How to fix corrupted USB flash drive?

Question

My USB flash drive was working perfectly fine until I plugged it in the back of my school computer to show my project.

The USB flash drive did not show up there. When I brought it home and plugged it into my computer, it also it did not work.

It shows up like this:

It does not has any physical damage.

I tried:

Formatting with diskpart but:

Checking the partition manager:

I used all these tools from usbdev.ru and other websites:

I also used ease US partition manager and the simple things like plugging into another USB port and checking drivers. Unfortunately none of them worked.

Although I can perfectly read and write it with the help of my Android phone as shown in the, but not in my Windows PC.

Searched everywhere but did not find a solution. I know there are experts out there so if any one could help me, then I would be very grateful to you.

I also tried other questions which were also available at superuser but none of them worked. So please don't mark this as a duplicate question.

Update: I tried some more tools like JetFlash Phision, Bootice, HP USB disk but none of them worked. Although there is probably a problem with the NAND of the drive and I probably need a way to reset it. IDK if that info helps.

Also here is the picture of what shows up in Alcormp:

Are you able to try it on a different Windows PC, or even a different port than the one you were using? I see the first failure was on a different computer, so I'm asking about a third one. — Bob Brown, Nov 25 '23 at 15:33
May be the phone only supports USB 2 and the stick has a defect in the USB 3 system? test your stick with multiple PCs and different USB ports. If it can not be accessed then consider it defect. — Robert, Nov 25 '23 at 15:40
A failed disk may behave differently on the phone and the PC. It's still failed and dangerous to use on the phone. — harrymc, Nov 25 '23 at 18:12
I would try with a Linux live usb (supposing you have at least two usb ports) — Andra, Nov 27 '23 at 10:58
"I used tools" doesn't tell us much. Also, phone sees it (obviously) but can it write to it, can it do anything with it? — Joep van Steen, Nov 29 '23 at 13:03
Yes I have clearly mentioned that the phone can read and write it. — Yash, Nov 29 '23 at 14:07
Well many people would suggest me to use the website usbdev.ru and chip genius as that could fix your drive 90% of the time. I just want to tell that I have already tried that method but it was of no use. — Yash, Nov 29 '23 at 14:12
ChipGenius doesn't fix a thing, it shows information. In general flash drives fail in some shape or form due to crappy NAND and any fixes are only temporarily. The same thing will happen again, and next time perhaps with important data on the drive. — Joep van Steen, Nov 30 '23 at 10:47
Does this answer your question? USB flash drive not working or is appearing as an empty disk drive, Disk Management reports "No Media" with 0 bytes size — Joep van Steen, Nov 30 '23 at 10:53
But this in essence is a duplicate, https://superuser.com/questions/871850/usb-flash-drive-not-working-or-is-appearing-as-an-empty-disk-drive-disk-managem and I am going to vote close. You can not just make the claim "I tried all that". — Joep van Steen, Nov 30 '23 at 10:55
You are lucky the Android phone can read it. You should grab whatever you can off the drive and then consider the drive dead. Sorry, but USB flash drives are notoriously flaky. — Giacomo1968, Dec 09 '23 at 20:18
@Giacomo1968 the drive was almost empty and no valueable data was there. I just wanted to get the drive functional again. — Yash, Dec 10 '23 at 07:35
@Yash You can’t. It’s dead. It is partially dead which means it is going on the road to being fully dead. It’s useless now; bid it farewell. — Giacomo1968, Dec 10 '23 at 15:44

John · Answer 1 · 2023-11-25T15:22:33.627

1

USB drives die without warning.

That appears to be what happened here.

Can you recover the files on your phone?

Otherwise for Windows, if it will not format (as per your post), then you need to replace the drive. Windows format is different than Android format.

I have had this happen before on USB drives on Windows computers.

I do not depend on USB drives and keep backups to ensure no data loss.

edited Nov 25 '23 at 15:22

answered Nov 25 '23 at 15:01

John

49,923

There was no special data on it neither do I want to recover it. I just want to get that usb drive functioning again – Yash Nov 25 '23 at 15:05
1

I still believe its not dead due to the fact that it works perfectly fine on my phone. – Yash Nov 25 '23 at 15:06
If it will not format on Windows, then it is very most likely not usable on a Windows computer. I have had that happen before – John Nov 25 '23 at 15:07
Doesn't Android use FAT32 or exFAT for external storage? – Oskar Skog Nov 27 '23 at 09:23
The formats are not identical and my overall point (and emphasized by @harrymc in a comment) is that the failure the USB key does have means it is dying and on the way out. – John Nov 27 '23 at 13:26
@OskarSkog yes Android uses fat 32 but so dead windows.I have one more usb drive which is formatted with fat32 and works with both Android and windows. – Yash Nov 29 '23 at 14:10
@John OK I guess its dead – Yash Jan 03 '24 at 16:49

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 09 '23 at 20:20

1

The screenshot of the MPtool is pretty conclusive evidence the NAND chip is not detected. It's either dead or not properly connected. The USB flash drive can't be repaired.

edited Dec 09 '23 at 20:20

Giacomo1968

55,001

answered Dec 09 '23 at 20:04

Joep van Steen

6,119

Fine I give up apperently nothing can be done :( .I am probably going to keep it in my pile of trash tech. – Yash Dec 10 '23 at 07:30

How to fix corrupted USB flash drive?

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