computerkiller said:
With Scan Disk I can run software from the manufacture to to see the
contents, but I have no such luck with the Kingston Technology DataTraveler.
How do I find the USB Port that is associated with it and how do I read the
contents. (I got three USB ports on the front of my computer which I assume
the computer is calling drive I:, J:, K: and L:. This is for a Dell 700 XPS.
By the way how do I know what the drives on my monitor or keyboard would be?
I assume that the ports in the back of the computer do not count.)
The XPS 700 has a media card reader. So that could account for
some of the drive letters.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps700/sp/SM_en/parts.htm#wp1126345
The front panel I/O board has two USB connectors (labeled "2"). The
one to the left of it is a Firewire connector (labeled "1").
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps700/sp/SM_en/mospo106.jpg
If you want to enumerate USB ports which are supported directly by the
Southbridge, this program can do it. Click one of the dated links, to
get a copy of UVCView.x86.exe. The x86 version is for WinXP 32 bit.
http://web.archive.org/*/http://dow...f-a31d-436b-9281-92cdfeae4b45/UVCView.x86.exe
The output of that program looks similar to this screen. The highlighted
article is a USB2 device connected to Port3. Ven=0ECD Dev=A100
http://www.die.de/blog/content/binary/usbview.png
Using this page of IDs, Ven=0ECD Dev=A100 gives...
http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids
0ecd Lite-On IT Corp.
a100 LDW-411SX DVD/CD Rewritable Drive
So that person is using a USB optical drive of some sort.
To access the drive, there is no point unless it shows
up in Disk Management. If you see the device in there,
then there is hope. If it is not listed in Disk Management,
then there is some problem setting up USB endpoints or the
like. Check the file setupapi.log on your C: drive,
and near the end of the file, you may see something related
to the recent plug-in of that USB device.
If the device shows up in Disk Management, then you could
try copying all the sectors with a copy of "dd". There is
a bug in "dd, with regard to USB flash. The end of the
flash device is not properly detected. If copying all the
sectors, you need to enter a precise block size and count
option.
http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
For example, on my computer, this is how I would copy my 8GB
OCZ Rally2 Flash stick, using a command prompt window.
dd --list
\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0 <---- this entry is the whole disk
...
Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
size is 8019509248 bytes
\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition1 <---- the first and only partition on it
...
Removable media other than floppy. Block size = 512
size is 8013233152 bytes
Notice that the single partition is smaller than the whole "disk".
Now, to copy off all of the sectors on the device, and store
them on my NTFS volume V: as a single file. The only value of
this file presently, is as a restoration mechanism later, to
another 8GB or larger flash stick.
First, I use the Linux "factor" program, to factor that large
number 8019509248 = 2**25 * 239, or 1048576 * 7648. Now I'm ready
to issue the copy command, storing a backup copy.
dd if=\\?\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0 of=V:\big.bin bs=1048576 count=7648
7648+0 records in
7648+0 records out
The copy runs at 20MB/sec and takes almost 7 minutes (no, I didn't time it).
Now, if my flash stick fails completely, I have a 8019509248 byte
copy of its contents. I can copy that back onto another
flash stick later.
Now, if I wanted, I could try to repair the file system on the
flash stick, without fear of losing everything. I have my 8GB backup
file on V: . It would depend on how the flash stick was prepared in
the first place, as to what I'd do with it. I'm not a data
recovery guy, so at this point, maybe someone else can help with
that aspect.
Paul
