Some believe that they are no longer used, but pen drives are still more relevant than ever. They are the ideal devices to transmit data from one computer to another, they are small, cheap, fast and with sufficient capacities for any type of user.
However, pen drives are not eternal and sometimes they can fail, which leads us to wonder if it is time to throw it away, buy a new one or if the problem has a solution.
As a report published on the website of hardzone, Windows can show us various symptoms when a pen drive does not work well. Cannot format, cannot see its name, or less available space than it should.
When a pen drive does not work, there are two scenarios: not formattable or unusable or with corrupted or damaged data. If it’s damaged beyond repair, throw it away, but if the computer won’t detect it or let you use it, it might have a second life.
Some solutions for a pen drive that fails
For example, if the PC detects it but doesn’t let you use the files on the pen drive, open a file explorer window (Win + E) and go to the computer, with the list of storage units. Right click on the pen drive, select Properties and the Hardware tabsee if Windows detects that it is working correctly.
If it says that it works correctly, then it opens a window of Command Prompt (right click on the Start button and select Command Prompt) and type the following command: chkdskX: /f /x. Replace the X with the drive letter assigned to the pen drive, for example D:.
The Check Disk utility, “chkdsk”, checks and fixes storage drives. In this case, with the /f variable, we’re telling it to try to fix any errors it detects, and the /x variable tells Windows to unmount the drive before analyzing it. In the example of the previous image, we see that the pen drive is not failing.
If after this the pen drive still fails, try the disk manager, clicking with the right mouse button on the Start button and choosing the aforementioned tool. There, you will see that the pen drive appears at the bottom with the assigned space it has. Right-click and select Delete Volume.
A window will appear warning us that we are going to delete all the data from the unit, and after doing so, this lower part will have been left in black with the message Not assigned. You need to create a new volume by right clicking and selecting New Simple Volume.
