4g USB Thumb Drive - Unknown Device ???

[blinky88]

I was using this 4g USB thumb drive during the day, removed as it should be. Tonight it is shown under Device Manager an Unknown Device, would really appreciate some advise about how to rectify this problem.

[redwudz]

Usually that's just Windows not picking up the drive. Try it in another computer to be sure it's working, then try it in another USB socket in the problem computer. If the drive isn't damaged, Windows should have found it and plugged in the driver. I have a couple of those type of drives where Windows has to 'install' a driver each time I use them. You can also reboot the computer with it plugged in and see if it's properly detected that way.

[blinky88]

Hi redwudz,

Have tried it in different ports in 2 PCs Unknown Device in both, I also have a 16g drive, no problems loading the driver for it. I'm getting a little concerned because you can guess which drive has the backup of my documents.

Cheers from downunder.

[TBoneit]

Depends on how handy you are. What happens is that one or more of the four solder connections from the plug to the circuit board break. If you are handy and have a fine point soldering iron you can reflow the solder and fix it.

I had to fix two of mine in the past for that problem.

Good Luck

[blinky88]

Hi TBoneit,

I guess if I do not try this I can throw the drive away .... I do have a fine tip soldering iron, that said, I doubt I have the expertise to carry out this delicate job. If the drive is stuffed anyway, I guess I should have a go since all of my everyday work is saved on this drive. The solder station I have allows me to dial in the temp, can you also advise what temp the iron tip should be ?

[TBoneit]

I have it set hot enough to melt solder. Test on a old defunct pci card.

[minidv2dvd]

280c ~ 500f

for soldier to reflow a little flux may be required. it's really a 3 handed job. one to hole\d the contact onto the board so it doesn't move when taking off the iron, one for the iron and one for the soldier.

[blinky88]

The tip on the solder iron is small ..but.. I very much doubt it is small enough to get to the pins. Looking at the drive, I think I need to attach a needle or the like to the tip .... I do not know whether or not this is possible. I really would like to save this drive ..ie.. if it is possible.

[ahhaa]

G'day Blinky!
Since the data is important, you might contact the tech person at your local hospital, or if you have a largish computer group in your area, the 'hardware guy'. In other words, find someone who has done it before & has a magnifier headset, those jointed alligator (croc)clip arms and a needlenose iron; they shouldn't charge you very much. Or contact the drive maker... and chew'em out!

ps I have one of those USB drive extenders, it holds them in vertical position right on my desk, so they don't get torqued.

pps also, for future refernce, (& if you trust Microsoft), you can get 25 gigs of free online storage from them at Skydrive
skydrive.live.com/

[blinky88]

G'day to you ahhaa,

Sound like an Aussie, with a user name as such, you could be a relative of John Singleton (google). I haven't seen a needle-nose iron, I do have the alligator stand (3rd hand) and a magnifier headset. I will have to inquire locally about a needle-nose iron. Thanks for the suggestion, appreciated.

Cheers from downunder.

[blinky88]

Surprise, surprise .... the tip of the iron I have is able to do the job, I will have a go the next a friend of mine visits, a little moral support might help the cause.

[redwudz]

While TBoneit may be completely correct that the problem is a failed solder joint, to me it's still possible that the drive is just corrupted and a data recovery program might be a solution. Or, worst case, the drive is actually permanently dead. You could try a recovery program by doing a internet search for freeware recovery program and see if one can get anything off the drive.

[blinky88]

Hi all,

Redwudz, the drive is unserviceable because 1 of the 4 pins has completely snapped off the drive. I discovered this by placing a magnet over the USB slot, the magnet had the broken pin attached to it. On seeing this I decided to pull drive apart down to the bare bones .... all solder joints were intact, no problems in that area. I keep thinking of your advise about recovery and remembered I had all of the files I needed on drive 'D' ..ie.. before I trashed them because I was about to update that backup. Before I could place the new 'My Documents' folder on drive 'D' I had a hardware failure, I didn't panic as I had that folder on CD and the Thumb Drive ..ie.. until I found the thumb drive to be defective and I have not been able to find the CD. I was TOTALLY GUTTED, 10 years of work gone, 10 years. During those 10 years I have written many programs in Excel and FileMaker which had taken months to write, no way was I ever going to write them again.

I was watching the races today and suddenly thought I might be able to recover the trashed files on drive 'D' with the right application, I googled and came up with Recuve which is FREE. I wasn't at all confident the files could be recovered. They requested I make a donation however, the financial crisis has really hurt me badly which made a donation impossible.

I ran the program and recovered everything very quickly, every single file, superb application. If I had the $$$, I would have been happy to part with $100.

So, although I didn't recover the files on the USB drive, I did recover them off drive 'D', absolutely an unbelievable experience .... be assured, this will never happen again.

Thank you for the word RECOVER because that word was the only thing on my mind, I knew the last time I was working in drive 'D' the last thing I did was to trash the 'My Documents' folder. I didn't go to that drive again after the hardware failure, long story but the only way you can appreciate exactly how I felt was to tell the whole story.

Thanks mate, the word RECOVERY was the word that keep me thinking, thanks again ... big time.

Cheers and Beers,
Bob

[redwudz]

That's good news. You were very lucky.

[blinky88]

Hi all,

I got a little carried away when I saw the files recovered. It appeared that way until I had a closer look, recovered all except my FileMaker files which are very important. All my spreadsheets, photo's, music and PDF documents, everything except the FileMaker files. Recuva.com is a great application, easy to use, great interface and extremely fast, that said, it does not recover all files. I'll have to look for another application, still hopeful.

Cheers from downunder.