Flash Drive suddenly became Write Protected !

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

Hi guys, I've bought this Corsair Voyage GO 32GB been using it for the past 5 Months now. I use it almost everyday, copying and deleting files, so it's rather being heavily abused you could say
Not to mention plugging and unplugging from my PC and Tablet, ok this sounds getting dirty. On the serious part here now.

So as it happened yesterday night, while I was copying some files into my flash drive all sudden error pops up saying the file location couldn't be found and I've found out that all sudden my flash drive had became write protected !
Firstly I must mention this flash drive has no such feature. I've tried all the solutions I could find on the internet.

1) Format, failed. Write Protected couldn't format. I've even tried HP Format Utility.
2) Tried using CMD, Diskpart, failed
3) Tried editing Registry Keys, failed

The site that I found these solutions.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/storage/how-erase-write-protected-usb-drive-or-sd-card-3456666/

So guys as all the solutions had failed, many claimed that the flash drive is good as dead. So how many of you agree as well ?
Though I wonder does this have anything to do this problem, lately I had been experiencing some issues with the flash drive like when plugging into my front panel USB 3.0, sometimes my PC won't recognize the USB, one time I was copying files all sudden it got disconnected and reconnected by itself.....weird.....

 

[Janus67]

Sounds like it died to me

 

[EarthDog]

Sounds like it died to me

I have to agree... if there isn't a toggle switch for write protect, that thing is out/on its way out.

 

[mimart7]

The only other thing that i can think which may or may not work, is run chkdsk /f x: Substitute x for the drive letter. i would buy a few usb drives to keep as spares, they are relatively inexpensive.

 

[Mpegger]

Sound like the drive already used up all its spare sectors, and has locked the drive from being written to any longer as doing so may (will) cause more cells to eventually fail and could render the drive completely unreadable. Personally, I would say that's a good drive you have, as it at least gives you a chance to copy everything off the drive, instead of most other drives that just suddenly fail and you cant even read them.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

Sound like the drive already used up all its spare sectors, and has locked the drive from being written to any longer as doing so may (will) cause more cells to eventually fail and could render the drive completely unreadable. Personally, I would say that's a good drive you have, as it at least gives you a chance to copy everything off the drive, instead of most other drives that just suddenly fail and you cant even read them.

Yeah I have to agree , luckily Im still able to copy the files from the drive and onto my PC.
But what Im really surprised is that it just died so sudden.....I never expected it to be so fragile. Now in the past I never use any flash drives this heavily before honestly. So this is my first time experiencing this, I thought something must had went wrong or something, I mean the way I used it. O well, I guess I just had to get another new one, Tks for the confirmation guys. I really appreciate it

O I would like to add, that I even did a complete Virus Scan on my PC and flash drive it's clean, so just in case if anyone was wondering.

 

[knoober]

In the link you provided it says use "clean" in diskpart. Not that I think it will help, UT have you tried "clean all" ?

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

In the link you provided it says use "clean" in diskpart. Not that I think it will help, UT have you tried "clean all" ?

Yeah I did, I've even tried programs to format my flash drive it won't work.
Anyways I bought a new one , 16GB this time 32GB was way too much I barely use up to 8GB lol....from Sandisk, but to my surprise this is Made in China ! While my Corsair was Taiwan
Hope this will last.....but it's only RM32 rather cheap.....If it's in USD it's less than 10$ but value of the price isn't so though if in my currency.

 

[knoober]

Ive had a lot of bad luck with Chinese memory. Several sd cards that were labeled as high capacity but weren't. If your new o e is from there as well, I suggest you check it. My sd cards reported as the correct size in WI does but I found d a program that writes junk data to them until it's full, then verifies integrity. All of my 64gb sd cards were actually only 4gb. Bought one from the store down the street and it checked legitimately.

 

[Audioaficionado]

I look at a flash drive the same as I did a floppy drive. They are only temporary and useful to port data from one device to another. Don't ever depend on them for archival purposes. It's also good to have a few spares so you'll always have one when you need it. The 3 for 1 deal at Staples recently was a good deal.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

I look at a flash drive the same as I did a floppy drive. They are only temporary and useful to port data from one device to another. Don't ever depend on them for archival purposes. It's also good to have a few spares so you'll always have one when you need it. The 3 for 1 deal at Staples recently was a good deal.

What about External HDD ?? I have quite lot of stuffs in it, well it's not super important, I have 2 - 3 backups for important files.
But just that I hate the idea of losing many of my music, video files etc and not to mention HDD aren't cheap least in my opinion.
This is only first time owning one actually and quite recent lol, but I had friends who had External HDD for over the years and it still running fine.

One more question, are External HDD and Flash Drives rather fragile ?? I mean if it's not well taken care of, like I were to drop them from tall height or accidentally knocking them and such basically rough handling them
will get damage easily ? Of course I mean internally ending up the device being dead.
As I know SSD are rather tough, of course the housing will break and all, but the internal storage won't be affected, as like how HDD are more sensitive.

 

[Audioaficionado]

you should back up your data on more than one device and keep at least one off site in case of flood or fire at one location.

 

[knoober]

I recently read an article that said data isn't even considered backed up until it's in 3 medium and locations. If it's important you gotta have more than 1 option for backup. DVD are depreciate over time, hdd are sensitive to electrical problems and physical shock, ssd are the safest but still not safe slough to consider the job done.

As far as USB, like the man said ^^^ they're cheap and it's good to have a lot of them. I made a win7 install stick not to long ago that decided to quit for no reason. I can remake it I guess, but up until then I thought it was the last install media I would need

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

I recently read an article that said data isn't even considered backed up until it's in 3 medium and locations. If it's important you gotta have more than 1 option for backup. DVD are depreciate over time, hdd are sensitive to electrical problems and physical shock, ssd are the safest but still not safe slough to consider the job done.

As far as USB, like the man said ^^^ they're cheap and it's good to have a lot of them. I made a win7 install stick not to long ago that decided to quit for no reason. I can remake it I guess, but up until then I thought it was the last install media I would need

BTW, I not sure have you guys heard, but there was a recent news claiming that if you don't power / run your SSD for too long it will lose it's data !
But it all depends on the environment it's at. It could be long as 1 Month or more what I heard.

Are USB Flash Drive sensitive to physical shocks and electrical problems as well ??
I never make a copy of Windows Install on my USB before...too much hassle. I still use DVD lol.....

I find it funny as now these days I've seen some casing doesn't even have a 5'25" bays ! Which you cannot install a DVD-ROM, how do they even install fresh copy of OS onto a newly built system ??
Via USB I guess it's possible, but how do you even make a copy in the first place if you don't have a functioning PC ? I mean yeah you could borrow your friend's PC or something....I hate the idea of so, but is this what people does ??

 

[knoober]

For USB I believe they are stable in the short term. And I carry mine around pretty loosely.... So idk personal experience says they're OK USB and ssd and ram are all part of the same technology family (I think feel free to correct me here experts) the difference being the amount of time the data is held.

As far as no install media... Hmm. Maybe they think everyone will ha e an existing os and will be able to download the ISO, I've never seen the cases your talking about but I find it easy to believe.

There are a ton of instructions out there to build an installation USB stick and even I can figure them out, but as I already said mine does t work anymore, so I pretty much used it twice and now I'm back to the DVD

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

For USB I believe they are stable in the short term. And I carry mine around pretty loosely.... So idk personal experience says they're OK USB and ssd and ram are all part of the same technology family (I think feel free to correct me here experts) the difference being the amount of time the data is held.

As far as no install media... Hmm. Maybe they think everyone will ha e an existing os and will be able to download the ISO, I've never seen the cases your talking about but I find it easy to believe.

There are a ton of instructions out there to build an installation USB stick and even I can figure them out, but as I already said mine does t work anymore, so I pretty much used it twice and now I'm back to the DVD

Funny you mentioned about RAM, I find they are sensitive too. The Corsair RAM now Im using, was faulty on the day I brought home. I ran MemTest86 after I installed them, literally within seconds even still at the #1 test out of 11, over 800+ Errors. Had to return it......what I've been told maybe I was unlucky and gotten a pair of RAM which got damaged during shipment or something. As I never drop it or anything like that nor I bet I've caused any static damage to it. What I heard if RAM are kept in storage for too long after manufacturing and only wanting to use them much later, too have possibilities of faulty. Maybe it's the Law of Electronics ??

Well one case for example is the H440 from NZXT , amazing and awesome looking case but with the lack of 5'25" bay it's what drove me away from buying it in future.
Not to mention I may need to install a Fan Controller on it as well. I still prefer cases with 5'25" bays but it make sense for some cases are built for water cooling, they used the front panel to install long Rads.
Still if your serious in Custom Water Cooling I will still recommend Full - Ultra towers like Obsidian etc. Those are perfect !

What I have another idea is maybe we could just use a portable DVD-ROM to install the OS via DVD What you think ? I bet it will still work right

 

[knoober]

Those portable DVD drives connect via USB right? I can't see any reason why a USB stick would work but not a portable drive. I've got a couple boards so old they won't boot from USB but other than that I can't imagine a problem . I don't know how long it would have taken me to freak up that solution, but it's fair to say awhile

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

Yup it is, I used to use it to install my games. Since I don't have a DVD-ROM, I borrowed my bro's one lol.

 

[Audioaficionado]

I had an Asus EEE tiny laptop. The only way to install or backup stuff was to use a Rosewill USB DVD burner as it had no optical drives.

 

[Gh0sT-NoVa]

I had an Asus EEE tiny laptop. The only way to install or backup stuff was to use a Rosewill USB DVD burner as it had no optical drives.

There we have it, someone with experience and it works, Tks for the info