USB key/drive no longer detected

  • Thread starter Thread starter jeff henrichs
  • Start date Start date
J

jeff henrichs

Oh man I'm hoping I don't lose this data...

I have an I/O Magic 4GB USB2 GigaBank with quite a lot of data on it.
I'm generally very good about Safely Removing Hardware when I take it
out. Occasionally I'll have everything shut down and will still be
told that the device is in use. So say 5% of the time I just pull the
thing out (after ensuring no open files, etc).

About a week ago I copied some files on from my laptop to transfer to
my desktop, but when I plugged the Gigabank into my USB hub it wasn't
detected. No big deal, I worked around it... but since then I've tried
plugging it in at work and find the same thing occurring.

DETAILS OF PROBLEM
Plug in the GigaBank into a USB2 slot, hear the ding-ding. Autoplay no
longer launching. If I click on the Safely Remove icon sometime the
GigaBank is listed, sometimes it's not. Once I even got it to appear
as the E: drive in Explorer, but whenever I try to access it I get an
error stating, basically, taking too long to respond. It sort of hangs
Windows (Explorer, the Safely Remove... window) when I plug it in.

This isn't a hard drive with IDE connectors that I can reformat(which
I'd hate to do but better than throwing it out). Usually if I plug it
in and wait a couple minutes then go into Safely Remove it *will* list
the device and say it is E:, but it isn't listed in Windows as such.

Anyone have any ideas whatsoever? Right now it seems like both the
data and the drive are a lost cause.

Many thanks for any suggestions or observations.
 
Does it show in in Disk Management?

You can format it! The format treats it just like a normal hard drive.
 
My work PC is locked down so I can't use the Disk Management utility.
My home XP will let me though.

Any idea whether formatting it is likely to help? Hate to lose the
data obviously but if I gotta I gotta....
 
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