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Recovery USB flash drives Kingston. Kingston flash drive recovery methods: from simple to complex Kingston flash drive repair

Recovery of USB flash drives has its own characteristics. The good news is that these devices, unlike SD cards, are repairable. Therefore, if it is impossible to exchange a flash drive under warranty, why not take advantage of a 60-70% chance to repair it.

The article will consider various cases, typical problems associated with the breakdown of flash drives, and options for their solution.

Recover data or repair flash drive?

They are not the same thing, although the concepts are related.

The main task that the repair solves is to restore the performance of the flash drive so that it:

defined as a storage device in Disk management,
was correctly defined in Explorer,
read and write data.

As a result usb repair flash drives are easy to lose all the data on it, while it will be available for writing and reading.

File recovery is possible only on a working USB flash drive.

The main reasons for the failure of a usb flash drive

How to understand that a USB flash drive needs repair:

When a flash drive is connected, the LED on its case does not light;
The device is not recognized on another computer / laptop;
The flash drive is defined as an unidentified usb device.

Damage to a USB drive is easy. Like any physical device, flash memory is subject to external influences (shock, thermal effects, water ingress, etc.). In addition, there are a number of software errors due to which the flash drive does not work.

Damaged USB connector pins

Often, the problem lies in a damaged contact between the controller and the USB connector.

How to check. To check the flash drive for this problem, test it on another computer. Alternatively, insert another USB flash drive (if available) into the USB port of the same computer.

If other flash drives are readable on a PC without problems, the problem is probably in the current storage medium.

If you are unable to read data from a flash drive only on this computer, the problem may be in the USB sockets motherboard PC or laptop.

How to fix.

Here is a link to a third-party guide on how to repair a usb connector: Repairing a usb connector on a laptop yourself.
If you don't want to tinker with wires, it's better to give a PC or flash drive with a broken one. usb port in repair. The approximate cost of replacing usb is $ 20 - 50.

Hardware-mechanical problem: damaged controller

Most often, everything rests on the flash drive controller, which is the main link in the operation of the drive. The controller contains important microcircuits, and disconnecting a contact or burning out a leg will make data recovery on a flash drive very problematic.

How to fix a flash drive.

Replace the controller yourself (which is unrealistic at home).
Take the USB drive to the service - however, repairing the flash memory will cost decent money. You will not find a controller for a USB flash drive on sale. In the laboratory, they can find a donor flash drive and “replant” the faulty controller.
If the data stored on a flash drive is vital and you would like to recover it, the laboratory can use an expensive software and hardware system to extract data bypassing the hardware controller.

The cost of services can be found directly from specialists in a company that repairs flash drives in your city. It can start from $30 and go up to $500-1000.

Flashing a damaged flash drive

The USB flash drive contains firmware - microcode with service data. If the firmware of the usb flash drive is damaged, it will inevitably stop working.

How to fix. Such a flash drive cannot be formatted with the usual universal software like SDFormatter., It will need a complete “trepanation” - flashing. This will require a proprietary utility from the manufacturer.

However, you can only reflash a flash drive by learning the name of the controller. The difficulty lies in the fact that manufacturers, as a rule, use different types and models of controllers and can implement not only their own, but also other people's developments. Therefore, it is not always possible to immediately determine the type of flash controller.

Fortunately, there are special programs that allow you to determine the type of VID & PID * for Transcend, Silicon Power drives, etc .; we will list them with reference to the installers.

(* VID is manufacturer ID, PID is device ID.)

After the warranty repair, all the photos on the smartphone and on the SD card disappeared.

Answer. A very vague question. Warranty repairs were made - mobile device Or memory cards? All your claims against the performers are governed by your contract.

As for data recovery on an sd card, use specialized applications, which, in fact, this site is dedicated to.

A 2GB flash card from an old Nokia phone, the phone sees the flash drive perfectly, the tablet and other phones do not see it. Other people's flash cards my equipment sees.

Answer. If other flash cards do not open on your, as you say, old Nokia, then most likely because the phone simply does not support new technologies. Read the documentation and specifications for your device. Maybe it's time to upgrade your hardware?

My 32GB micro flash drive broke in half. How can I recover information on this flash drive, tell me, please, where and who can help me, how to fix the flash drive?

Answer. Alas, this flash drive cannot be repaired or somehow reanimated. If the firmware “flew” on your flash drive, then you could give some chance for recovery. As for physical damage, it all depends on the damage. If the flash memory chips are intact, you can read the data through a PC 3000 Flash reader, etc.

Only Possible Solution(if the files are not of particular importance) - purchase a new microsd card.

The flash drive does not open, does not appear as a removable disk, does not appear in the device manager. Physical impact is excluded, because. There are three such flash drives, different people worked with them.

Answer. You didn't specify the type of memory you're working with. In any case, if a flash drive or sd card does not open, I would advise you to check the operation of the flash card on other devices. Test it on other phones or devices to which it can be connected. If it's an sd card, try connecting it to your PC via a card reader.

Check if the attached device is detected in Device Manager. If yes, use any disk partitioning program or regular means Windows, or proprietary software available on the flash drive developer's website to format the flash drive in NTFS or FAT.

During the formatting of the flash drive (transcend), the flash drive was pulled out from the PC. It was clear that she would no longer work, the check confirmed this. The computer does not detect the flash drive, the indicator blinks all the time, it is not in "my computer", it is in the device manager, it says that it works fine, it is defined as a storage device. Help to restore the transcend flash drive!

Answer. Probably, the file table on your flash drive has been damaged. You can still restore the operation of a flash drive if you create a partition on it and format it. You can reanimate a flash drive, as already mentioned, using specialized utilities like Acronis Disc Director and so on, but it is best to use the TestDisk application to partition and restore a transcend flash drive.

The flash drive was encrypted in TrueCrypt, I reinstalled the OS, I mount the flash drive, the files are displayed, but when I try to open them, I get an error - access denied. Can you tell me if it is possible to save information if the flash drive is not detected after encryption?

Answer. You will need a client program to work with Truecrypt. Alas, on this moment truecrypt.org is down and the project is closed. So try to find the app somewhere on the internet. After that, when opening files, you will be required to enter a password to access your files.

The flash drive has been reset and the system requires to format the flash drive, but I need to save very important and expensive files. Help!

Answer. In no case do not agree to format your flash drive! Instead, use data recovery software and try to restore the missing partition on your storage device. You can safely copy all saved information to HDD and then search among these blockages for exactly what you need.

There is a flash drive JetFlash Transcend 8GB. Has ceased to be determined by the system. I formatted it with JetFlash Online Recovery and it deleted all data from the flash drive. Is it possible now to recover the Transcend flash drive, that is, the data on it?

Answer. To recover a Transcend flash drive, the Unformat program is suitable. The chances of recovery depend on the depth of formatting. Anyway, use the deep scan option. Alternatively, try Recuva with a similar scanning option.

Restoring Kingston USB flash drives

Kingston flash drives are very popular due to the fact that they are quite inexpensive and reliable. It cannot be said that they are cheaper than others, but their cost can still be called low. But, since absolutely everything breaks in our world, it is not at all surprising that Kingston removable media can also fail.

This happens quite simply - you insert a USB flash drive into a computer, and he "does not want" to read data from it. The drive may be detected, but everything will look as if there is no data on it. Or simply not all data may be determined. In general, situations can be very different. In any case, we will analyze a few effective ways restore the performance of a Kingston drive.

Kingston has its own flash drive recovery tools. There is also a universal way to restore removable media, which is relevant for devices of any company. We will analyze all the most working methods.

Method 1: MediaRECOVER

Click on the inscription "Tools" in the running program.

In the field under the inscription " Select device» Select the inserted flash drive according to its letter. Then there are two options. We recommend using both options in turn - first one, and then, if all else fails, the second. It should be said right away that none of these options involves saving lost data. So, the first option is to format the flash drive and automatically restore it. To do this, click on the button " Format” and wait until the end of formatting. The second option is to erase and restore removable media. Click on the button " wipe” and, again, wait until the end of the process.

The second option looks more "humane" for a flash drive. It just involves restoring a flash drive. In any case, if using MediaRECOVER doesn't help, move on to the next method.

Method 2: Kingston Format Utility

This is another brand Kingston program. It is suitable for all flash drives of this brand, from the DTX 30 series to USB Datatraveler HyperX devices. This utility also formats the flash drive without a chance to save any information. To use the Kingston Format Utility, do the following:

Download the program.Run the downloaded file. Unpack - specify the path and click on the button " unzip". In this case, you do not need to install anything, just run this program using the shortcut. Further in the upper field (" device”), specify your media according to its letter. File system will be determined automatically, but if this is done incorrectly, specify it in the field " file system". After that, just click on the " Format” and wait for the formatting and restoration to finish.

Method 3: HDD Low Level Format Tool

Based on user reviews, this program copes well with damaged Kingston flash drives. Low Level Format Tool works at a low level, so it is quite successful in what it does. And this applies not only to removable media from Kingston. But, again, the utility formats the flash drive and restores its performance, but not the data from it. To use this program, you need to do quite a bit, namely:

In the list of available storage media, select the one you need and click on it. This will make it stand out. After that, click on the button " Continue". It is located in the lower right corner of the program window.

Next, the specified storage medium will be checked. The field above will display information that all data from the media will be permanently erased. Click on the button " Format this device” to perform formatting.

Wait until the end of the process and try using the inserted flash drive.

Method 4: Super Stick Recovery Tool

Another very simple program, designed to restore Kingmax flash drives, but is also suitable for Kingston (although for many it will seem quite unexpected). So, to use the Super Stick Recovery Tool, do the following:

If everything is fine and the program can work with your flash drive, information about it will appear in the main window. Click on the button " update" to start formatting. After that, just wait until the process is over and try to work with the flash drive again.

Method 5: Search for other recovery utilities

Not all models of Kingston flash drives are suitable for those programs that are indicated in methods 1-4. In fact, there are a lot of such programs. In addition, there is a single database with information about programs designed for recovery. It is located on the iFlash service of the flashboot website. The process for using this repository is as follows:

First you need to find out the system data of the removable media, and specifically, VID And PID. Without going into details, let's say that you can find this data using standard Windows tools. For this, the tool Computer management". To launch it, open the menu " Start" (menu "Windows" in later versions) and click on the item " Computer» with the right mouse button. Select " Control».

From the menu on the left, select " device Manager". Open the " USB controllers ” and on the desired media, right-click. In the list that appears, select " Properties».

In the properties window that opens, go to the "Details" tab, select " Hardware ID". Further, in the field Meaning» You will find VID And PID your flash drive. In the photo below VID equals 071B, A PID - 3203 .

Now go directly to the iFlash service and enter these values in the appropriate fields. Click the button Search to find information about him. All entries related to your device will appear in the list below, and in the column " utilities” will contain a link to the program or its name. For example, in our case, it was easy to find.

The name of the program must be entered in the search bar of the flashboot.ru website. In our case, we were able to find Phison Format & Restore and several other utilities. Usually, the use of found programs is quite simple. Click on the name of the program and download it, then use it.

This happens quite simply - you insert a USB flash drive into a computer, and he "does not want" to read data from it. The drive may be detected, but everything will look as if there is no data on it. Or simply not all data may be determined. In general, situations can be very different. In any case, we will analyze several effective ways to restore the performance of a Kingston drive.

Kingston has its own flash drive recovery tools. There is also a universal way to restore removable media, which is relevant for devices of any company. We will analyze all the most working methods.

Method 1: MediaRECOVER

This is one of two branded programs from Kingston. To use it, you must do the following:

The second option looks more humane» for a flash drive. It just involves restoring a flash drive. In any case, if using MediaRECOVER doesn't help, move on to the next method.

Method 2: Kingston Format Utility

This is another Kingston branded program. It is suitable for all flash drives of this brand, from the DTX 30 series to USB Datatraveler HyperX devices. This utility also formats the flash drive without a chance to save any information. To use the Kingston Format Utility, do the following:

Method 3: HDD Low Level Format Tool

Judging by user reviews, this program does an excellent job with damaged Kingston flash drives. Low Level Format Tool works at a low level, so it is quite successful in what it does. And this applies not only to removable media from Kingston. But, again, the utility formats the flash drive and restores its performance, but not the data from it. To use this program, you need to do quite a bit, namely:

Method 4: Super Stick Recovery Tool

Another very simple program designed to recover Kingmax flash drives, but it will also work for Kingston (although for many it will seem quite unexpected). So, to use the Super Stick Recovery Tool, do the following:

program, insert a USB flash drive and run the executable file.
If everything is fine and the program can work with your flash drive, information about it will appear in the main window. Click on the button " update" to start formatting. After that, just wait until the process is over and try to work with the flash drive again.

Method 5: Search for other recovery utilities

Not all models of Kingston flash drives are suitable for those programs that are indicated in methods 1-4. In fact, there are a lot of such programs. In addition, there is a single database with information about programs designed for recovery. It is located on the site's iFlash service. The process for using this repository is as follows:

This method is suitable for all flash drives.

Method 6: Standard Windows Tools

If all the above methods did not help, you can always use standard tool Windows formatting.

You can also use the standard Windows tool to format the flash drive. Try different combinations of the order of actions - first format, then check and correct errors, and then vice versa. It is quite possible that something will still help and the flash drive will become operational again. To format removable media, right-click again on the selected drive in " computer". In the dropdown menu, click " Format…". Next, in the next window, just click on the " Begin».

It is worth saying that all the above methods, except for checking the disk with the standard Windows tool, involve the complete and irretrievable loss of data from the media. Therefore, before performing all these methods, use one of the data recovery utilities from a damaged storage medium.

Almost every person who, one way or another, is connected with computers, at least once, has encountered the problem of a flash card malfunction. It can be expressed in different ways: Windows does not see the flash drive, refuses to format it, there are failures when copying and moving files, or the wrong amount of memory is determined.

You can restore the Kingston drive using special software

Most simple cases can be cured by simply formatting the flash drive using the operating system. Windows systems. To do this, you need to insert it into your computer and, after identifying it, go to My Computer, right-click on the drive and select Format. After successful formatting, the system will notify you about it.

If, after formatting, problems remain or it fails, for example, operating system gave an error - "Windows cannot complete formatting", then you need to try another method. For example, Kingston company for its drives provides special means to restore their performance. The program for recovering a Kingston flash drive is easily downloaded from the company's official website, in the support section. After downloading, you need to unpack and run it. In the window that opens, select desired drive and click Format. After formatting in a special way, the flash drive should work.

Another way worth trying is to use a low-level formatter. Such a program, for example, D-Soft Flash Doctor or similar. It is not focused on any particular drive or manufacturer, so it can format any flash drives and memory cards.

If all these actions did not lead to anything, then there were serious problems with the controller.

Recovering a Kingston flash drive using firmware

You can restore a flash drive using a special utility for low-level firmware of its controller. But there are situations when the device really cannot be helped by anything other than physical intervention, such as soldering or connecting to special devices.

If the drive has the following viability criteria, then there is still a chance to restore it:

Windows detects a flash drive when it is plugged into a computer port;
after inserting the flash drive into the slot, the system automatically asks for formatting;
the drive identifies itself, is visible in the system, when accessing it, the message "Insert disk ..." is displayed;
systematic errors when copying or moving files to a USB flash drive;
slow speed of the drive as a whole.

Before restoring the Kingston flash drive, you need to find out the controller identifiers. You need two of them, the first - VID, contains the manufacturer's identifier. The second is PID, which stands for the product code. You need to determine them with a utility like Flash Drive Information Extractor. After receiving them, you can write them down somewhere.

Finding a recovery utility

Directly for the firmware you will need special utility, capable of flashing a flash drive controller at a low level. Such special programs usually available only from equipment manufacturers. With the help of them, they carry out the initial firmware, repair and testing of devices. Sometimes these utilities get on the net by accident, and sometimes manufacturers share them. But the problem is that each manufacturer has its own utility, which can be different depending on the controller model and the amount of memory.

For search desired program it is for the reanimated model that SID and PID will be needed. There is one service on the net called Flashboot.ru, which stores thousands of utilities for flashing various devices and gadgets.

In the SID and PID fields, you must substitute the received numbers and click search. The service can display several program options at once. It is necessary to choose the one in the description of which the corresponding volume of the restored drive is indicated. Also, the list may contain utilities for other manufacturers. It must be remembered that it is necessary to restore the Kingston flash drive, so its most appropriate configuration is selected from the list. The Utils field describes the name of the program. After finding the desired line in the list, you need to copy the name of the utility and go to the files section of the flashboot.ru website. Paste the name you copied into the search bar and click Find.

After finding the utility, you need to download it to your computer and unpack it. Sometimes a situation arises when the desired program is not in the files. Then you can just look for her by name in any search engine.

Using the Kingston flash drive recovery software

Using the utility is the easiest part of the operation. You just need to insert a USB flash drive, run the program and click on the Start button in the program. Of course, the design, localization and method of operation of different utilities for different flash drives may be different, but the essence is the same, and it is intuitive. After successfully flashing the controller, the operating system may immediately offer to format the revived flash drive.

If nothing helped

If nothing helped or the utility was not found, then it means that, most likely, one of the drive's electrical circuit modules is physically damaged. In such a situation, only a service center can help. Specialists will be able to physically connect to the contacts of the flash drive and analyze or scan for damage. If the flash drive is repairable, then it will be repaired, if not, then nothing will help it.

But before you do anything, think about how valuable information is stored on it? If the data is important, then it would be better to try to restore it before and after the firmware. To do this, you can use the Recuva program, or another similar one. And if super-important data is stored there, which is very important and valuable, then in this case, it is better not to do anything on your own. Take the flash drive to a specialized service center, where specialists can restore it with a lower risk to your data.

Restoring a flash drive using the example of Kingston DT

In our example, a flash drive will be used. Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB. She worked for the time being, normally for the time being, but then oddities began. When you try to delete or write data, the whole process is so slow that you can say it didn’t move at all. After re-connecting, the system issued a message asking you to format the disk.

Given the low importance of the data on the device, it was decided to format it. The formatting process took a long time and was not completed. There was only a message that said about an unsuccessful attempt to perform formatting.

We connect our faulty flash drive and run the utility. At the top of the program window there will be a button for receiving data, click on it. After that, we will see all the information on the device. We pay attention to the values that stand near VID and PID.

Re-flashing a faulty kingston flash drive

While we turn off the drive. We launch the utility for flashing (our program is called MPTool.exe). If the application comes with a file called readme.txt then take a look at it. There are probably instructions in there. I note that the utilities are different and yours may look a little different. But in general, the interface and the principle of operation should be similar.

After starting the flashing program, you need to reconnect the USB flash drive. The utility will then detect the device. Now it remains just to click on the button to start flashing the firmware. Let's wait a bit until the process is completed.

Upon completion, the program will let you know that everything went well.

Then a system message will immediately appear that it needs to be formatted before working with the device. But it is better to immediately disconnect the flash drive, and then connect it again. And only after that proceed to the formatting process. After completing all these procedures, you can check the operation of the flash drive. Everything works as fast as it should and files are adequately copied and read. Do not forget that some steps may be slightly different from those described in this article. But in general, the whole process looks like this.