Laura said:
I had a flash drive that stopped working one day and said it could not
read the drive & to reformat. When I tried to reformat it said it could
not format the flash drive due to a bad sector at sector 0. I tried to
reformat several times & tried to access the drive from many different
computers but none of them would read it. I used a data recovery
program and was able to get a few of the files off of it, but now I
want to know if theres a way to get the drive to work again? I don't
mind losing any info if I can somehow restore the drive so I could use
it again. Any suggestions? I'm using Windows XP Pro.
Don't be misled that electronics are infallible. Just because a USB
thumb drive uses flash memory doesn't mean it won't wear out. They can
endure a maximum number of writes or erases. Flash memory can only be
flashed so many times (i.e., although electronic, they wear). How often
have you written files (or deleted them or done anything to update the
flash drive)? If you are using a program that updates its files on the
flash drive, remember that all those updates count against the endurance
of the device. Some apps could make a several thousand updates per
minute and do so as long as the app is running. Write/erase endurance
specs are usually hard to find and rarely divulged by the device makers
(so you have to read articles by the flash memory manufacturers). Also,
memory does go bad, whether it be in a flash drive or your system RAM.
If you own a digital camera for a couple years, you will experience
having to toss away their flash cards when (not if) they fail.
"Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited
number of write/erase cycles before failure. In normal use, mid-range
flash drives currently on the market will support several million
cycles, although write operations will gradually slow as the device
ages." (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keydrive). "Flash memory has a
finite number of erase-write cycles (most commercially available flash
products are guaranteed to withstand 1 million programming cycles) so
that care has to be taken when moving hard-drive based applications"
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory). Flash drives should NOT be
used for permanent storage and any files placed on it should be
non-critical files (i.e., you can afford to lose them the same day you
put them onto the flash drive). Just like with a hard drive, anything
you put onto a flash drive - if important to you - should be backed up
to provide a second copy (because MTBF for the two drives is not linear
so your chances of having the file is highly increased by having a
backup). Flash drives are less prone to physical abuse than hard
drives, but then your hard drive, after installed, receives little
physical abuse whereas you are subjecting the flash drive to static,
dirt, wear from insertion/extraction, shock, and other environmental
factors. Unlike your system or video RAM, flash memory does wear out as
it suffers from electric field stress (thin oxide stress). "Over time,
oxide stress from repeated program and erase operations may degrade the
gate oxide layer to cause the transistor to malfunction. This
contributes to faulty operation of the flash memory device. Accordingly,
there is a need for a method of detecting a transistor error caused by
the degradation of the gate oxide layer "
(
http://www.freshpatents.com/Flash-m...-method-thereof-dt20060126ptan20060018167.php)
and that is why some of these devices will incorporate fault-tolerant
schemes to mask the failures.
If you have only tried to format the thumb drive then maybe you need to
try to initialize it (using the device maker's utility). The format may
only be a superficial update of the table of contents to remove the file
and erase the blocks of memory used for it but that may not be the same
as initializing the device (which may be your sector 0 problem). I've
seen flash drives that had a utility to initialize the device which was
different than formatting it, and I've even seen where initializing and
formatting were separate functions but later rolled into the driver for
the device (I have the Creative Muvo NX thumb drive and at one time they
had a utility to initialize the drive but now the driver does that when
the device is formatted through Explorer). You never bothered to
mention WHICH device that *you* have. I'm guessing that initialization
may also wipe the sector 0.
You may need to visit the device maker's web site to find out how
*their* device works regarding formatting and initialization along with
their stated write/erase endurance specs.
