We’ve all been there–It’s twenty minutes before your thesis is due, you put the file on your flash drive to print it off at school, you put your flash drive in the USB port and…nothing; your flash drive isn’t detected on the computer. You feel like you’re going to be sick and start panicking. Why isn’t my flash drive working?! Where is my paper?
Well, stop panicking. Here are 3 tips for USB flash drive repair to save you from last minute paper crises.
1. Think: Drive Letter
Sometimes flash drives simply stop functioning because there is a discrepancy in the computer assigned drive letter. If your flash drive isn’t immediately recognized, it could mean that the computer accidently assigns a drive letter that conflicts with another drive in the computer. This could happen if you’re using a different computer than normal. Luckily, this can easily be fixed by following these quick steps.
1. Access the Computer Management panel
2. Go into Disk Management
3. Scroll down and find the flash drive that will be listed as “Removable Media”
4. Right click on the “Removable Media” drive
5. Select the “Change” option
6. Select a new drive letter for your USB flash drive that won’t conflict with any other drives
2. Error Checking
Sometimes the USB drive is corrupted and isn’t saving your data correctly or letting you retrieve it properly. Luckily, in Windows XP there is the Error Checking feature:
1. Right click on the flash drive from the My Computer panel
2. Choose “Properties”
3. From the new pop-up window, choose “Tools”
4. Then choose the “Error Checking” tool
This option will hopefully correct any issues or errors found on the drive, and get your paper up and printed just in time for class.
3. Formatting
This should be a last-ditch attempt to save the flash drive, since none of your information or documents will be saved once you do this. You may not be able to recover your paper, but you will be able to fix your flash drive for future use.
1. Click on the drive in the “My Computer” panel
2. Select the option “Formatting”
3. Choose the volume label, file system or quick format option
Get Professional Help
If you have tried all the above methods, and your flash drive still isn’t working properly, seek an expert to help you recover your flash drive. FlashFixers is one such company that can help you save your documents, even when your flash drive fails.
