How do you tell if a flash drive is just dead?

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Author
Rickajho
Posts: 2
Joined: 25 Mar 2014, 16:47

How do you tell if a flash drive is just dead?

#1 Post by Rickajho »

There seem to be a lot of posts here about all types of drives that have gone RAW and nothing can be detected. How do you know when it's just time to give it up because the drive is defective and no amount of diagnostics is going to get at anything? I had two flash drives crapped out when the power supply to the hub they were connected to flaked out. One of them I recovered. The other one? History of what I tried and the TD log are below:

What I tried:

Windows reports used space, free space and capacity all as zero bytes.

Windows error checking does nothing.

chkdsk /f reports:

The type of the file system is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

TestDisk (TD) identifies the drive correctly:

Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro

Select drive, TD does not identify the partition type. Select Intel/PC partition. TD reports:

Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro
CHS 243 255 63 - sector size=512

Select Alanyse. TD reports:

No partition is bootable

Selete Quick Search. TD analyses 243 cylinders. TD reports nothing & gives the options:

Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, Enter: to continue. Select Enter reports:

No partition found or selected for recovery

Select Deeper Search. TD analyses 243 cylinders. TD reports nothing & gives the options:

Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, Enter: to continue. Select Enter reports:

No partition found or selected for recovery

The only option is Quit which returns to the main menu. At the point the only working options you can perform on this drive are to either change the disk geometry or to write a new MBR to the drive.

Select the drive again, but change the partition type to None. Quick search now takes a very long time. End result is the same:

No partition found or selected for recovery

Quit...

The TD log for what I tried:



Tue Mar 25 06:37:22 2014
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, May 2013
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Windows 2000 SP4
Compiler: GCC 4.7, Cygwin 1007.17
Compilation date: 2013-05-25T13:15:04
ext2fs lib: 1.42.2, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: 0.3.1-rc8, ewf lib: 20120504
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sda) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sda) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sdb) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sdb) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sdc) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sdc) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sdd) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sdd) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sde) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sde) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sdf) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sdf) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sdg) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sdg) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sdh) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sdh) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(/dev/sdi) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(/dev/sdi) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive0) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive0) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive1) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive1) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive2) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive2) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive3) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive3) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive4) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive4) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive5) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive5) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive6) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive6) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive7) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive7) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive8) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive8) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\C:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\D:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\E:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\E:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\E:
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\F:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\G:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\H:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\H:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Fix disk size using CHS
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\I:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\J:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\K:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\L:) GetFileSize err The parameter is incorrect.

Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 10056 MB / 9590 MiB - CHS 1299 240 63, sector size=512 - IBM-DJSA-210, FW:JS2IAB6A
Disk /dev/sdb - 16 GB / 14 GiB - CHS 1948 255 63, sector size=512 - SanDisk Cruzer, FW:8.02
Disk /dev/sdc - 32 GB / 29 GiB - CHS 3892 255 63, sector size=512 - SanDisk Cruzer Glide, FW:1.26
Disk /dev/sdd - 1052 MB / 1004 MiB - CHS 32 255 63, sector size=2048 - USB Flash Disk, FW:4.00
Disk /dev/sde - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63, sector size=512 - SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro, FW:8.02
Disk /dev/sdf - 15 GB / 14 GiB - CHS 1945 255 63, sector size=512 - SanDisk Cruzer, FW:1.00
Disk /dev/sdg - 8003 MB / 7632 MiB - CHS 973 255 63, sector size=512 - SanDisk Cruzer Facet, FW:1.26
Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63, sector size=512 - SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro, FW:8.02
Disk /dev/sdi - 15 GB / 14 GiB - CHS 1945 255 63, sector size=512 - SanDisk Cruzer, FW:1.00
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive3 - 1052 MB / 1004 MiB - CHS 32 255 63, sector size=2048 - USB Flash Disk, FW:4.00
Drive L: - 1050 MB / 1001 MiB - CHS 31 255 63, sector size=2048 - USB Flash Disk, FW:4.00

Partition table type default to Intel
Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro
Partition table type: Intel

Interface Advanced
New options :
Dump : Yes
Align partition: Yes
Expert mode : Yes

Analyse Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63
Current partition structure:
No partition is bootable

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63
file_pread(11,2,buffer,3915776(243/190/12)) lseek err Invalid argument
file_pread(11,1,buffer,3915776(243/190/12)) lseek err Invalid argument

Results

interface_write()

No partition found or selected for recovery

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63
file_pread(11,2,buffer,3915776(243/190/12)) lseek err Invalid argument
file_pread(11,1,buffer,3915776(243/190/12)) lseek err Invalid argument

Results

interface_write()

No partition found or selected for recovery
simulate write!

write_mbr_i386: starting...
write_all_log_i386: starting...
No extended partition

Interface Advanced
New options :
Dump : Yes
Align partition: Yes
Expert mode : Yes
Partition table type default to Intel
Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro
Partition table type: None

Interface Advanced
P Unknown 0 0 1 242 254 63 3903795
New options :
Dump : Yes
Align partition: Yes
Expert mode : Yes

Interface Advanced
P Unknown 0 0 1 242 254 63 3903795

Interface Advanced
P Unknown 0 0 1 242 254 63 3903795

Analyse Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63
Current partition structure:
P Unknown 0 0 1 242 254 63 3903795

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63
Search for partition aborted

Results

interface_write()

No partition found or selected for recovery

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdh - 1998 MB / 1906 MiB - CHS 243 255 63
file_pread(11,1,buffer,3915775(243/190/11)) ReadFile The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.


Results

interface_write()

No partition found or selected for recovery

TestDisk exited normally.

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