Kingston flash drives are reliable and durable, but they are also not immune to various failures. Sometimes the drive really "dies" and it is not possible to restore it. More often, there are situations when a USB flash drive can be brought back to life using a special utility for firmware.
Most often, Kingston dt100g2 and datatraveler flash drives break.
Is it possible to recover a USB flash drive
Signs that the drive can be recovered:
- When a flash drive is connected, 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 appears in the explorer.
- Errors occur while reading and writing data.
These problems are eliminated by controller firmware or media formatting, but if there is important information on the flash drive, then before performing any recovery procedures, you need to try to "pull it out". Use a recovery program like Recuva to extract or to avoid losing the files you need.
Search for a program for controller firmware
To recover, you will need a special utility for the Kingston flash drive. In order not to make a mistake and load the correct program, you need to know the drive controller model.
Method 1
You can view the necessary information on the website 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 the 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 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 of the flashboot.ru website. If there is no utility here, try to find it on other web resources. 
Recovery utilities
You can find the program you need without a controller model - just type the query "kingston recovery utility" in the search engine. 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 available repair utility, it may not detect the connected media.
When the required program is found, you can start restoring it. Be sure to look at the instructions, which should be packed into the archive along with the recovery utility - perhaps the program has a special order of work. The general recovery procedure looks like this:
You don't need to do anything else: the program will fix the errors on its own and return the flash drive to a usable state. This completes the restoration of the Kingston flash drive; if the controller firmware did not help to fix the problem, then the cause of the incorrect operation should be looked for among the hardware faults.
This article is intended to help you programmatically recover USB Flash Drives based on Skymedi's SK6211 microcontroller. This controller is found in flash drives of various manufacturers, for example: Kingston, Kingmax, A-data, etc. The utility was chosen as an example. She, like many others, is designed to work in the OS environment - MS Win XP. A Kingston DT100 / 1GB flash drive was chosen as a "test subject".
The utility kit includes:
1) SK6211_20090828.exe - the main module itself.
2) SK6211_User_Manual.pdf - instructions for the program in English
3) SK6211BA_Skymedi Flash Support List _20090828.xls - "Flashlist" - a list of memory modules that this version of the utility supports. (Useful for determining "CodeBankVer" by date)
4) SK6211BA R-W Performance_Capacity List_20090828.xls - Summary table of speed tests of various memory modules in single-channel and dual-channel modes in Win XP sp2 & Win 2k sp4.
5) SK62XX_FAT_20090505.exe & SK62XX_FATool_UserGuideV1.pdf - auxiliary utility for testing flash.
6) ErrorCodes.txt - a list of error codes.
7) DrvSwitch.exe - factory driver.
8) Driver_Using_manual.pdf - instructions for using the driver.
1. Preparation
We connect the flash drive and find out the VID / PID, for example, using ChipGenius 3.0. Subject has VID = 0951 PID = 1607.
Run the utility "SK6211_20090828.exe" and select default in "Configuration Selection".
We see that a flash drive (SAMPLE - No Match) was detected in the first window (DUT1), but it is not yet ready for firmware! SAMPLE = example, No Mach = No Match. It means that the current settings (default) do not correspond to the insides of the flash drive. The utility has already determined that the flash drive is built on a controller that responds to its requests and has already read information from its firmware.
This information can be viewed by double-clicking on SAMPLE.
Here we see the contents of the firmware:
1) Controller SK6211
2) FID memory (AD D3 14 A5 34) and its name (HY27UT088G2A)
3) CodeBank version: C080512A_F080516A
4) Firmware version: CodeSwap-0512
5) The rest is not so important (production date / utility version / configuration name = "engraving on the USB connector" / VID & PID codes, etc.)
6) Channel: Byte Mode (Can be useful in settings!)
Everything is good here! But what to do with the code flashed the firmware so that most of this information is not there !?
Controller Version: SK6211BA
Flash Part No .: No matched Flash Part No.
Flash ID 01: 0x89 0x95 0x94 0x1E 0x74
Flash ID 02: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 03: 0x89 0x95 0x94 0x1E 0x74
Here the utility read the FID from the flash drive, but could not pick up the memory from its list by it!
Conclusion: try another utility or check contacts. Sometimes the restoration of contacts via the Data Bus between the controller and the memory changes the ID-schnick and the utility, using the correct ID-schnik, finds a match in its Database.
Controller Version: SK6211BA
Flash Part No .: I29F32G08AAMD1_S
Total Flash Size: 8192 MB
4K Page, MLC
Flash ID 01: 0x89 0xD7 0x94 0x3E 0x84
Flash ID 02: 0x89 0xD7 0x94 0x3E 0x84
Flash ID 03: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 04: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 05: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 06: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 07: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Flash ID 08: 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
Here the utility found memory in its database. But the version of Code Bank is unknown! We find it by searching for the date by the name of the flash chip in the file SK6211BA_Skymedi Flash Support List _20090828.xls
Now we are looking for suitable Code banks.
Opening the file:
... \ SK6211_PDT_20090828 \ CodeBank \ 2806 \ CBVer-1.2.2.44.ini
Find by date 09.03.09 version: C090309A_F090309A
2. Settings
Let's go back to the subject. Go to the "Advaced" button in the advanced settings. The password is 123456.
1) register VID & PID: 0951 & 1607
2) Vendor Name: Kingston
3) Product Name: DataTraveler 2.0
4) Revision: 8.2 (leave unchanged)
5) Disk Type: Removable (leave unchanged)
6) S / N: 001478544881SK8703120829 (this is the experimental serial number)
7) S / N Gen: (3) Don "t Change SN
Below you can skip to
8) Fixed Flash Size = 1024 (set the original size of the flash drive)
9) When you set the checkbox to Erase All, the following message is displayed: Warning Message: System information will be eliminated after erase all !!!
(Warning: system information will be erased after setting the "delete everything" mode !!!)
Go to the right window Flash Options
10) Choose a controller: SK6211BA
11) Select Code Bank Ver: C080512A_F080516A (the one that the utility issued by double-clicking on SAMPLE) Now I'm waiting for the Flash Selection section to be able to select the desired memory - HY27UT088G2A, but this does not happen. What is the reason? Possibly in the utility version! After all, the firmware contains the version: PDT Version: SK6211_PDT_20080616_BA, and I'm using SK6211_20090828! We go along the path of choosing a b / w flashlist. We find the date - 04/02/2008, but I don’t find names with such a date in the list, and Code Bank versions with the nearest date do not fit either! The assumption with the correspondence of the date from the flashlist is not suitable for this flash drive. Only brute force helped! When C090828A_F090828A was selected, the utility made it possible to select the desired memory!
12) Next, select Channel Mode: Single
We don't change anything else.
We get the READY status
Now the utility is "ready" to flash the flash drive.
Click Auto-LLF
3. Work on bugs
44 -
2 -
when changing read \ wright test error 37 -
Daw helped on ERASE ALL
45 -
(READY status, error in LLF process)
It helped: transfer to test mode by closing 31-32 feet to m / s memory
and re-flashing
_______________________________
101 -
Need a more recent version of the utility with support for new memory
ps: in the previous version 20090709_BA (34 -)
_______________________________
94 -
1 -
When trying to flash - (Access error)
Removed the USB extension cable, due to which there were losses.
_______________________________
In the work on the bugs, the experience of the forum users was used: Vitorrio, SeeJay, E1haZ and others.
Discussion of the article and problems during recovery are discussed in this thread on the forum.
Recovery of USB flash drives has its own characteristics. The good news: these devices, unlike sd cards, are repairable. Therefore, if you cannot exchange a USB flash drive under warranty, why not take advantage of a 60-70% chance to repair it.
The article will consider various cases, typical problems associated with the breakdown of flash drives, and options for solving them.
Recover data or repair a USB flash drive?
They are not the same, although the concepts are interrelated.
The main task that the repair solves is to restore the operability of the flash drive so that it:
- was defined as a storage device in Disk Management,
- was correctly defined in Explorer,
- read and write data.
As a result of repairing a usb flash drive, it is easy to lose all data on it, while it will be available for writing and reading.
File recovery is possible only on a working USB flash drive.
The main reasons for the breakdown of a USB flash drive
How to understand that a USB flash drive needs repair:
- When a flash drive is connected, the LED on its case does not light up;
- The device is not recognized on another computer / laptop;
- The flash drive is defined as an unidentified usb device.
Damaging your usb media is as easy as shelling pears. Like any physical device, flash memory is subject to external influences (shock, thermal effects, water ingress, etc.). In addition, there are a number of software errors due to which the flash drive does not work.
The pins of the USB connector are damaged
Often, the problem lies in the damaged contact between the controller and the USB connector.
How to check. To test your flash drive for this problem, test it on a different computer. Alternatively, insert another USB flash drive (if available) into the USB port of the same computer.
If other flash drives are readable on the PC without problems, the problem is probably in the current storage medium.
If you cannot read data from a flash drive only on this computer, the problem may be in the USB sockets of the PC or laptop motherboard.
How to fix.
- Here is a link to a third-party guide on how to repair a USB connector: Self-repair of a USB connector on a laptop.
- If you do not want to poke around in the wires, it is better to give a PC or a flash drive with a broken usb port for repair. The approximate cost of replacing usb is $ 20 - 50.
Hardware-mechanical problem: damaged controller
Most often, everything rests on the flash drive controller, which is the main link in the operation of the drive. The controller contains important microcircuits, and a disconnection of the contact or burnout of the leg will make data recovery on a USB flash drive very problematic.
How to fix a USB flash drive.
- Replace the controller yourself (which is unrealistic at home).
- Take the usb drive to the service - however, repairing the flash memory will cost a lot of money. You will not find a controller for a USB flash drive on sale. The laboratory can find a donor flash drive and "transplant" the faulty controller.
- If the data stored on the USB stick is vital and you'd like to recover it, the lab can use expensive hardware and software to retrieve the data bypassing the hardware controller.
The cost of services can be found directly from the specialists in the company engaged in the repair of flash drives in your city. It can start from $ 30 and go up to $ 500 - 1000.
Re-flashing a damaged flash drive
The USB flash drive contains firmware - microcode with service data. If the usb firmware is damaged, the flash drive will inevitably stop working.
How to fix. Such a USB flash drive cannot be formatted with ordinary universal software like SDFormatter. It will need a complete “trepanation” - flashing. This will require a proprietary utility from the manufacturer.
However, you can reflash a USB flash drive only by knowing the name of the controller. The difficulty lies in the fact that manufacturers, as a rule, use various types and models of controllers and can implement not only their own, but also others' developments. Therefore, it is not always possible to immediately determine the type of flash memory controller.
Fortunately, there are special programs that allow you to determine the type of VID & PID * for Transcend, Silicon Power, etc. drives; we will list them with a link to the installers.
(* VID is manufacturer ID, PID is device ID.)
After the warranty repair, all photos on the smartphone and on the SD card are gone.
Answer... A very vague question. What was the warranty repair of what - a mobile device or a memory card? All your claims against performers are governed by your contract.
As for data recovery on an sd-card, use specialized applications, which, in fact, this site is dedicated to.
A 2GB flash card from an old Nokia phone, the phone perfectly sees the flash drive, the tablet and other phones cannot. My equipment sees someone else's flash cards.
Answer... If other flash cards do not open on your, as you say yourself, old Nokia, it is most likely because the phone simply does not support new technologies. Review the documentation and specifications for your device. Perhaps it's time to upgrade your hardware?
My micro flash drive 32GB broke in half. How can I restore information on this USB flash drive, tell me, please, where and who can help me, how to fix the USB flash drive?
Answer... Alas, this flash drive cannot be repaired or somehow reanimated. If the firmware on your flash drive “flew”, then you could give some chance for recovery. As for physical damage, it all depends on the damage. If the flash memory chips are intact, you can read the data through a PC 3000 Flash reader, etc.
The only possible solution (if the files are not of particular importance) is to purchase a new microsd card.
The flash drive does not open, does not appear as a removable disk, does not appear in the device manager. Physical impact is excluded, because there are three such flash drives, different people worked with them.
Answer... You have not specified the type of memory you are working with. In any case, if the flash drive or sd card does not open, I would advise you to check the operation of the flash card on other devices. Test it on other phones or devices to which you can pair it. If it is an sd card, try connecting it to your PC via a card reader.
Check if the attached device is detected in the device manager. If so, use any disk partitioning program or standard Windows tools, or proprietary software available on the USB flash drive developer's website to format the USB flash drive to NTFS or FAT.
During the formatting of the flash drive (transcend), they pulled out the USB flash drive from the PC. It was clear that she would no longer work, the check confirmed this. The computer does not detect the USB flash drive, the indicator blinks all the time, it is not in "my computer", it is in the device manager, it says that it is working normally, it is defined as a storage device. Help restore the transcend flash drive!
Answer... The file table on your flash drive is likely damaged. You can still restore the operation of a flash drive if you create a partition on it and format it. You can reanimate a flash drive, as already mentioned, using specialized utilities like Acronis Disc Director, etc., but it is best to use the TestDisk application to break up and restore the transcend flash drive.
The flash drive was encrypted in TrueCrypt, I reinstalled the OS, mount the flash drive, the files are displayed, but when I try to open them, it gives an error - access is denied. Can you tell me if the information can be saved if the flash drive is not detected after encryption?
Answer... You will need a client program to work with Truecrypt. Alas, the site truecrypt.org is currently unavailable, and the project itself is closed. So try to find the app somewhere on the internet. After that, when opening files, you will need to enter a password to access your files.
The USB flash drive has been reset and the system requires formatting the USB flash drive, but I need to save very important and expensive files. Help!
Answer... Under no circumstances agree to format your USB flash drive! Instead, use data recovery software and try to recover the missing partition on your storage device. You can safely copy all the saved information to your hard drive and then search among these rubble exactly what you need.
There is a JetFlash Transcend 8GB flash drive. Has ceased to be determined by the system. Formatted it with JetFlash Online Recovery and it deleted all data from the flash drive. Is it now possible to restore the Transcend flash drive, that is, the data on it?
Answer... To restore a Transcend flash drive, the Unformat program is suitable. The chances of recovery depend on the depth of formatting. Anyway, use the deep scan option. Alternatively, try Recuva with a similar scan option.
But before you do anything, think about how valuable information is stored on it? If the data is important, then it would be better to try to restore it before and after the firmware. To do this, you can use the Recuva program, or another similar one. And if super important data is stored there, which are very important and valuable, then in this case, it is better not to do anything on your own. Take the flash drive to a specialized service center, where specialists can restore it with less risk to your data.
Recovering a USB flash drive using the example of Kingston DT
In our example, we will use a Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB flash drive. She worked for the time being, for the time being it was normal, but then the oddities began. When you try to delete or write data, the whole process is so slow that you can say it did not move at all. After reconnecting, the system issued a message asking you to format the disk.
Given the low importance of the data on the device, it was decided to format it. The formatting process took a long time and was not completed. There was only a message saying that the formatting attempt was unsuccessful.
We connect our faulty flash drive and run the utility. At the top of the program window there will be a button to receive data, click on it. After that we will see all the information on the device. Pay attention to the values next to VID and PID.
Reflashing a faulty kingston flash drive
For now, turn off the drive. We run the utility for flashing (our program is called MPTool.exe). If the application comes with a file named readme.txt then take a look at it. Most likely there is an instruction there. Note that utilities are different and you may have a slightly different look. But in general, the interface and the principle of operation should be similar.
After starting the flashing program, you need to reconnect the USB flash drive. After that, the utility will detect the device. Now you just have to click on the start button for rewriting the firmware. Let's wait a bit until the process completes.
Upon completion, the program will let you know that everything went well.
Then the system message will immediately appear that it needs to be formatted before working with the device. But it's better to unplug the flash drive right away and then plug it back in. And only after that, start the formatting process. After completing all these procedures, you can check the operation of the flash drive. Everything works as fast as it should and the files are copied and read adequately. Do not forget that some steps may be slightly different from those described in this article. But in general, the whole process looks like this.
That's all. Take care of your flash drives, safely remove the device.
This might come in handy.
By downloading free programs for repairing flash drives, you can restore the USB drive and restore the ability to use it for writing and reading again. In this case, you will have to sacrifice data, which then, perhaps, cannot be restored. But the alternative to using these applications is a non-working flash drive and a lack of information.
Diagnosing the problem
The main signs that the flash drive needs repair are:
- Issuance of messages about the protection of USB-media from copying or about an unidentified device;
- The impossibility of determining the drive by any computer;
- Lack of disk list;
- Inability to read (and, of course, write) information;
- Negative result when trying to recover or format.
Sometimes the problem may lie in the USB connector or the lack of drivers on a particular computer. But, when problems are noted on each device, most likely the problem is in the drive. And you can try to restore it.
Utilities for flash drives
You can try to restore the USB storage device to work using the system utilities. But, when the problem is serious, the best option is to restore through a program specifically designed for repair. Some manufacturers make their own apps that do the best job of repairing these particular brands. Although, with their help, you can recover any brand of USB drive.
Advice: Special programs are designed for refurbishment, not refurbishment. It is not recommended to extract information with their help.
JetFlash Online Recovery
To restore non-working Transcend drives, the manufacturing company has created a special utility that can be found and downloaded for free on its official website. It's called JetFlash Online Recovery and is very growing in use. There are only 2 commands here:
- Fix a USB flash drive by erasing all data;
- Recover with saving data.
First, you should use the second method. And if he doesn't help, be the first.
Silicon power
There is also a recovery program on the Silicon Power website in the support section, which you can get for free. It allows you to recover, first of all, flash drives of this brand and is called the SP Recovery Tool Utility.
Adata
The manufacturer Adata also has a freely available program for recovering a USB drive on the official website. If, using USB Flash Drive Online Recovery, it was not possible to read the information, the USB flash drive can be repaired, having lost the data.
Repair of flash drives Kingston
The owner of a Kingston drive will surely love the ability to get an entire USB stick back after running MediaRECOVER 4.0 Digital Image Recovery. In some cases, the application manages to save part of the data, even if the USB drive has been formatted. Recovery, unlike most of such programs, can be used not only for video, audio and photo files, but also Word documents, e-books and spreadsheets.
Universal programs
In addition to specialized software that repairs mainly drives of its own brand, there are several applications that can restore the operating state of most devices. One of them is D-Soft Flash Doctor, which provides the following benefits:
- Menu and documentation in Russian;
- Lack of localization for individual brands;
- Creating a flash disk image for further work not on the drive, but on its virtual copy.
The following programs, not so well-known, but also free and quite effective, are:
- ChipEasy, which is able not only to easily restore a USB flash drive, but also to recognize the manufacturer if its name is not written on the case or has been erased over time;
- Flash Drive Information Extractor - a utility capable of providing the maximum amount of data about a USB flash drive along with its recovery;
- CheckUDisk is a very fast and detailed application for all its ease of use.
How to find a program to repair a USB flash drive
It is possible that even after trying all of the above methods, it did not work to restore the performance of your USB flash drive. In this case, it is worth taking the following steps:
- Download the Chip Genius utility;
- Find out with its help VID and PID, as well as the name of the chipset located inside the flash drive;
- Go to the iFlash website and enter the received 2 numbers;
- Find your drive model in the list.
Now all that remains is to find the corresponding program in the Chip Model column, paying attention to the coincidence of controllers. You can find and download it for free on the Internet. The principle of operation is approximately the same for all of them - more emphasis on recovery, less on data rescue.
Thematic video:
