Is my flash drive dying?

hj2k_x

hj2k_x

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8GB Kingston flash drive. Maybe a year or so old...

Shows up in My Computer as a file and not a drive...Slower read/write times...The little green light on it flashes intermittently, even when not being accessed at all.

Have taken all data off and formatted. Still no joy.

Is it just on its way out or am I missing something?

Edit: This happened to a Verbatim one I have, and formatting fixed it...
 
Last edited:
Have you tried it on any other pc?

The file/drive issue is definitely a virus, that is what fixed mine. but like you said, you already formatted it, so I don't know.
 
kiepie said:
Have you tried it on any other pc?

The file/drive issue is definitely a virus, that is what fixed mine. but like you said, you already formatted it, so I don't know.
Click to expand...

I tried it at varsity today (which is probably where I would have got any virus in the first place) and it did the same thing :(

Running AVGFree which has said nothing of a virus at all...
 
Backup everything off the flash drive.
Then, format it, etc as per usual.

Maybe the drive is corrupted.

I had this issue with a 2GB flash drive, client begged me to fix it, saved the info, formatted it (full, not quick) and now the drive is fine.

This was like 2 months ago, she also thought the drive was dying.
 
gdiza said:
Backup everything off the flash drive.
Then, format it, etc as per usual.

Maybe the drive is corrupted.

I had this issue with a 2GB flash drive, client begged me to fix it, saved the info, formatted it (full, not quick) and now the drive is fine.

This was like 2 months ago, she also thought the drive was dying.
Click to expand...

This time I did quick format - I'll give the full a try...
 
hj2k_x said:
This time I did quick format - I'll give the full a try...
Click to expand...

I've always used to do quick formats, but starting my new job, the one thing my boss stresses to me is to never take short cuts.

Do a full format... if you use Ultimate Boot CD and can, use the tools on there to run FULL tests on the flash drive.

If it's going it's going... just get a new one, but make a copy of the stuff first.
 
Those varsity campus virusses are nasty! Got a few also the other day with my flash... Anyhow, good luck man!
 
FuNkEr said:
Those varsity campus virusses are nasty! Got a few also the other day with my flash... Anyhow, good luck man!
Click to expand...

True story. You'd think that a full format should sort that out though...

It is showing up as a drive again but writing to it is taking an aaaaage :(

Hmmm, I have backed up everything at least...
 
Well full format seems to have done the trick for the drive itself. Worrying that neither my AVG nor the antivirus at varsity picked up anything, though...
 
Sounds like the recycler virus.Enable show hidden files then browse your flash for any hidden files if no luck then you might have to edit the registry to show super hidden files then check your flash again if you see the recycler folder on the flash drive then obviously you have the virus.I have yet to find a solution of removing this virus ,every anti virus i have tried so far does not pick up this virus some will scan the folder but not see it as a virus.Deleting the folder wil do nothing as this virus replicates itself using the autorun feature.
 
Definately a virus. Avg 8 not such a great av, maybe your pc is infected to?
 
Tejen said:
Sounds like the recycler virus.Enable show hidden files then browse your flash for any hidden files if no luck then you might have to edit the registry to show super hidden files then check your flash again if you see the recycler folder on the flash drive then obviously you have the virus.I have yet to find a solution of removing this virus ,every anti virus i have tried so far does not pick up this virus some will scan the folder but not see it as a virus.Deleting the folder wil do nothing as this virus replicates itself using the autorun feature.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I remember there were issues with a similar virus on campus a while back...Think I saw some hidden folders on there before the format as well...
 
If you're running XP then try formatting it on a Vista/7 pc because they dont seem to be affected by that virus..
Also get a virus remover specifically for flash drives. There are alot of free ones on the web.
 
hj2k_x said:
Come again? Is that a binary joke of some kind? :p
Click to expand...

01010000 01101000 01111001 01110011 01101001 01100011 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01110010 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110101 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101000 01101111 01101001 01100011 01100101 00101110 00100000 01000100 01100101 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110110 01101001 01100101 01110111 00101110

And the above is not gibberish either ;)
 
ponder said:
01010000 01101000 01111001 01110011 01101001 01100011 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01110010 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110101 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101000 01101111 01101001 01100011 01100101 00101110 00100000 01000100 01100101 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110110 01101001 01100101 01110111 00101110

And the above is not gibberish either ;)
Click to expand...

And just what am I meant to do with it?
 
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