Kingston flash drives are renowned for their reliability and long term services, but they are also not protected from various failures. Sometimes the drive actually “dies” and it is not possible to restore it. More often there are situations when a flash drive can be brought back to life using a special firmware utility.
Most often they break Kingston flash drives dt100g2 and datatraveler.
Is it possible to recover a flash drive?
Signs that the drive can be restored:
- When you connect a flash drive, a notification appears that a new device has been detected.
- The system prompts you to format the removable disk.
- The drive does not open, but is shown in Explorer.
- Errors occur when reading and writing data.
These problems can be eliminated by flashing the controller or formatting the media, but if the flash drive has important information, then before performing any restoration procedures you need to try to “pull it out”. Use to extract a recovery program like Recuva or so as not to lose the necessary files.
Search for a program for flashing the controller
To restore you will need special utility for Kingston flash drive. To avoid mistakes and download the correct program, you need to know the model of the drive controller.
Method 1
Look necessary information You can go to flashboot.ru in the iFlash section, using the VID and PID values of the flash drive as a filter.
- Connect the drive to your computer.
- Open Device Manager ( right click on the “Computer” icon - Management).
- Find "USB Mass Storage Device".
- Right click and open properties.
- Go to the Details section and select the Hardware ID property.
Method 2
Another way to get the information you need is to download the program Flash Drive Information Extractor and click the “Get Data” button. The report will contain the lines “VID” and “PID”; use their value to find a utility that can correctly restore the Kingston Datatraveler flash drive.
You can download the program in the “Files” section on the website flashboot.ru. If the utility is not here, try to find it on other web resources. 
Recovery utilities
You can find the desired program without a controller model - just type in the search engine the query “utility recovery kingston" In the results you will see several utilities, among which there will certainly be programs such as Phison Preformat, AlcorMP AU698x RT, etc.
The problem is that Kingston flash drive recovery programs only work if they are compatible with the controller installed in the drive. Therefore, if you download the first repair utility you come across, it may not detect the connected media.
When required program found, you can begin to restore it. Be sure to look at the instructions, which should be packaged in the archive along with the recovery utility - perhaps the program has a special operating procedure. The general recovery procedure looks like this:
You don’t need to do anything else: the program will automatically correct errors and return the flash drive to a working state. This completes the restoration of the Kingston flash drive; If the controller firmware did not help resolve the problem, then the cause of incorrect operation should be sought among hardware faults.
It has happened to many users that you insert a flash drive into the computer, but it identifies it as an unrecognized device and does not open it. This, of course, is very unpleasant and frightening, especially if the media contains very important and necessary data. And the question arises: is it possible to restore a flash drive?
In principle, it is possible if the media stopped working not due to any physical intervention.
I’ll tell you right away, no. universal program, which could restore a damaged flash drive. Each device has its own utilities. The probability of success is sufficient to try it.
Flash drive identification
So, before you restore a flash drive that the computer does not see, you need to identify it. We need VIP data, PID and memory chip information. If you know them, then good. If not, then you will need a program that is very easy to manage.
By connecting the flash drive to the computer and running the CheckUDisk program, we get the necessary data.
Flash drive recovery utility
To restore a flash drive, we are primarily interested in the VID&PID line. In my case, it has the value Vid_0951&Pid_1665. Therefore, on the flash drive the VID is 0951, and the PID is 1665. With this data we go to the site, which is free and mostly in Russian.
Here we will see where the received data should be written: in the VID and PID lines, respectively. We write and click “Search”. The site will find all flash drives that have such identifiers, and most likely there will be a lot of them.
Therefore, you may need other data from CheckUDisk in order to find your flash drive in this list. For example VendorID or ProductID.
To make it clearer, I will give a translation of the columns of the table in which you will look for your flash drive:
- Flash vendor – flash drive manufacturer;
- Flash model – flash drive model;
- Vid and Pid are the identifiers that we obtained at the very beginning;
- Chip vendor – chip manufacturer;
- Chip model – chip model;
- Memory chip – chip memory;
- Size (gb) – size in GB;
- Utils – A utility that can solve your flash drive recovery problem.
As I already said, if it is difficult to find a flash drive in the list by VID and PID, then use other CheckUDisk data, for example, information about the manufacturer or chip, or capacity (you should know this if this is your flash drive).
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And, as has already become clear, to restore a flash drive you need a utility, which can be downloaded from the link in the Utils column of the list table. These programs are usually simple, and the whole thing comes down to pressing one button.
The SmartBuy flash drive is a common removable storage device that many modern users use with great pleasure. The manufacturer has been successfully producing high-quality optical media. Combined with an acceptable cost, attention to such a product increases several times.
Restoring the functionality of a SmartBuy flash drive is within the capabilities of a PC user.
In addition to an acceptable cost, such flash drives are accompanied by excellent quality, although this does not at all guarantee that during the operation of the media it is impossible for unforeseen situations to arise. SmartBuy flash drives can also fail, but you shouldn’t immediately say goodbye to them, sending them off to a “well-deserved rest.”
You can try to do some manipulations to restore the functionality of the removable drive. In most cases, users manage to restore “life” to the drive, so it will be able to serve for several more years and technically justify its repeated “resurrection”.
If your digital drive has stopped showing “signs of life,” it means that circumstances have occurred that impede its normal functioning. Sometimes you yourself can act as the culprit of such troubles. This happens when you completely ignore the rules for removing removable media. Also, such software failures can occur when a flash drive is actively used, subjecting it to constant writing, reading and rewriting.
A flash drive may stop working if an unexpected guest in the form of a virus penetrates it and makes adjustments to its settings. Even a simple drop of a flash drive can cause its premature failure, since in this case mechanical damage to the removable drive is quite often observed. It is especially difficult to accept when the MicroSD SmartBuy, on which numerous unique photographs are stored, stops functioning.
However, you should not hang your nose; you can use existing utilities that allow you to restore the SmartBuy flash drive, as well as successfully restore all the content that was previously stored on the drive.
Let's compile all of the above. Problems with the storage device in question may arise due to the following reasons:
- a large number of rewrite cycles;
- incorrect extraction;
- infection by virus software;
- overheat;
- software errors;
- static voltage;
- malfunction of the controller;
- mechanical damage.
Based on current practice, most problems are characterized by a failure of the controller, which communicates between the flash drive itself and the computer interfaces.
It should be noted right away that, unfortunately, you can only hope to successfully restore the functionality of this media if its inoperability is caused by software problems and not mechanical damage. Yes, of course, someone will say that even “mechanics” can be cured, but for this you need to have sufficient skills and specialized devices, which not everyone has.
In addition, solving software errors also requires certain knowledge, skills in searching for information and working with specialized software.
The essence of restoring functionality is to reflash the controller chip. The difficulty is that each type of controller requires a specific utility, errors in the selection of which can completely neutralize all attempts to return the flash drive to functionality and, more importantly, to obtain the information stored on it.
Therefore, the first thing you should do is try to save everything possible files, and only then resort to radical measures.
Let’s focus on file recovery for now and then return to “revitalizing” the flash drive.
File recovery programs
If your flash drive shows no signs of life, use any SmartBuy MicroSD flash drive recovery program. There are several such programs, so you can choose the option that is most accessible to understanding.
You can try using the CardRecovery utility. It works great with SmartBuy removable media, and it can also restore mobile phone memory cards very well.
So, find the CardRecovery utility on the Internet, download it and install it. After that, run the program, in the “Drive letter” section, select the flash drive that you are going to restore, as well as restore the content that was recorded on it.
Be sure to indicate what file format you would like to restore. The program will ask you to specify the folder in which the recovered files will be saved. You can create such a folder in advance, and then specify the path to it in the program.
After this preliminary work, you can start clicking on the “Next” button. All you have to do is wait until the program finishes, and then look at the list of all recovered files.
You can use some other similar program. For example, modern and multifunctional utility PC Inspector Smart Recovery. It will ask the user to indicate the drive where the files that are now important to recover were stored. You can also use programs such as R-Studio, Easy Recovery and Flash Memory Toolkit.
Restoring the flash drive
If you are faced with a slightly different task than simply recovering lost files, then resuscitation actions may be different. In particular, if you have a non-working SmartBuy flash drive, the DiskInternals Uneraser recovery program will help you successfully solve this problem.
ADVICE. By the way, some experienced users claim that SmartBuy flash drives have one unique characteristic. You can simply put a “dead” flash drive in a safe place and “forget” about it for several years.
After this decent period of time, the removable drive can itself begin to function again, as if there was no system failure. Of course, this option is unlikely to suit anyone. Nobody wants to wait several years, especially since there is no 100% information on when the period of such “waiting” will definitely end. It is for this reason that it is easier to use utilities that immediately help restore the functionality of removable media.
Working with DiskInternals Uneraser is very simple. After launching it, a dialog box opens in which you should find the “Recover” option located in the top row of the menu. Next, the program will independently take care of performing all the necessary actions. You just have to sit and wait quietly. The program will not only return the flash drive to functionality, but will also offer to return important files that were deleted during recovery, since the process involves formatting.
Reflashing the controller
Have you recovered your files? Okay, we can start working with the controller.
Important point! The target/repaired flash drive must be at least somehow determined by the system. If you insert the media, and there is silence in response (the indicator does not light up, the system does not make the characteristic connection sound, “Disk Management” and file managers do not see the device, the BIOS ignores the connection), then using this method will not work. And such an outcome of events is extremely deplorable, since it will require physical intervention, with an appeal to the appropriate specialist.
Otherwise, if the flash drive is recognized by the system, but simply refuses to work, do the following:
IMPORTANT. Pay special attention to the correspondence of the values, since an incorrectly selected one can lead to complete inoperability of the device.
If in doubt, try additionally using the program “Flash Drive Information Extractor”, which will provide the most full information about the selected device.
Once compliance is confirmed, download the proposed software and follow the utility's recommendations. In most cases, you only need to click on the “Restore” button.
Conclusion
Experienced users recommend not to wait for the flash drive to present such unpleasant surprise, and carry out preventive measures in a timely manner. In particular, with active use removable media It is recommended to perform defragmentation and periodically make backups.
It is also important to remember that you cannot load removable media completely; you need to always have free space. Of course, it is very important to remove the media from the computer correctly, not to drop it, or to avoid other mechanical damage.
So, if you carry out such simple preventive measures, removable media can last quite a long time. If trouble happens and the flash drive stops working, you can use utilities and professionally “breathe” new “vitality” into it.
A USB flash drive is not recognized as a disk when connected to a computer or laptop? Can't you write anything on it? And you can’t even format the flash drive? In principle, all is not lost. Most likely the problem lies with the controller. But this can be fixed. And everything will take a maximum of 5-10 minutes.
The only caveat is that restoring the flash drive’s functionality is only possible if it has no mechanical damage (+ it appears in device manager). That is, if you did not turn it off via “ Safe removal” (or something like that), then this can be fixed. At the very least, it’s worth at least trying to restore a non-working flash drive.
How to get your flash drive working again
Even if it seems that the USB flash drive has come to an end, you should not take it for repairs. And even more so throw it away. First, you can try to restore the damaged flash drive.
The instructions work for all USB flash drives: Silicon Power, Kingston, Transcend, Data Traveler, A-Data, etc. With its help you can restore file system and eliminate any problems (except mechanical damage).
So, the first thing you need to do is determine the parameters of the USB flash drive. Or rather, its VID and PID. Based on this information, you can determine the brand of the controller, and then select a utility that will help restore the damaged flash drive.
To find out these parameters, do the following:
- Connect the flash drive to your PC or laptop and go to Start – Control Panel – Device Manager.
- Find the "USB Controllers" section.
- Double-click on it and look for the item “Memory USB device" This is your flash drive (let me remind you, it must be connected to the computer).
- Right-click on it and select “Properties”.
- In the new window, go to the “Details” tab.
- In the “Property” field, select the “Equipment ID” (or “Instance Code”) item.
- Look at the VID and PID values and remember them.
- Next, go to the website http://flashboot.ru/iflash/, enter your values at the top of the site and click the “Search” button.
- You are looking for the model of your USB flash drive (by manufacturer and memory capacity). In the right column “Utils” there will be the name of the program with which you can try to restore a non-working flash drive.
After that, all that remains is to find this utility by name or follow the link (if it exists) and download it.
Restoring Kingstone, Silicon Power, Transcend and other models is easy: just run the program and follow the instructions.
What to do if you have not found a suitable utility for your model? To do this, go to Google or Yandex and write something like this: “Silicon Power 4 GB VID 090C PID 1000” (of course, you should indicate the parameters of your flash drive here). And then look what the search engine found.
Never use programs that are not suitable for the VID and PID parameters of your controller! Otherwise, you will “kill” the flash drive completely, and you will no longer be able to restore it.
In most cases, recovery of a damaged flash drive is successful. And after that it will be detected when connected to a PC or laptop.
This is how you repair a flash drive yourself using a free utility.
And most importantly: in this way it is possible to restore a damaged flash drive in 80% of cases. While the majority specialized programs they may not be able to cope with this task.
