Good day!

If your flash drive began to fail constantly: it is not formatted, when connected to a computer, it often freezes, when copying files to it, errors fly out, but it was not exposed mechanical stress- There is a CHANCE to restore its working capacity!

It would be nice if, when connecting a flash drive, it was somehow detected, for example: a connection sound is emitted, the flash drive is displayed in "my computer", an LED blinks on it, etc. If the computer does not see the USB flash drive at all, then first I recommend that you familiarize yourself with this article:

In general, it is impossible to give universal instructions on how and with what program what to do to restore a USB flash drive! But in this small article I will try to give an algorithm that will help, even novice users, to deal with the problem and solve it.

Recovery of the USB flash drive // ​​step by step

Defining the controller model

It turned out, by the will of fate, I had one flash drive that Windows refused to format - an error took off "Windows cannot complete formatting"... The flash drive, according to the owner, did not fall, water did not get on it, and in general, it was treated rather carefully ...

All that was clear upon examining it was that it was 16 GB and its brand was SmartBuy. When connected to a PC, the LED lit up, the flash drive was detected and visible in the explorer, but it worked with malfunctions.

SmartBuy 16 GB - "experimental" non-working flash drive

To restore normal operation of the flash drive, you need to reflash the controller microcircuit. This is done with special utilities, and for each type of controller - its own utility! If the utility is chosen incorrectly, then with a high degree of probability, you will spoil the USB flash drive completely ... I will say even more, for one lineup flash drives - there may be different controllers!

Each device have their own unique identification numbers - VID and PID , and the flash drive is no exception. To choose the correct utility for flashing, you need to determine these identification numbers (and according to them the controller model).

One of the most simple ways to find out the VID, PID, and model of the controller of the flash drive - this is to use special utilities. One of the best of its kind is .

Flash Drive Information Extractor

A small free utility to get as much information about the USB flash drive as possible. You don't need to install it!

The program will determine the model of the USB stick, the model and the type of memory (all modern flash drives are supported, at least from normal manufacturers) ...

The program will work even in cases where the file system of the flash drive is not detected, when the computer freezes when the media is connected.

Received information:

• controller model;
• possible variants of memory chips installed in the flash drive;
• type of installed memory;
• manufacturer's declared maximum current consumption;
• USB version;
• full physical disk space;
• disk space reported operating system;
• VID and PID;
• Query Vendor ID;
• Query Product ID;
• Query Product Revizion;
• Controller Revision;
• Flash ID (not for all configurations);
• Chip F / W (for some controllers), etc.

Important! The program only works with USB sticks. MP3 players, phones and other devices - it does not recognize. It is advisable, before starting the program, to leave only one single flash drive connected to the USB ports, from which you want to get the most information.

Working with Flash Drive Information Extractor

1. We disconnect from the USB ports everything that is connected (at least all drives: players, external hard drives etc.).
2. Insert the flash drive to be repaired into the USB port;
3. We start the program;
4. Press the button "Get information about a USB flash drive" ;
5. After a while, we get as much information about the drive as possible (see the screenshot below).
6. If the program is frozen- do nothing or close it. Remove the USB flash drive in a couple of minutes from the USB port, the program should "hang", and you will see all the information that she managed to pull out from the USB flash drive ...

Now we know the information about the flash drive and can start looking for the utility.

USB flash drive information:

• VID: 13FE; PID: 4200;
• Controller model: Phison 2251-68 (second line in the screenshot above);
• SmartBuy 16 GB.

Addition

You can reliably determine the controller model if you disassemble the USB flash drive. True, not every case of a flash drive is collapsible, and not every case can then be assembled back.

Usually, you need a knife and a screwdriver to open the case of a flash drive. When opening the case, be careful not to damage the inside of the flash drive. An example of a controller is shown in the screenshot below.

Disassembled flash drive. Controller model: VLI VL751-Q8

Appendix 2

You can find out the VID and PID of the flash drive using the device manager (in this case, nothing needs to be installed). True, in this case we will not recognize the controller model, and there is some risk that by VID and PID it will not be possible to accurately identify the controller. And nevertheless, suddenly the above utility will freeze and give no information at all ...

How to find a utility for flashing a flash drive

Important! After flashing the flash drive, all information on it will be deleted!

1) Knowing the controller model, you can simply use the search engines (Google, Yandex, for example) and find the one you need.

The work algorithm is as follows:

1. We go to the site:
2. We enter our VID and PID into the search bar and search;
3. In the list of results, you will most likely find dozens of lines. Among them, you need to find a line that matches: controller model, your manufacturer, VID and PID, flash drive size .
4. Further in the last column - you will see the recommended utility. By the way, note that the version of the utility also matters! It remains to download the required utility and apply it.

After you find and download the utility you need, run it and format the media - in my case, you only had to press one button - Restore .

Formatter SiliconPower v3.13.0.0 // Format and Restore. End-user utility designed for both low-level and high-level (FAT32) formatting of flash drives on Phison controllers of the PS2251-XX line.

After a couple of minutes of blinking the LED on the flash drive, it began to work normally, messages from Windows about the impossibility of formatting did not appear anymore. Bottom line: the flash drive was restored (it became 100% working), and given to the owner.

This, in fact, is all. For additions on the topic - I will be grateful. Good Luck!

Portable USB-Flash drives have become a part of our life. They help us in our work, study and leisure. But, probably, everyone is faced with the fact that one day the flash drive stops working as it should or is not detected by the computer at all. Many in this situation will prefer to send a broken USB flash drive to the trash and buy a new one in return. Fortunately, the prices for flash drives are now quite low. But do not rush to commit this rash act, as you can try to bring the flash drive back to life.

Today we will consider the issue of restoring the performance of a flash drive using an example Transcend JetFlash 300 8Gb, which "froze" during data writing and after extraction was not recognized as a drive.

When connecting a flash drive to a PC, she blinked a diode with a smooth damping, as if telling us: “Ooops! There is a problem". The following picture was observed in the device manager:

In the properties of the device, it was seen that the flash drive is being detected, the VID and PID correspond to the model, but as a disk it was not displayed and was absent in the disk manager.

Any flash drive has a controller (control microcircuit) and one or more memory microcircuits inside. Due to failures, power problems or other reasons, the controller may be blocked, and in memory, like hard drives, "bad" sectors may appear.

In the event of a software failure, which occurs in our case, the flash drive resuscitation algorithm is as follows:

1. Determine the manufacturer of the controller.
2. Find the manufacturer's service utility.
3. We transfer the controller to test mode, if required.
4. We restore.

So, let's start by defining the controller manufacturer. The best way to determine exactly which controller is used - disassemble the USB flash drive and see. Because, as the same model of USB-Flash drive at different times can be produced on different controllers, with different memory.

Considering the fact that the warranty for our Transcend JetFlash 300 8Gb came out a long time ago, we will not hesitate to analyze it:

Carefully lift the edge of the sticker from the side of the lid with a knife, lift it up. Under the sticker we see the latch tooth:

Press something thin on the latch tooth and pull the connector forward. You can use a thin screwdriver inserted between the body and the colored plug:

The case is detached quite easily:

And now we have in our hands a completely disassembled Transcend JetFlash 300 8 Gb flash drive:

See what kind of controller chip? - SM3255Q AB.

On the reverse side, we find the memory chip - Samsung K9BCG08U1A-MCB0

We have decided on the initial data. Now we start looking for the utility from the wonderful site flashboot.ru

We have a chip from SMI, which means we are looking for a service utility that can work with the SM3255AB controller. Through trial and error, the utility was found - SMI MPTool V2.03.20 v2 J0324. Please note that there are a great many versions of this utility, but only this version saw our flash drive (v2 with J0324 at the end).

At first, none of the utilities wanted to identify the USB flash drive. In specialized forums, it is recommended in such cases to switch the controller to test mode, in which the memory chip is not interrogated during the initialization of the flash drive (see flashboot.ru for details). Then install the factory driver (included with the utility).

To put the controller into test mode, you need to close two legs. But not just any, but special ones! But, unfortunately, it is not always possible to find the datasheet (documentation) for the controller, and there is a high probability that you will close the wrong legs and completely burn the control microcircuit. Therefore, they usually go the other way, namely, they look for a datasheet on a memory chip, and close the legs on it. The data bus of the memory chip and the controller is usually directly connected.

If we have a datasheet for our microcircuit, then in the circuit we are looking for conclusions signed as F0D0, F0D1, etc., this is the data bus. We close them in pairs using a thin screwdriver or tweezers, before connecting a USB flash drive (it is convenient to use a USB extension cable), and try to determine it in the utility (F5). For microcircuit Samsung memory K9BCG08U1A-MCB0 the desired legs turned out to be 19-20. The legs are counted from the key (point in the corner of the microcircuit) in the direction of the legs counterclockwise / clockwise, depending on the case. In our case, the pins are located clockwise.

In our case, the flash drive was detected by the system, so the factory driver was installed without the need to put the controller into test mode. The driver is located in the folder with the utility, along the path .. \ UFD_MP \ FactoryDriver \ WinXP \ SMIInfUpdate.exe

Although the driver itself is intended for XP, it has been successfully installed on 7-ke.

Here we enter the VID and PID of our flash drive and click the SMI Factory Driver button, after which the driver installation will be completed. We reconnect the USB flash drive to the PC. Now in the device manager it should be like this:

Do you have an inoperative USB flash drive or other media and are you wondering which program to choose for recovery?

We have reviewed the most popular utilities. Which of the above programs is right for you and will restore your USB flash drive with a 100% guarantee?

A one-of-a-kind program will help you pull out all the data Hetman Partition Recovery. It is loved by both beginners and pros for its convenience, speed and advanced data recovery algorithm. Your files will be found and copied even when there is no longer access to the media file system or it is damaged.

JetFlash Recovery Tool is a proprietary utility that has the most simple interface and support for working with Transcend, JetFlash and A-DATA drives. Management with only two buttons, obviously you will like it. Do not forget that the cleared data cannot be restored, so the preliminary saving of information from the flash drive will not be superfluous.

If you have a need to constantly have a universal program with you, which is convenient to use both on home computer, and beyond, we recommend D-Soft Flash Doctor, its platform does not imply pre-installation, it starts instantly on any PC. The software is suitable for repair, unlock,
restoring the volume of the flash drive and its performance.

If you need to recover SD cards, we advise you to download F-Recovery SD, which has an effective set of simple options for working with damaged flash drives from digital cameras and others. portable devices... From the point of view of a professional approach to Flash drives, it will be interesting to use the Flash Memory Toolkit, the application contains a whole range of additional functionality that can test flash drives, in addition, the program works with any version of the OS from Microsoft.

Recognize the maximum number different types flash drives Flash Drive, among the above utilities, as well as quickly reanimate the performance of drives, a formatting utility and USB recovery Disk storage Format Tool, which has a very clear and user-friendly interface. Repair program USB stick Disk Storage will be able to quickly recover data from damaged partitions hard disk even if there are problems with the flash drive firmware.

If none of the flash drive recovery programs helped, we recommend checking the status of the memory controller using the ChipGenius utility. The program works with USB, micro SD, SD, SDHC and USB-Mpz players from Kingston manufacturers, Silicon power, Transcend, Adata, PQI. Further actions to correct errors, restore lost data are advisable only if
the flash drive is defined in Chip Genius.

Today we will look at:

Silicon Power USB Flash Drives have a simple and elegant design. By purchasing such a stylish product, we hope that the miniature storage media will last long enough.

It is very unpleasant when flash drives unexpectedly fail, while the drive contains valuable information that they did not have time to duplicate. According to customer reviews, Silicon Power's 16 GB USB drives are the most vulnerable to logical errors and physical impact. Do not despair right away, in most cases you can restore the performance of the media and save the information.

Signs that the USB device is out of order and needs repair or refurbishment

• Flash is periodically or not detected at all.
• When turned on, it is detected as a connected device, but a message is displayed that it is not recognized by the operating system (unknown device).
• Inability to perform file access, read or write operations, while the following messages are displayed: “no access to the disk”, “disk is write-protected”, “insert disk”, “file or folder is damaged. Reading is impossible. "
• Defined as understated or zero storage media.
• I get the message “Before using the disk in the G: \ drive, it must be formatted. Format? " After a few trials, it turns out that "Windows cannot complete formatting."

Causes of malfunctions

• Logical - incorrect formatting, removal and removal of the device while recording, transferring or downloading information, improper use of the flash drive when watching movies on TVs, failure in the file system.
• Mechanical - shocks, falls, etc.
• Thermal and electrical - discharges of static electricity, power instability during voltage surges and overheating.
• Software and hardware failures in the operation of electronic parts of flash drives.
• Damage or removal of the driver program to recognize the device by the operating system.
• written specifically to deliberately delete or distort information.

Solution Ways to Recover Flash Drives

When recovering USB operability It should be borne in mind that in most cases this will result in a complete loss of data written to them.

For serious logical errors file system, the knowledge of specialists in computer technology is needed.

In case of mechanical, thermal and electrical influences and destruction, the device is usually not suitable for operation. However, if only the body of the flash drive is damaged, there is a possibility of information recovery in service centers.

The driver software can be re-installed by downloading it from the manufacturers' official website using the Silicon Power drivers link.

As in the previous case, the program is launched without installation via the "RecoveryTool (.exe)" executable file. Screenshot of the start and scan start screen:

Before scanning, a warning is displayed stating that while the program is running, there is a risk of losing data from the media. By clicking on Start, the process of restoring the operability of the flash drive takes place.

SoftOrbits Flash Drive Recovery is a program for recovering information from flash drives after multiple formatting. You can download the trial version from the official site softorbits.com.

The program must be installed in advance. The launch is carried out through the executable file "frecover (.exe)". The screenshots below show the startup processes trial version programs where you can select a medium for scanning, select files for recovery, hard disk space for recording them, as well as a preview window for recovered information:

To get the final recovery results, you need to buy the registered version of the program on the Softorbits website.

Controller firmware

If using the above software did not lead to the expected results, there are more difficult option flash media recovery is the so-called "controller firmware". This option is to apply special utilities to recover hardware failures of a specific type of flash media using known unique identifiers USB devices- VID and PID.

Upon closer examination of the window running USB programs Flash Drive Recovery described above, you can see that the VID and PID values ​​are automatically recognized during operation. If these numbers are entered into the database of identifiers of known flash drives on the Iflash website , it is easy to find in the table the model of your flash drive from the manufacturer Silicon Power and the utility for its recovery ("flashing").

Experiments along the way of using various options for restoring the performance of your flash drive will definitely lead to desired results and pleasant personal discoveries.

The most difficult thing when choosing service utilities for SMI chips, this is to determine whether you need to resort to the services of a flasher DYNA MPTool... And if necessary, then be able to overcome the flash drive in it, because working with it is not as comfortable as with SMI MPTool .

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF UTILITIES

In addition to programs that flood the firmware, for SMI- USB sticks are available and simple formatters. But given the fact that they are all far from the first freshness and work with flash drives that are already stitched without problems, then there is no point in bothering with them.

If given method has not borne fruit, then try your luck with.

Those who have failed in the previous steps, it remains to go to the manual selection of production utilities. And depending on the combination of controller plus flash memory, for a flash drive we take one of two utilities or SMI MPTool or DYNA MPTool.

To determine the parameters of the flash drive, use the program.

Volume: I:
Controller: Silicon Motion SM3257 ENAA
Possible Memory Chip (s):
Toshiba TC58NVG6D2GTA00
Memory Type: MLC
Flash ID: 98DE9482 7656
Flash CE: 1
Chip F / W: ISP 130430-AA-
MP: M0503V2
MPTOOL Ver .: 2.05.18
PTEST Date: 2013-04-24
VID: 090C
PID: 1000
Manufacturer: UFD 2.0
Product: Silicon Power
Query Vendor ID: UFD 2.0
Query Product ID: Silicon Power
Query Product Revision: 1100
Serial: AA00000000008407
Physical Disk Capacity: 8099201024 Bytes
Windows Disk Capacity: 8082395136 Bytes
Internal Tags: QU2R-TZ8J
File System: FAT32
Relative Offset: 28 KB
USB Version: 2.00
Declared Power: 500 mA
Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 x64 Build 7601
Program Version: 8.6.0.595

As with the googling method, we are mainly interested in the controller model ( Controller) and Flash ID ( Flash ID).

The first step is to download the latest version of the production utility for this controller, in our case for SM3257ENAA... For now, let's make the assumption that we know about which particular utility we need ( SMI MPTool, always by default). Further, before sewing, there will be a paragraph about monoliths and test mode, after which it will become clear to you which utility to use.

But for monolithic flash drives that cannot be disassembled and translated into, this is an unjustified risk. In this case, read the next chapter on how to calculate the need to change the utility to DYNA MPTool to minimize risks as much as possible.

TIPS: HOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER DYNAMPTOOL IS NECESSARY

In addition to the two methods considered, there may be other situations when the flash drive needs attention DYNA MPTool... Depending on the flash drive and its state, it can be anything, for example, endless Pretest.

Remember these three controller models, which are often sewn in DYNA MPTool: SM3257ENAA, SM3257ENBA, SM3259AA... And flash memory, most often in such situations, costs production Toshiba or Sandisk.

TIPS # 1

If the program report Flash Drive Information Extractor, there is a parameter MPTOOL Ver., then he can tell what exactly the flush was sewn. Here are two examples:

MPTOOL Ver .: 2.05.18- if the value is equal to the version number, then the flash drive was sewn into SMI MPTool.
MPTOOL Ver .: 07/14/18- and if a certain date, then the flash drive came out from under the wing DYNA MPTool and this date is its version number. Where, 14 - year 2014, 07 - month of July, 18 number.

And somewhere with probability 90% , a USB flash drive flashed into DYNA MPTool, if you want to, you cannot be repaired in SMI MPTool.

Do not be alarmed if you do not find it in the report, this is quite normal. Firstly, the utility could not recognize it on old flash drives, and secondly, if the firmware flew to a hair dryer, then it cannot be there.

TIPS # 2

More universal way, for the implementation of which, it is necessary to find a kind of fully compatible version SMI MPTool... If errors like the following appear during the firmware:

Bad Block over setting (11) (User-3725 (M)> FW-3581 (M))

And it means that the utility did not have enough strength to cope with the bad memory and you need to contact Sorting-utilities (application DYNAMPTool). Then poke around in SMIMPTool, in that case it makes no sense!

ATTENTION: do not confuse this error with simply Bad Block over setting (11), which has nothing to do with the need to refer to Dune... In the error in question, there must be references in brackets about the parameter values USER and FW.

CHECKING FLASH SUPPORT IN THE FIRMWARE

It is impossible to make sure of the correct selection, unless, of course, on the Internet, you will not find a solved case with the restoration of exactly the same flash drive.

Therefore, all that remains for us is to punch through whether the flasher knows our flash memory. Possible memory markings ( Possible Memory Chip (s):), I do not recommend paying any attention, because it can confuse the table, so we immediately look at FID (Flash ID:).

In this case, its meaning has the form: 98 DE 94 82 76 56.

As a rule, memory support, which was once added, comes with the utility and beyond. But, firstly, this is not always the case, and secondly, it is not a fact that the operation will end in success when working with a specific distribution kit. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account other parameters, and also sometimes iterate over several versions.

To presumably find out in which version of the production flasher there is support for this memory, you can use a little different ways... But let's not suffer from bullshit, we will focus on the simplest, all the same, the effectiveness of the others is no better.

Let's open the file flash_3257ENAA.dbf (the name of the required file depends on the controller model we originally defined), which is located in the UFD_ALL_DBF folder of the program distribution kit.

We hammer into the search FID memory, which we defined at the very beginning ( 98 DE 94 82 76 56).

In this case, we have one match, although there may be several:

@ 98 DE 94 82 76 56 28 00 0B 01 82 06 00 3F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 50 50 10 10 21 // Toshiba TC58NVG6D2GTA00 J1201 24nm MLC

Well, once in DBF-file there is a record about our memory, then most likely the utility will work correctly with it!

But keep in mind that the presence of a flash record in DBF, Ffw or ForceFlash, absolutely does not exclude the possible need to use the toolkit DYNA MPTool.

HOW TO USE THE UTILITIES

On the USBDev portal, there are detailed instructions on software recovery flash drives, in popular software packages:

To work with RecoverTool-applications, just connect a USB flash drive and run the utility. Then she will do everything herself, if, of course, the flash drive is within her power.

NOTES

2) Depending on the version number of the utility SMI MPTool, she uses in her work or 4 byte option Flash ID or 6 byte... Tentatively, the transition to 6 byte happened in version SMI MPTool V2.03.42 v6 K0530... And that is why new shells meet old ones with hostility. USB-chips. Yes, and use in the selection of utilities, for older chips SM3255AB, it is necessary 4 bytes!

3) In the course of numerous restoration attempts, it can get littered system registry, which will interfere with the identification of the flash drive in the service software. To fix the problem, try cleaning the registry with a program and rebooting the system.

4) Use a service driver SMI Factory Driver, there is no point at home, except in cases of some kind of driver conflicts at the level of your OS. Otherwise, put it on again, and then you will complain that something from your devices does not work or the driver will refuse to be deleted.

If someone has questions about the repair of their flash drives, then you can get a guaranteed answer only on -.