PNY 16GB Flash Drive no longer being recognized

DiminishedAC

New Member
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1
Hey everyone! I have a PNY 16GB Flash Drive that I've had for a few years. There are a lot of important pictures and documents on it, and I am unable to access it.

When I plug it into 1 of my 4 USB ports in my Vaio laptop, it is not recognized under Computer as a storage device, but it does show up as "Unspecified" in Devices and Printers. The flash drive lights up when it is plugged in, which I assume means that the connection itself is alright (moving/bending the flash drive does not help).

I have tried this flash drive on multiple computers to no avail. I have used the troubleshoot wizard that came from right-clicking on the "Unspecified" device under Devices and Printers, and it always fails to successfully install the driver "USB Mass Storage Device." I have also gone into Device Manager and uninstalled the USB Drivers.

Is there anything else that I can do?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 and 8
You can save the flash drive but probably not the data on it.

Try this:
Plug the flash drive in.
Unplug all other flash drives if any are plugged in. (ideally only usb device should be the broken flash drive.)
Download, unzip, and run the exe found here.
Copy and paste the output of the program and post it here. Then we can move on to step 2.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Kernel 4.x
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5 3570K
    Motherboard
    P8Z77-V LK
    Memory
    G.skill Ripjaw Z 2133MHz 9-11-10-28
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX770 4GB Dual BIOS
    Sound Card
    Audigy 4 Pro
    Monitor(s) Displays
    32" SAMSUNG HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 progressive
    Hard Drives
    10TB total
    3 RAID arrays
    3 single disks
    PSU
    Corsair HX750
    Case
    Corsair R400
    Cooling
    Corsair H100
    Keyboard
    Logitech G510
    Mouse
    Logitech G5
    Internet Speed
    ~900mbps (~115MB/s) down, ~10mbps(~1.5MB/s) up
    Browser
    Firefox & Chromium
    Antivirus
    Common Sense
Dead drive. Most of the small sized ones are mfg with cheap parts.

You could try it with a Linux Live DVD. If nothing. It is dead.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Mint 17.2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite C850D-st3nx1
    CPU
    AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon (tm) HD Graphics 1.40 GHZ
    Memory
    12GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon™ HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    Crucial M500 240GB SSD
    Mouse
    Logitech M525
    Internet Speed
    45/6 - ATT U-Verse
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    None needed. It is Linux.
    Other Info
    Arris NVG589 Gateway; Router - Cisco RV320; Switch - Netgear GS108 8-Port Switch & Trendnet TEG-S50g 5-Port Switch; Access Points - Engenius ECB350, Trendnet TEW-638APB; NAS - Lenovo ix2-4; Printer - Brother HL-2280DW; Air Print Server - Lantronix XPrintServer

    A/V UPS - Tripp-Lite Smart 1500LCD 1500 Va/900 W.
Dead drive. Most of the small sized ones are mfg with cheap parts.

You could try it with a Linux Live DVD. If nothing. It is dead.


Not true.

Usually all that needs to be done is to reprogram the microcontroller and "reinitialize" the nand. Surprisingly, something so low-level can only be done from Windows. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Kernel 4.x
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5 3570K
    Motherboard
    P8Z77-V LK
    Memory
    G.skill Ripjaw Z 2133MHz 9-11-10-28
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX770 4GB Dual BIOS
    Sound Card
    Audigy 4 Pro
    Monitor(s) Displays
    32" SAMSUNG HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 progressive
    Hard Drives
    10TB total
    3 RAID arrays
    3 single disks
    PSU
    Corsair HX750
    Case
    Corsair R400
    Cooling
    Corsair H100
    Keyboard
    Logitech G510
    Mouse
    Logitech G5
    Internet Speed
    ~900mbps (~115MB/s) down, ~10mbps(~1.5MB/s) up
    Browser
    Firefox & Chromium
    Antivirus
    Common Sense
Welcome to the forum.

Flash drives are the least reliable of modern storage media and cannot be trusted for primary storage of important files. Add to that the possibility that they may be lost, stolen, or physically damaged. They should be used primarily as a transport media for files stored elsewhere. All files of any importance, wherever they are stored, need at least 1 backup copy. Files of particular importance should have 2 or backup copies. Fail to do this and sooner or later you WILL lose important files.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
LMiller7 said exactly what I was coming in to post. Flash medium is volatile, and should never be used as a back up medium. Unless you are willing to spend upwards of $1000, that data is probably gone. You tried it on multiple computers, so that eliminates it being just an issue with one computer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z77-UD3H
    Memory
    16 GB Patriot Viper 3 DDR3-1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 470 GTX
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Hard Drives
    Crucial M4 256 GB, WD WD20EFRX 2 TB
    PSU
    OCZ 700W
    Case
    Corsair 300R
    Cooling
    Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
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