Topic: dead USB flash drive?

[JasonSobel]

I've got a 4GB usb 2.0 flash drive.  The brand is "super talent", and I purchased this drive a while ago from newegg.com.  I've used it a lot for just transferring files to and from computers, and some other misc. stuff.

A couple of days ago, it went "dead".  I plug it in, and the letter drive pops up as it normally would when I insert a flash drive, but when I click on the drive in windows explorer, it tells me "please insert of drive into (E:)" and it doesn't read anything from the drive.  I've also tried formatting the flash drive, and I basically get the same message.

I get the same behavoir from 3 different computers (all of them running Windows XP).  I don't have any critical data on it, and I know I could replace it for less than $10, but I just thought I'd check to see if anyone has come across something like this before, what might have caused it, and if there's anything that could get this drive up and running again.

Thanks,
Jason

[africatree]

Sounds like you've got a unrecognizable flash drive. But wait! Before you go throw out the drive, you should read this article on recovering broken flash drives. Will walk you through the steps to do it and even provides the free software as well. Beats having to toss a perfectly good drive out.