flashdrive went dead

[Trilby]

I have an iBookG4, with Microsoft Office 2004 (if that figures in this
question), and an IBM flashdrive given to me by a friend. I hadn't used
the flashdrive for a week or so; tonight when I inserted it into its
port, nothing happened. Didn't light up, didn't show up on my desktop.
Same for the second port. (I tested the ports themselves by connecting
my printer to each one in turn; no problems.)

Do flashdrives just die like that? Or worse, is it possible that some
of the downloads I've installed (in response to the auto-reminder on my
Mac of current downloads available) could somehow have "refused" to
enable my flashdrive? Thanks.

 

[mmmmark]

I have an iBookG4, with Microsoft Office 2004 (if that figures in this
question), and an IBM flashdrive given to me by a friend. I hadn't used
the flashdrive for a week or so; tonight when I inserted it into its
port, nothing happened. Didn't light up, didn't show up on my desktop.
Same for the second port. (I tested the ports themselves by connecting
my printer to each one in turn; no problems.)

Do flashdrives just die like that? Or worse, is it possible that some
of the downloads I've installed (in response to the auto-reminder on my
Mac of current downloads available) could somehow have "refused" to
enable my flashdrive? Thanks.

In theory, flash memory DOES have a limited life, albeit hundreds of
thousands of accesses/erases. In experience, I've never seen any flash
memory fail.

Try it on another computer and see if it does the same thing. Something
could be haywire on yours.

-Mark

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

I've never known one to fail on a Mac, but I have one here that the PC won't
read. It is possible that the Operating System USB mechanism can fail to
recognise the flashdrive when you plug it in.

Usually, rebooting the operating system will cure it if that's the case.

Cheers

I have an iBookG4, with Microsoft Office 2004 (if that figures in this
question), and an IBM flashdrive given to me by a friend. I hadn't used
the flashdrive for a week or so; tonight when I inserted it into its
port, nothing happened. Didn't light up, didn't show up on my desktop.
Same for the second port. (I tested the ports themselves by connecting
my printer to each one in turn; no problems.)

Do flashdrives just die like that? Or worse, is it possible that some
of the downloads I've installed (in response to the auto-reminder on my
Mac of current downloads available) could somehow have "refused" to
enable my flashdrive? Thanks.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[CyberTaz]

You didn't by any chance yank the drive without _ejecting_ it first,
did you? That 's one way to blow them up. (Un)Fortunately it doesn't
happen often enough to reinforce the fact that it can happen.

If the drive shows up in System Profiler Disk Utility may be able to
make it usable again, but you'll probably lose any current data
content. You might want to check with the device mfr & see if there is
a recommended recovery utility or downloadable "flasher" available to
revive it.

Good Luck |:>)

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

In theory, flash memory DOES have a limited life, albeit hundreds of
thousands of accesses/erases. In experience, I've never seen any flash
memory fail.

We've had two flash drive die here where I work. Their respective owner
claim they just died.


Corentin

 

[Kurt]

We've had two flash drive die here where I work. Their respective owner
claim they just died.


Corentin

And given all the cheaply manufactured drives out there, I can easily
see this happening. I tend to stick with the quality brands and models
for my important data.

 

[dfritzin]

You didn't by any chance yank the drive without _ejecting_ it first,
did you? That 's one way to blow them up. (Un)Fortunately it doesn't
happen often enough to reinforce the fact that it can happen.

If the drive shows up in System Profiler Disk Utility may be able to
make it usable again, but you'll probably lose any current data
content. You might want to check with the device mfr & see if there is
a recommended recovery utility or downloadable "flasher" available to
revive it.

Good Luck |:>)

I've had a flash drive die when it was hooked up to a PMG4. I'm trying
to recall the exact circumstances now, but it had something to do with
a power failure, IIRC. Anyway, when I tried to mount the flash drive,
it didn't show up. I tried the same thing on my PMG5 at work, and my
flash drive mounted, but only 16 MB (of 256) were recognized, and all
my files were lost. Nothing important lost, fortunately, but the drive
definitely died.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

And given all the cheaply manufactured drives out there, I can easily
see this happening. I tend to stick with the quality brands and models
for my important data.

They were using SanDisk Cruzer Titanium (which supposedly is pretty
good). All the other (numerous other) SanDisk non-Titanium that we have
have been working perfectly.


Corentin

 

[mmmmark]

They were using SanDisk Cruzer Titanium (which supposedly is pretty
good). All the other (numerous other) SanDisk non-Titanium that we have
have been working perfectly.


Corentin

My sister used to do something to her compact flash card that probably
greatly reduced its life. After she would take her pictures, she'd take the
CF card, copy the pictures off it then select "reformat card" every time.
She didn't realize that she could simply delete the pictures.

Who knows...maybe they were doing something similar.

-Mark

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

My sister used to do something to her compact flash card that probably
greatly reduced its life. After she would take her pictures, she'd take the
CF card, copy the pictures off it then select "reformat card" every time.
She didn't realize that she could simply delete the pictures.

Who knows...maybe they were doing something similar.

Not around here... They don't know you can format the flash card :->

Corentin