USB Flash Drive power issue? (connect/disconnection loop)

Hi Guys

first of all, i want all to know that i am pretty darn good at computers, i build and fix computers for a living, and i research and even make technical reviews myself.. reason i say this now so that my fellow experts here would not bother "spoon feeding" me and stuff.. we can go ahead and talk Geek here..

ALright , w/ that said.. here's my situation..

I'm having abit of a problem w/ my flash drive

connecting it to usb , it powers up, and the OS recognizes the drive w/o a hitch.. default drivers installed and autoplay runs to show me my options..

opening the drive, it shows all my folders and files at the root level.. everything seems normal, and detailed list view reveals size, dates , etc.. all seem normal.

[this is where the problem starts ]

as soon as you do ANYTHING, the darn thing disconnects, and then reconnects..

i tried:
- openning a file
- openning a folder
- renaming a folder (F2 or right click)
- checking properties of any file or folder (either by right click properties, or alt+enter shortcut)
- tried accessing it via DOS mode (inside windows environment)
- tried accessing it using DOS based file explorers from Hiren's boot CD and etc
etc


all i can do is just stare at my files.. so close , yet so far lolz

even if i simply select 1 file (not double click, single click only) as soon as Windows tries to access the file for info-summary on explorer's status bar, it disconnects..

i am able to get properties from the drive though, all seems normal

see: Droplr • Screenshot on 5.30.2012 at 12.20.27 AM.png

.....

FIXES i've tried (and i have tried a lot these are jst some of the main attempts)
- device manager driver manipulation
- tried testing the voltage and mA outputs of my usb ports via software AND hardware testers.. all normal
- tried openning the drive in over 10 computers, different hardware, from windows xp to Ubuntu OS, usb 2 and usb 3 etc..
- tried using my dos based recovery tool, acronis, and other tools, as an attempt to recover data, or atleast make a snapshot image of the drive..

but nothing.. as soon as i do ANYTHING on the drive, it powers off and on.....

i tried leaving the drive folder open (ROOT) where it shows everything.. and just kept it like that for hours, it didnt power off.. but as soon as i did something like go into a folder, powers off and on..


etc etc etc


now, at this point i have diagnosed it to be a flashdrive hardware problem, perhaps in its power management side..

So now im really out of ideas.. so i run here for some help haha..


but given my diagnosis... here's what other advance stuff i wana try on it......but need your feedbacks..


1) OVER-POWERING
- i wanted to try putting more POWER to the flash drive.. 5.2v at 3mA? i think this is a safe increase in power, w/o frying the darn thing.. if so.. HOW DO I DO THIS? do you guys know of a software/board combination that can do this ? set output power to the usb port?

if not, i also thought about using a POWERED usb hub, i even thought of openning the flash drive, and tapping directly into its power pins to add a bit of power and amps to it.. POWER ASSIST... 1.5v battery, some capacitors, etc should do it..


2) TRANSPLANT
- hoping that the actual FLASH MEMORY CHIP is OK and intact, and that the proiblem is w/ the power relay/management of the device, the usb interface or others, i plan to TRANSPLANT this memory chip to another similar or exact working flash drive.. in theory this should work...



these are my last 2 courses of action to attempt data recovery from the drive.. i'd do it but all these requires a lot of work, and i just wanted to hear your thoughts and feedbacks about this before i get my hands dirty...


Regards to all

TJ

He says he's already tried accessing it in Linux to no avail. What happens when you access it in Linux or a command-line based utility? Does it disconnect just the same or is there a different type of error?

Have you tried simply imaging the drive via Linux "dd" and then trying to access the files?

What does PuppyLinux offer over Ubuntu (or any other) Linux in this situation?

I would try imaging the device via Linux. Obviously there is something going on when you attempt to access the files within Explorer. If it can image the device, then you can mount it as a virtual drive in Windows and extract the files that way.

Boot up Ubuntu and insert the USB drive. Open a terminal and type "sudo fdisk -l". It should list all available media devices. Find your USB device in the list, it should be something like /dev/sdb1 or something like that. Once you know that, you can issue the following command:

dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=image.iso conv=noerror,sync

That will create the "image.iso" file of the USB drive in the local directory you're working in. Next, perform the following:

mkdir /mnt/myusb
mount -o loop image.iso /mnt/myusb
cd /mnt/myusb

That creates a directory "myusb" to store your usb files, extracts the iso image (files) to that directory, and takes you there. Now you can check to see what files are available and copy them to whatever device you'd like to in order to save them. If you plug in another USB drive to save them, you can do something like the following:

cp -r /mnt/myusb /media/<USB Drive> (whatever the name of your newly inserted USB drive is)

I have the same situation (well, not quite as bad, I can copy small files out of my damaged flash, but not big ones, before it blinks). Ray