Windows 7: USB flash drive not recognized

A Trancend 8 gb will not be recognized by any means,tried trough command(even in safe mode),registry edits,trancend software,hp software,nada.Disk management lets me assign a new letter but nothing more,windows says please insert a disk into removable disk "H".It was fully operational until yesterday.I dont mind formatting as long its gonna work again.Anybody got a hint,a clue,anything?

Is there someplace that will do a virus scan of the drive cheap? I wouldn't plug it into a friend's computer to test it because if there's a virus on it they may not be a friend much longer.

I'd say the possibilities are:

a) something physical in the drive. They are not the most rugged. Electronic stuff may be intermittently connected.

b) the drive picked up a virus

c) the USB port or system you are plugging into is flaky.

First thing I'd do is try to get it tested for virus at a PC store and while they are at it maybe run some other tests, that is if the place doesn't charge a lot for that service.

Once you rule out the virus then you may try some diagnostics like plugging it into a different PC.

virus is out of the question,stick was formatted and wiped clean a few days ago,system is flawless,recognizes multiple other sticks on all other ports.Lookin for a fullproof option to format it,even in fat32,so that i can blame on physical.Diagnostics?

I would format it and put some files on. Make an MD5Hash for each file and store it on the HD. Every few days compare the old MD5 to a newly computed one on the stick files to see if they got corrupted. If it stays good over a period of time then you may be ok.

You can use free MD5Hash from my site or another. There are plenty around for download:

FavesSoft Windows Utilities

afa the formatting you can do it from command prompt using DiskPart.


1. Go in Start > write “cmd” > right-click the Windows Command Prompt and choose to run it as an Administrator.
2. At the prompt, enter “DISKPART” to launch Microsoft’s disk management utility. It will take a second until it loads and when ready it will read “DISKPART>”.
3. Type in “list disk” to show a list of all disk drives. If your USB key is plugged into your PC, it should be listed here, along with other drives. Note the USB key’s disk number – you can pick it out by looking at the disk capacity.
4. Type “select disk n" (whatever is your USB disk number in place of "n").
5. Type “clean” for the utility to clean the disk, which DiskPart will confirm.
6. Create a new partition by entering “create partition primary”.
7. Choose this partition with “select partition 1", and then mark it as active by typing “active”.
8. Format the key by inputting “format fs=fat32". This should take a few minutes, and DiskPart will display a progress percentage.
9. Lastly, type “assign” to give this USB key a drive letter and “exit” to exit DiskPart.

Try JetFlash online Recovery JetFlash Online Recovery

i gave trancend and that recovery application another try.this time the formating tool worked and with command prompt i am actually formatting this minute. I ll let everybody know how it went.

atfer two hours formatting,it gave me an error,the media is write protected. Got no switches ,no protection applied.

Did you try the JetFlash Online Recovery tool?

Did it not format your Transcend pendrive? (as in the screenshot below)



( Why did you have to use the command line to format? )

The recovery tool claimed to do its job,but still unreadable,so i moved on with the command which failed due to write protection,back to starting point.