my usb flash drive. When trying to mount it mannually I get the response "bad superblock" – Den Den Dec 25 '16 at 20:06
  • Unplug, run that again, an repeat after plugging, be sure so that you don't deal with a wrong drive. – S.C Dec 25 '16 at 20:10
  • Possibly it is corrupted. Try dosfsck from Linux, and if no use, try Kernel For Windows. It will cost some (but after you see it works) but your data may be more valuable. – S.C Dec 25 '16 at 20:12
  • Cevikal you are right I disconnected the flash drive and sda2 remains - it is not sda2 - so linux doesn't recognize either. – Den Den Dec 25 '16 at 20:17
  • I think we are nearly sure that the drive is corrupted. Did you run dosfsck? – S.C Dec 25 '16 at 20:45