USB drive not showing up|how to recover data
Hello,
I have an HP 16GB USB stick (drive) that apparently died on me. Mac cannot access the files on the USB drive. When I insert the stick into a USB port, Mac shows nothing but the Windows finds the stick and says it is ready for use.
However, when I go to MY COMPUTER(in Window) and click on the drive to access the files, I can see the stick identified there as Drive "E." When I right click on it a screen pops up stating that the USB drive is unformatted and do I want to format it?
If I select "yes," another screen pops up asking me to insert a drive into "E." WINDOWS then aborts the process. I tried to use Restore in the backup menu, that too fails. I also downloaded several FREE data restoration programs and tried to restore the data that way. All failed. One did, however, indicate that I have failed sectors on the USB. I have over 2 years of valuable files on this USB drive.
Any ideas on how to retrieve the files? I am at my wits end on this one. I hope that there is a way to do this.


- Log in to post comments

Hi Steve,
I was just trying to install some of the recovery software but don't know what happened I just insert the stick into a USB port and it's now available to read and write before it's not showing in Mac.
It happened after I insert the disk into Windows port.
- Log in to post comments

Brittany, if the stick is now available to read & write, then I would suggest copying your data from it as soon as possible in case it decides to go bad again!
- Log in to post comments

Sure Steve,
Do you have any idea why has that happened? I didn't copy my data cause I was a relief but I'm transferring my data ATM.
- Log in to post comments

Sorry, USB sticks can fail without any warning but in my experience, once they do die, they don't normally come back to life again! It could just be a temporary issue with the USB port that was resolved by a restart etc?
- Log in to post comments

It would be, or maybe it was because I just cleaned my USB port and after looking for a solution I tried again and it's all good.
- Log in to post comments