Flash USB Frequently Asked Questions
| Here are answers to some of the most common questions users have. You may find answers to your questions here. |
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Does a USB stick last for ever.
My new USB 2.0 device is no quicker than my old device.
My stick is broken can I get the data back.
Spilt coffee on my USB stick is it broken.
Is my connection a USB1.1 or USB2.0.
How does a USB storage device work.
USB drive always keep the same drive letter.
Faster copying to my USB drive.
First of all why do you want to, there is no real need to reformat a USB drive. It based on flash memory technology so there are no tracks as such to refresh.
If you want to simply ensure that the contents are erased then it would be better to use an erasing tool such as Restoration where development appears to have stalled. Another tool called CCleaner is a more up to date tool and may suit you better with more features, it has a companion program Recuva useful for your recovery needs.
If you insist on reformatting then its preferable to go with the manufacturers supplied software. Simply using the windows formatting facility is not good enough. There is the well used utility from HP that is reported to work on many devices so this may be worth a try.Unfortunately this download file appears to get moved about the HP website, you can download it here...
On older systems such as Windows98 you may need to load specific USB drivers. Here are a couple for you to try.
After trying the device in another machine it looks like you are stuck. However if you don't have another machine or are confident enough to try some diagnostics software then USB sniffer website has a software utility that reads the bits and bytes that flow along the USB bus from PC to device. With this you can at least see if the device is communicating and the USB port is working correctly.
There is also the test tool from Sourceforge USB Mass Storage Device Memory Test that allows you to check the performance of USB connected memory devices.
No, the components used to build these devices have a limited number of read/write cycles. This is in the region of 100,000 cycles. But if you use your device everyday and are constantly reading/writing the same files to the same device they will reside in the same place in memory. Consequently you just need to be aware of the potential for wear out and device failure.
Various designs have differing speeds based on the components used and how they are put together. In general USB 2.0 devices should be quicker BUT they will not run any faster if they are plugged into a USB1.0 specification port or hub. Check all the links in the chain are compatible. If you plug a USB2.0 into a USB1.1 port then Windows should report that the device is plugged into a low speed port and could work faster in a different port.
Like any technology it is dangerous to rely on a single data source to store your data. Use an automatic back-up software package so you should always be able to get to your data should the worst happen.
But it is very likely you can get your information back.
Data recovery is complicated and a very specialised technology. It can be a little expensive but can be done and our partner company can help you before you go any further. Click here now to get your data back.
As there is generally no active power source in a simple USB stick, if the device is left to dry out in a warm place, such as on a radiator, the likelihood is it will work in your PC. If your device is powered such as an MP3 player, take out the batteries first and expect to just recover your data. It may be fully functional but remember if getting wet caused something to short circuit and you plug it into your PC that could supply up to 2.5 Amps, it could cause some damage.
Launch Device Manager from Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager button and check the Universal Serial Bus entries normally at the bottom of the list. If there is an entry for Enhanced USB host controller you have a USB2.0 compliant system. Remember though that some of you're ports may still be USB1.1 so it's better to test by copying a large file and timing the performance . Some front panel ports for instance if an additional hub has been installed.
Windows recognises the fact that a device is present in the USB port through the functionality of several device drivers. Inside the USB device itself an interface chip handles the communications with the driver and controls how the data is stored and retrieved from memory. The memory chips are generally NAND flash technology and have a serial data connection to the interface chip.
USB interface and control chips are manufactured by companies such as Philips, Atmel and Freescale (Motorola) containing their own software implemented by USB device manufacturers of whom there are many, particularly in the far east. This explains why repair of a device would be difficult. A simplified block diagram shows how a typical system is structured.
The easiest thing would be to assign a drive letter at each place when the drive is next plugged in, reserving it for future use.
To force it manually, right-click on My Computer and select the Manage menu item. Then click on Disk Management and scroll down until you locate the USB flash drive, right click on it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the pop-up menu.
Now choose a drive letter that will be free, set it to that, now this will become the drive letter that will be used whenever the USB drive is plugged into this computer.
Copying files to your USB drive can be slow especially when there is a lot of them. Unfortunately Windows gets in the way of the copying process.
To improve the speed of copying you can bypass Windows completely using a product like XXCOPY a fully featured command line file copier with masses of options or XYplorer which is more user friendly. Both are recognised as a much faster means of transferring files between a PC and USB flash drive.
Losing your password for your Vista installation would be disastrous.
Create a back up on your USB memory stick, this is for stand alone machines not connected to a network. Details are at the Microsoft knowledge base.
Sometimes you may have problems stopping or ejecting your USB memory stick.
If you are experiencing problems try this small utility program.
here...
