Flash Drive Suddenly Has No File System

[btreloar]

My son was working with his flash drive and apparently something got deleted on it. As a result he said it seems not to have anything at all on it.He's asked me to look into it, but all I csan get out of it is the message "The disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

The disk was obviously formatted previously because it's been in use to backup files. How could it have become unformatted? Is there any way to recover any of the former contents?

[Infinicore]

Try Zero assumption recovery (ZAR) and see if it can recover/see the data, then decide if you want to pay for it if the sample is successful or see if you can find a free program that can also get the job done.

[BATcher]

Personally I treat USB Flash Drives much like I used to treat diskettes: as devices temporarily to hold files, which could randomly become unreadable. Make sure you are also holding the files on a more reliable medium.

[Medico]

Have your son put important data on another HD, Ext HD or CD/DVD. Flash drives are notorious for loosing stuff and should only be used for temporary storage.

[DrWho]

That and the fact that the problem may not even be the Flash Drive itself, but something in Windows.

Try the FD on another computer before you declare it KAPUT! OK?
Or if you're putting the FD in a front panel USB port..... try one of the ports on the back of the PC.
The motherboard handles the ports on the back of the PC, differently than the ports on the front panel.
(on a laptop, I'd just try a different USB port)

I've seen the exact same thing happen with floppy disks and CD's.

Cheers mates!
The Doctor