Flashing a kingston flash drive. Flash drive recovery SmartBuy

The age of CDs and DVDs is nearly over. Today, flash drives are used everywhere as universal storage media. USB drives are small, have enough built-in memory and allow you to add or delete any files without any harm to existing ones.

Everything seems to be fine, but flash drives have one significant drawback - if used incorrectly, they often fail ... The most typical failure is when the computer detects the drive as an unknown device or a disk with zero memory:

If you were careless to pull your USB drive out of the socket without first using the safe removal function, then it is quite possible that it will become a victim of a short circuit and become unreadable. Is it possible to recover a flash drive after such an excess, read on...

Types of flash drive failures

So, if you are reading this article, then most likely you already have a "corpse" flash drive. Before trying to revive it, you need to find out what kind of trouble happened and how your USB drive reacts to connecting to a PC. In other words, we look at how bad everything is :)

The flash drive can react in two ways: either the indicator diode on it lights up, or not. If the diode does not light, then a physical failure can be diagnosed. In this case, you can try to fix the drive only if you have a soldering iron and know how to work with it (this is the last section of the article).

A much more optimistic forecast can be given if the indicator lights up and does not go out. This means that we have a software failure and it can be fixed with the help of special software. In this case, one of two scenarios awaits us: the flash drive may be defined as an unformatted disk with a capacity of 0 bytes, or it may not be detected at all.

If the computer sees an empty drive, then everything can be solved by proper formatting. However, most often the problem is that due to a sudden power surge, the firmware of the flash drive is damaged and we will have to look for it on the Internet.

Summarizing the algorithm for diagnosing a breakdown, I suggest you act according to the scheme below:

Treatment by formatting

The easiest failure that can happen to your flash drive is a file system failure. A failure can be of two types: with a violation of the cluster layout and without. In the latter case, you can even do without formatting and save all data on a flash drive!

You can diagnose a failure without violations if the flash drive is detected by the computer, but does not open. The computer just freezes when trying to display its contents, so we do not try to open anything. We look under which letter the removable media is defined, run the Command Prompt (Start - Run - cmd) and enter the command "CHKDSK G (or another letter): / f":

The /f switch will automatically try to fix file system errors that made your flash drive unreadable and, if the command completes successfully, you will receive a fully functional media with all the data that was on it before the error!

Unfortunately, it's not often that you get off so easy ... Much more often you have to deal with flash drives, whose size is determined by the computer as 0 bytes. In this case, formatting can save. And not by regular means, but by special utilities. One of the most versatile in this regard is HP USB Disk Storage FormatTool (you can download it in the archive from the link at the end of the article):

This utility allows you to properly format any media in FAT32 and NTFS systems. To do this, simply select the desired device from the drop-down list and click the "Start" button. By default, the quick format option is activated, but this mode may not work with a damaged flash drive. In case of failure, you must uncheck the corresponding box before starting the second procedure.

In especially neglected cases, when even HP USB Disk Storage FormatTool gives an error, but the flash drive is still recognized as removable media, the so-called low-level formatting can help. With it, all sectors of memory are erased byte by byte and filled with zeros, which makes it impossible to attempt to recover data in the future.

If saving a flash drive is more important for you than saving the data that was on it, then the HDD Low Level Format Tool utility (available in the archive for the article) can help format it in the above way:

When the program starts, a window will appear where we will be asked in which mode we want to use the HDD Low Level Format Tool. Naturally, we need a free one, so we press the "Continue for free" button or simply close the window. The main window with a list of disks will appear. Select the one you need, click "Continue", confirm your agreement and wait for the process to end.

The low-level formatting itself is rather slow, so be prepared for the fact that it can take about an hour (depending on the capacity of the flash drive and its read/write speed). Moreover, in the free mode, the formatting speed is limited to 50 megabytes per second (about 180 gigabytes per hour).

Determining the controller type

If formatting fails or the flash drive is initially recognized by the computer as an unknown USB device, then the problem is most likely a corrupted firmware. Finding firmware for popular media models on the Internet is not that difficult, but you need to know exactly what to look for. And for this, the first step is to determine the type of flash drive controller.

This can be done in two ways: using special programs or using PID and VID identifiers. It is preferable to use, of course, programs with good databases, since controllers of completely different companies can have the same identifiers and you will have to look for a suitable firmware utility for a long time ...

The best in terms of determining the type of controller are programs of Chinese origin ChipGenius and ChipEasy, and from Russian, perhaps, Flash Drive Information Extractor (everything is in the archive). You can use any of them, however, the disadvantage of the Russian language is the lack of links to download utilities for the firmware (highlighted in pink in the screenshot):

All of them give out quite a lot of different information, however, we are mainly interested in two parameters: device identifiers (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot) and, directly, the controller model (highlighted in green). Knowing this data, we can find a firmware program on the Internet.

By the way, Chinese programs already give us links to such programs, but it’s not always possible to download them, even if you use Google’s page translator, so the search will be discussed separately below. It's a pity, of course, that our developers could not integrate the search for a link to the firmware into their program, but oh well :)

In the meantime, it is worth mentioning that you can find out the identifiers (but not the data about the controller!) of a flash drive without special utilities. To do this, go to the Device Manager (context menu of the "My Computer" icon - "Properties" - "Device Manager"), select our drive from the list, call its properties and select the "Hardware ID" property in the "Details" tab:

We have an unnamed flash drive at our disposal (alas, a working one :)) and we found out its identifiers, as well as the type of controller and its model. Now it's time for the most difficult procedure - finding a program for the firmware.

flash drive firmware

Firmware or firmware (abbreviated F / W) is a firmware that controls the operation of a flash drive controller. In the event of its failure, the drive, while remaining physically serviceable, stops responding to standard computer requests, which is why you can neither read information from it nor write it down.

Fortunately, firmware for most controllers is freely available on the Internet. Therefore, the main problem is only their search. You can search directly in search engines for queries such as: "Alcor (chip manufacturer) AU6982 (chip model) VID: 058F ​​PID: 6387 firmware", and on specialized sites.

One of the best Russian-language resources for finding and downloading firmware for any flash drives is FlashBoot.ru:

On the search page, we need to enter the PID and VID identifiers, and then click the "Search" button. We will get a whole list of flash drives that have the same IDs as ours. The task now comes down to finding a device with the same controller model as ours.

If you found a flash drive in the table that resembles yours in all respects, click on its name and you will see detailed information about it:

Here we are primarily interested in the UTILS line, which contains the name of the utility needed to flash our flash drive. We copy this name and search for it on the Internet. You can do it differently. You can search on the same site. To do this, go to the "Files" section in the top menu. True, the names of the programs from the list and those on the site are different, so the search will not always be successful.

In any case, we found out that the flash drive we have is on an Alcor chip and its model is AU6982. This is already enough for a successful search, which leads us to the need to download the AlcorMP utility of one of the versions available on the site:

We unpack the downloaded archive into a folder, check if the version of the program matches the version that we determined by identifiers and run the executable file. If the version of the "flash driver" is suitable, then we will see data about our flash drive in one of the cells of the working window. It remains only to press the "Auto" or "Setup" button (if you know how to configure the parameters) and wait for the firmware to finish.

If the working window is empty, which often happens, then we were not lucky the first time :) We need to try downloading other versions of programs suitable for the same chips as your flash drive. In a word, the lottery is already starting here, and sometimes you can try up to a dozen different utilities until you find the only one that will correctly identify your drive.

After flashing, safely unplug the flash drive and reinsert it. If everything worked out, then it should be determined by the computer without any problems. If not, try other firmware programs until you succeed.

Treatment for physical injuries

The most severe case of a flash drive failure is when it does not show any signs of life when connected to a PC: the indicator does not blink, there are no messages about unknown hardware, and there are no undefined devices in the Device Manager. In this case, real physical damage can be ascertained.

However, if the flash drive hasn't been dropped from a great height, exposed to high temperatures, or dropped into water, you have a slim chance of saving it (and sometimes even the data on it!). Most likely the problem is that due to a short circuit on the flash drive board, something has soldered off. Often the legs are soldered, through which food flows.

In any case, we will have to open the case of the flash drive to try to restore it. To do this, it may be necessary, alas, to dismantle it if it does not understand. Inside we will see something like this board:

The main "problem" places are the legs of the USB plug and the power stabilizer, which over time tend to solder or burn out due to short circuits. If you know how to work with a soldering iron, first try to solder the extreme terminals of the plug, which are responsible for power and ground. This should restore normal power to the flash drive.

If, after manipulating the soldering of the extreme legs, the flash drive, when connected to a PC, starts blinking with an indicator, but is not detected, the problem may be in the soldered legs, data reception and transmission. Solder them too and check again. If the connection is not accompanied by a blinking indicator, then, most likely, you need to solder or replace the power stabilizer.

conclusions

Alas, sometimes it happens that even after all attempts at resuscitation, the flash drive does not show signs of life. In this case, it is worth admitting that you did everything you could, and with a clear conscience, send the media to the trash can.

Although, if the flash drive is very dear to you, you can take it to a good service center. There you can unsolder the memory chip and transplant it to a new board. True, the cost of such an operation is comparable to the cost of a new device, and sometimes even exceeds it! Therefore, it is advisable to do this only if there is some important information on the flash drive.

However, most often it does not reach the service center. Most flash drives can be restored at home. Our article and the archive of programs, which you can download from the link below, will help you with this. Wish you success!

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Hello! It was not for nothing that I undertook to write an article on how to flash a flash drive - I have experience. Yesterday I restored my flash drive Kingston DT Elite 3.0 16GB. Everything worked out, and I thought, why not write a similar instruction, and tell what and how to do in order to give the flash drive a new life :).

Now, probably in every house there is a flash drive and very rarely one. It is convenient to transfer information to them, they are beautiful and, moreover, recently they are not expensive. But very often USB drives fail. If we talk about why this happens, then we ourselves are in the first place. Do you always safely eject a flash drive? So I rarely. Of course, there may be other reasons why flash drives simply “die”.

One point needs to be clarified here. It happens that the flash drive really “dies”. In this case, it cannot be restored. At least at home. But if a USB drive, when connected to a computer, shows at least some signs of life, then you can try to restore its operation with the controller firmware.

What are the signs of USB drive life?

• When you connect a flash drive to a computer, the computer gives a signal about connecting the device - it's already good.
• When you connect Windows, ask you to format a removable drive (but there are problems and errors during the formatting process such as “Windows cannot complete formatting”).
• The flash drive is detected and visible in the explorer, but when you try to open it, the message “Insert disk ...” appears
• Errors occur when copying information.
• Very slow write/read speed.

If there is valuable information on the flash drive, then you can try to restore it before and after the firmware. You can do this with different programs. I advice Recuva, here is an article, but there are many other, good programs.

If the information is very valuable, then it is better not to do anything on your own so as not to make things worse. Contact special service centers that deal with data recovery.

Let's now look at the whole controller firmware process using a real example, using my Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB flash drive as an example. I have this flash drive broke generally interesting. I had to upload files to it and delete those that had already been recorded. I connected it to the computer, began to delete the folder. But the Folder was deleted very slowly. I disconnected and reconnected this flash drive, an inscription appeared that the disk must be formatted “Before using the disk ...”.

Since there were no Important files on the flash drive, I started formatting without hesitation.

But the process itself lasted a very long time and never ended, I forcibly stopped it. The message “Windows could not complete formatting” may also appear.

But still, I formatted it, since the tenth time and only in FAT 32. After that, the USB drive was normally defined and I was even delighted. But it was not there. I started copying files to it, and the recording speed was about 100 kb / s. I decided to flash it, which I did.

Determine the VID and PID of the USB controller

To start we need determine VID and PID. This is data about the model and manufacturer of the controller, which is in our drive. Based on this data, we will look for a firmware utility. There are many different programs with which you can determine the VID and PID. I recommend the utility Flash Drive Information Extractor you can download from the link.

Connect the flash drive to your computer and run the Flash Drive Information Extractor (extract the folder with the program from the archive and run the GetFlashInfo.exe file).

Click the button at the top of the program “Get flash drive data”.

The program will give us the result. We look at the information that is opposite the VID and PID.

You can copy these numbers, or leave the utility window open, we will need the data now.

We are looking for a utility for flashing a flash drive

According to the VID and PID data, we need to find a utility with which we will flash the controller. There is a good site flashboot.ru, which contains a database of flash drives and utilities for their recovery.

We press the button Search and see the result.

In the search results, we are looking for a flash drive similar to ours. The list may include devices from other manufacturers. They just have the same controller, it was determined by VID and PID. You may have noticed that I have a 16 GB flash drive, and in the list I have allocated 32 GB. I don't think there's anything wrong with that (just where the name of the utility is not indicated on 16 GB). You try to choose a more similar device from the list.

We are interested in the field UTILS(utility), copy its name, completely.

Unfortunately, the utility I needed was not found on this site. Perhaps you will be more lucky and you will see something in the search results. Download the utility to your computer.

But I did not stop there and started to google. I just asked “SK6221 MPTool 2013-04-25” and found this utility on some other site. If you have the same flash drive, then this utility is. True, the name of the archive is different, but this did not stop me from successfully curing my flash drive.

USB drive recovery process

Turn off your flash drive. Extract the utility folder from the archive and run .exe file. In my case, this is the MPTool.exe file. See also text file readme.txt. Perhaps there is an instruction, or a link to a site with instructions. If the instruction is in English, then translate it using the same translate.google.ru.

I'll tell you how I did (it’s just that you may have a different utility and everything may be different there, but it should not be very different).

The utility is running. We connect the flash drive. I have information about the flash drive in two lines in the program. We press the button start. In my case, the yellow bar signaled the firmware process. We wait.

When the process ended, I saw a green color, everything seems to be fine.

A Windows message should immediately appear prompting you to format the drive. But the first time, it probably won't work. Unplug the flash drive and plug it back in. The driver should install and the removable drive should appear in File Explorer. You can format it.

Updated: February 7, 2018 by: admin

Many users encounter problems when a USB drive (flash drive) fails, and even such a reliable company as Kingston is no exception. Symptoms that the drive is out of order, but it can still be saved are the following:

Problems when writing or reading data from a flash drive to a computer, freezing, witting;

The flash drive appeared in Explorer, or any file manager, but it is impossible to open it, it gives different error messages;

When a drive is connected, the operating system always offers to format it (even after the formatting procedure has been completed);

When connected to a PC, the system displays a message about finding a new device, but it does not go any further;

To restore the flash drive, you need special utilities for Kingston. For the correct choice, you need to know the controller model, we need information about the VID and PID of the flash drive (unique identifiers). You can find them using the operating system, or by downloading and installing the Flash Drive Information Extractor program.

First way. We connect the USB drive, call the context menu of my computer and go to "Management", select "Device Manager" in the list of "USB controllers", find "USB mass storage device", in which we also open the context menu and select "Properties". In the properties, select the "Details" tab and select "Hardware ID" from the drop-down list. This way we get the information we need.

Another way is to get data using the Flash Drive Information Extractor program, after installing it, connect the USB drive and click on the "Get Data" button in the program.

Next, you need to use specialized sites to search for the necessary recovery programs (flashboot.ru is popular among them). In one of the sections, namely iFlash, by entering previously received data on the VID and PID of the drive, we will receive information that the utility should look for and download.

If you have a Kingston flash drive with a size of 8, 16 or 32 gigabytes, then the following utilities will be in the list of programs for their resuscitation:
Phison Preformat;
AlcorMP AU698xRT;

After downloading the desired program, install it on your personal computer and run it. We connect the USB drive of the failed one, if it appears in the program window, then it is selected correctly. It remains to select it and click on the "Start" button. The utility will fix all errors automatically. Turn off the flash drive and check the result.

Step by step instructions for USB flash drive recovery in which I will try to answer the question in an accessible language How to recover a flash drive independently and without much effort.

It happens that you help a person, and then he will tell everyone that you are so good and there are already crowds of people who are thirsty for help. Something like this happened when I restored several flash drives colleagues.

Now the people carry not only their flash drives, but also flash drives their friends, acquaintances and relatives. Well, at least someone else dragged a bottle of beer or a cookie - figurines.

It's not difficult for me to help, but when I suggest that you learn how to do all this yourself, you refuse. I'll just make those next time. If you don't want to learn, move on.

With the lyrics, I end here and go directly to the topic of the post ..

If your flash drive stopped determined like a drive, doesn't want to be formatted, does not allow information to be written down or something else happened to it, BUT it does not have mechanical damage, then you should know that not everything is lost. Most likely glitched controller and it will take a little fiddling with it. In time, this procedure takes approximately 5 minutes.

I must say right away that there is no universal programs for recovery all varieties flash drives. You will need to find exactly the one that can work with the controller of your flash drives.

First, we need to define VID And PID non-working flash drives.

Determine VID and PID for flash drive recovery

Plug in flash drive to the computer and run Device Manager. Start – Run - mmc devmgmt.msc.

Then go to section USB Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

Find yours in the list flash drive. Usually, everything flash drives have a name USB mass storage device.

Press the right key on the device and open Properties.

Go to tab Intelligence.

In the drop-down list, select the item Instance code device or Equipment codes (ID).

In this window we see PID And VID.

Finding a flash drive recovery program

We go to the FlashBoot.ru website and enter the received VID And PID.

Click on the button Search.

In the results, we are looking for our manufacturer and model of the flash drive. I have this Kingston DataTraveler 2.0.

In the right column there will be the name of the program we need or a link to it.

Everything. Now search Google for the program by name or download from the link provided. Launch and follow the instructions. Usually, in such programs for recovery there is only one button, so you should not have any questions.

That's all!

Any questions - ask in the comments.

How to restore an SD card or USB flash drive if the computer does not see them, does not read or write data? Problems with flash drives are rarely caused by normal wear and tear. More often, the causes of problems with them are ignoring the rules of safe removal of the device by users, experimenting with various software in which these flash drives are involved, as well as their initially lousy quality. Below we will consider a list of possible actions carried out in the Windows environment that can solve the problem, unless, of course, the cause lies in a mechanical breakdown. And we, friends, will go from simple to complex.

Recovery of SD cards and USB flash drives in Windows environment

• Note: below we will only talk about restoring the performance of flash drives, but not about saving the data stored on them. This is a separate topic, and on this account the site has, you can still use this program for. Most of the methods for recovering SD cards and flash drives suggested below will result in the loss of their data.

1. Hardware lock

SD cards, MicroSD adapters and flash drives can be hardware-protected from writing data or completely blocked even for reading. These devices have a lock switch, which must be set to the "Unlocked" position accordingly.

2. Problems not related to the drives themselves

The cause of problems with SD cards and flash drives can be the Windows security policy. You need to find out if access to removable drives (in full or in part of writing data to them) is blocked by the computer administrator. You also need to check the card reader or USB ports of the computer. If everything is in order with the latter - the card reader reads other SD cards, but there are still problems with the flash drive, no matter how you connect it to other USB ports, let's move on.

3. Windows Explorer

Standard formatting using Windows Explorer can help in simple cases such as unsuccessful data writing to a USB flash drive. Or when for some reason a smartphone, tablet, camera or other device cannot handle this operation with respect to SD cards. In any of the current versions of Windows, in the Explorer window on the drive, we call the context menu, click "Format".

We leave the original file system and first try a quick format.

If it fails, we repeat the operation, but with full formatting (uncheck the quick one).

4. Windows Disk Management

You can try to format the format in disk management. To launch this tool, in the system search field, enter:

diskmgmt.msc

In the disk management window, focusing on the size of the drive, we are looking for it among the drives connected to the computer. And in the context menu called on it, we start formatting.

You can immediately choose full formatting.

If your flash drive has a partition structure like a hard drive, you need to delete each of those partitions. This is done using the option in the context menu "Delete volume".

And then, in place of the resulting unallocated space, you need to create a single partition. To do this, in the context menu on this very unallocated space, we launch the “Create a new volume” operation and follow the instructions of the step-by-step wizard.

5. Programs for low-level formatting

Regular formatting tools may not help in difficult cases, for example, when flash drives are displayed (in the same Explorer or Disk Management) as unrecognized devices with the RAW file system. The latter means that either the Windows environment does not understand the file system of the drive, or there is no file system as such in principle. Actually, this is what causes problems with a flash drive or SD card when it works on other devices, with other operating systems. In such cases, third-party Windows programs designed for the so-called low-level formatting will help restore the USB flash drive.

In fact, low-level formatting is a procedure that is carried out either in the production environment of flash device manufacturers, or in serious narrow-profile services. Various Windows software that claims this kind of operation actually performs the usual full format, but by mechanisms different from those used by the operating system. Such programs are good at dealing with flash drive problems if these problems occur at the file system level. Let's look at two of these programs.

HDD Low Level Format Tool

http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

The shareware portable program HDD Low Level Format Tool can format various types of storage media, in particular SD cards and USB flash drives. After unpacking the archive with the program, run it, agree to the license terms.

Choose free use.

Directly in the program window, specify the problematic drive and click "Continue".

We confirm the decision.

We are waiting for the operation to complete and check the operation of the media.

SDFormatter

http://flashboot.ru/files/file/355

The completely free little program SDFormatter is another tool for so-called low-level formatting. Works with both SD cards and USB sticks. We install SDFormatter into the system, launch it, in the "Drive" column we indicate the problematic flash drive. Click "Format".

The program wants to make sure the seriousness of our intentions, click "OK.

Asks not to touch the drive while the operation is being carried out.

Upon completion, we test a USB flash drive or SD card. If it doesn’t help, repeat the operation with the settings for a complete rewriting of sectors (nothing more than a full format). Press "Option", select "Full (OverWrite)". And also click on "Format" at the bottom.

If using the above methods it was not possible to reanimate the flash drive, and it is still under warranty, you need to stop at this stage. And take no further action, except to contact the seller with a request to replace the device. All the actions that are described below should be resorted to only when, in fact, there is nothing to lose. The instructions below apply to USB sticks, SD cards, and MicroSD cards. However, in the case of the latter, the probability of recovery is extremely small.

6. D-Soft Flash Doctor

D-Soft Flash Doctor performs the so-called low-level formatting, and along the way it also detects bad sectors (cells). Well, and, accordingly, knows how to block them and replace them with backup ones. The program can help when flash drives or SD cards have difficulty reading individual files that have fallen on bad sectors. The program is free and portable. I did not find the official site, but it can be freely downloaded on the Internet.

In the D-Soft Flash Doctor window, the first thing to do is run a scan for errors.

In my case, there were no damaged (broken) sectors.

But if in your case, friends, the scan results are different, and bad sectors are found, we start the recovery process.

The window for this operation promises that the process will not last longer than 10 minutes, but in fact, remapping bad sectors on a drive with a capacity of more than 4 GB can take quite a long time. So it is better to run the recovery operation at night.

7. Flashing the memory controller

Programs for the so-called low-level formatting or their analogues, in any other form declaring the function of resuscitation of all types of SD cards and / or USB flash drives, turn out to be powerless in the event of a software failure of the controller when it needs to be flashed. This problem may have different symptoms, but more often it is either the computer does not completely see the drive, or it sees, it can even read data, but cannot format it by any means. In particular, due to write protection, despite the fact that the drive is not blocked by hardware.