Memory sticks killed by tablet?

[JohnW2]

If a file was being written into space which didn't actually exist then perhaps that could cause the stick to become unreadable because the file wouldn't be terminated correctly, so its size would be unknown to the OS. I had something similar happen when my camera's battery died while a file was being written.

I suppose that's a theoretical possibility, but I have not infrequently 'hit the limit' of a drive (stick, card or HDD) without 'killing' the device.

In fact, when I undertake definitive testing of 'usable space' I keep writing to the drive until I get a 'no more space' message, and that's never (yet!) killed a drive.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

I've ran a version of linux of a CD or DVD in the past. Booting from a different drive is reasonably easy in windows XP, but I you'd have to check the system requirements of the latest version. try-ubuntu-before-you-install

So have I in the past, but I wouldn't go down that road just for the current exercise, particularly since I have other ways of getting access to a machine running linux.

I've only come across one memory stick not being recognized (one I offered to look at for someone) and I 'repaired' it by luck: the usb connector could move up and down slightly compared to the body which produced a quiet click - in one position it worked and in the other it didn't - I presume there was one or more broken solder joints.

Needless to say, I've tried any amount of 'wiggling' of the connectors, even though it would be pretty unlikely that two sticks would have the same 'mechanical' problem.

Kind Regards, John

 

[LeeJC]

Hi John,

Have you had a look with diskpart at the drives from command line?
I've had this happen on both mircosd and usb thumb drives that have been tampered with to present higher capacity than actually available.
What usually happens is the low end of storage becomes entirely un usable and doesn't report anything. Doesn't automount, doesn't show in file manager nothing............ but within diskpart it appears as hardware with a completely screwed front end.

Cheers
Lee

 

[JohnW2]

Hi John, Have you had a look with diskpart at the drives from command line?

I'd already thought of that one but, like everything else on a Windows machine, diskpart does not see the faulty memory sticks (although it does see any working stick, or SD card, that I plug into the machine.

I've had this happen on both mircosd and usb thumb drives that have been tampered with to present higher capacity than actually available.
What usually happens is the low end of storage becomes entirely un usable and doesn't report anything. Doesn't automount, doesn't show in file manager nothing............ but within diskpart it appears as hardware with a completely screwed front end.

I should perhaps be a little clearer about what happened, since, with both of the sticks, everything initially worked fine. I copied a hundred or so files, totally some 200-250MB onto the stick from my laptop, and then could happily access and open those files from the laptop (even after unplugging and re-plugging the stick). I then plugged the stick into the tablet, and could see all the files on the stick. I then successfully copied a small batch of the files from stick into the laptop *(onto its microSD card), and the tablet could then see, and open that small batch of copied files, now on its microSD.

It was when I tried to copy further files into the tablet that everything went wrong. To be honest, I can't remember details of exactly 'what happened' but, suffice it to say that I could not copy more files. I therefore removed the stick from the tablet, to 'examine' it on the laptop and, ever since then, neither laptop nor tablet have been able to see the memory stick.

Exactly the same happened with the second stick. I successfully transferred all the files onto it (from laptop) and successfully copied one small batch of files from it to the tablet (where they could be seen and opened), but then, just as with the first one, it 'died' (well, 'became invisible' - and also invisible to other PCs and laptops (all Win 10 other than one PC running XP).

With the third, similar but older, memory stick, everything just worked 'as expected', and I ended up with all of the files successfully copied to the tablet.

Kind Regards, John

 

[robinbanks]

If you open device manager before you plug in a stick, do you see device manager refresh/redraw it's tree after you plug the stick in? If no, I'd be inclined to think it's knackered to the point that the computer doesn't even see it as plugged in

 

[RandomGrinch]

do you see device manager refresh/redraw it's tree after you plug the stick in? If no, I'd be inclined to think it's knackered

Good point.
It really doesn't take much for a USB device to be recognised in device manager - all that is needed is a logic high (1.5k Ohm pull up resistor to 3.3V) input on D+, or D-

 

[DiyNutJob]

Flash memory can wear out. If you have a draw full of the stuff, did you buy them cheap as a job lot of used ones?

An SSD going bad could be recovered by writing to every part of it. This may or may not apply to flash sticks. MiniTool Partition Wizard free has a "Wipe partition" function that can be used for this purpose. Not sure the normal full format does it.

 

[JohnW2]

If you open device manager before you plug in a stick, do you see device manager refresh/redraw it's tree after you plug the stick in?

No.

If no, I'd be inclined to think it's knackered to the point that the computer doesn't even see it as plugged in

That's how it seems - but the question which intrigues me, intellectually, is why/how that has happened.

The only sense in which a Windows machine (laptop or PC) is aware that the stick has been plugged in is that it 'makes its sound' when one physically plugs the stick in - but that's the beginning and end of any awareness that something has been plugged in. On my laptop, the next thing that normally happens after 'the sound' is that a Norton window pops up asking me if I want the stick to be scanned. That's not happening, so Norton is unaware that a memory device has been plugged in.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

Flash memory can wear out. If you have a draw full of the stuff, did you buy them cheap as a job lot of used ones?

Nope. They were bought at 'expected price' from a very reputable supplier, and came in intact sealed package, which at least looks genuine. The only reason I have 'a draw full' of 8 GB and 2 GB sticks (and smaller!) is that they are pretty small by modern standards (the same reason I have 'drawers full' of sub-100 MB HDDs, albeit most of those are 'used' ).

An SSD going bad could be recovered by writing to every part of it. This may or may not apply to flash sticks. MiniTool Partition Wizard free has a "Wipe partition" function that can be used for this purpose. Not sure the normal full format does it.

I have several disk and/or partition management utilities, but none of them can even 'see' these damaged sticks, so they obviously can't do anything to/with them. Given that Windows is totally unaware of the sticks being plugged in, I would doubt that any utility would be able to.

Kind Regards, John

 

[DiyNutJob]

I have several disk and/or partition management utilities, but none of them can even 'see' these damaged sticks, so they obviously can't do anything to/with them. Given that Windows is totally unaware of the sticks being plugged in, I would doubt that any utility would be able to.

If your bios allows USB booting, you maybe able to see it there.

With SSDs, they will stay dead until all queued up jobs are finished. So if you keep them powered for a day, it will finish the queue and behave normal again. Same could be true of sticks. Not being a heavy stick user, I can't tell you if this is true.

I once had death of 3 SSD simultaneously after a windows update. 1 survived, 2 didn't. These things can be destroyed by a system writing to them in a certain way.

 

[JohnW2]

If your bios allows USB booting, you maybe able to see it there.

I'm not sure about my BIOS. I'll look.

With SSDs, they will stay dead until all queued up jobs are finished. So if you keep them powered for a day, it will finish the queue and behave normal again. Same could be true of sticks. Not being a heavy stick user, I can't tell you if this is true.

I can certainly try leaving one of the powered for a while, and see if anything changes.

I once had death of 3 SSD simultaneously after a windows update. 1 survived, 2 didn't. These things can be destroyed by a system writing to them in a certain way.

I can but presume that's what happened to mine. I imagine that its because of cost and flexibility ('updates') etc. that it all seems to be done with 'firmware' - since it would be nice to think that enough software would exist in true (not re-programmable) ROM for the device to at least be recognised and 'dealt with' by operating systems, regardless of what had been written to other bits of the firmware

Kind Regards, John