Sony Micro Vault Pro USD8G capacity 8GB model flash drive is notrecognized by Windows XP 32bit, Vista 32 bit or Windows 7 64 bit

Nothing shows up for the flash drive when I open My Computer. If I
plug any other USB drive, they are recognized(and seen as External Drive
G: ) so I know the USB ports are working fine. No other network drive is
mapped which could cause name conflict.

In device manager, the message is the device cannot start Code 10.
Went to Disk Management, but the disk is not seen.
Ran the Microsoft Fixit tool from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310123, but it did not help.

Tried updating the driver for USB drive, but Windows(after searching on
the Web) claims best driver is already installed for the device. I don't
notice an updated driver at
http://www.sony.net/Products/Media/M...usd/index.html

I am running Windows 7 professional 64bit. Tried opening the flash drive
on Windows Vista 32 bit, Windows XP 32 bit, but there also it is not
recognized as an external drive.

The data recovery tools Recuva cannot work since Windows does not
recognize the drive. User has some data which needs to be recovered. He
claims that it was working fine last week on his home computer. He tried
using it in his home computer now which also does not recognize it.

Tried Paragon System Recover CD to see if it can read the drive, but it
could not. Attempted using Ultimate boot CD to check if it would
recognize the drive, but it does not. When the drive is plugged, the
light on flash drive is on as if the device is in use. The flash drive
does not appear to have any physical damage

What else can I try other than sending it to a data recovery firm?

t wrote:

Nothing shows up for the flash drive when I open My Computer. If I
plug any other USB drive, they are recognized(and seen as External Drive
G: ) so I know the USB ports are working fine. No other network drive is
mapped which could cause name conflict.

In device manager, the message is the device cannot start Code 10.
Went to Disk Management, but the disk is not seen.
Ran the Microsoft Fixit tool from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310123, but it did not help.

Tried updating the driver for USB drive, but Windows(after searching on
the Web) claims best driver is already installed for the device. I don't
notice an updated driver at
http://www.sony.net/Products/Media/M...usd/index.html

I am running Windows 7 professional 64bit. Tried opening the flash drive
on Windows Vista 32 bit, Windows XP 32 bit, but there also it is not
recognized as an external drive.

The data recovery tools Recuva cannot work since Windows does not
recognize the drive. User has some data which needs to be recovered. He
claims that it was working fine last week on his home computer. He tried
using it in his home computer now which also does not recognize it.

Tried Paragon System Recover CD to see if it can read the drive, but it
could not. Attempted using Ultimate boot CD to check if it would
recognize the drive, but it does not. When the drive is plugged, the
light on flash drive is on as if the device is in use. The flash drive
does not appear to have any physical damage

What else can I try other than sending it to a data recovery firm?

That's what happens with flash drives: they catastrophically fail. Due
to thin oxide stress, junctions fail so blocks of memory go bad. That's
why there is reserve memory for remapping the bad blocks. Wear
levelling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling) is built into the
drive's logic that tries to reduce constant re-writing of the same
junctions all the time (since users tend to re-write the same files over
and over) but the write stress failures continue. Remapping of the bad
spots consumes the reserve memory while the remapping slows the device.
Eventually reserve space gets consumed and the device is no longer
usable. Flash drives wear out.

Search Google on "thin oxide stress flash memory".

How much is are the files worth that were on the flash drive? I've seen
a data recovery lab charges starting at $99 claiming 90%+ data recovery
(http://www.dataretrieval.com/data-re...sd-media.html). Sorry,
never had to use them. They say "starts" at $99 so the recovery could
cost more depending on what caused the flash memory device to fail.

Originally Posted by t

Nothing shows up for the flash drive when I open My Computer. If I
plug any other USB drive, they are recognized(and seen as External Drive
G: ) so I know the USB ports are working fine. No other network drive is
mapped which could cause name conflict.

In device manager, the message is the device cannot start Code 10.
Went to Disk Management, but the disk is not seen.
Ran the Microsoft Fixit tool from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310123, but it did not help.

Tried updating the driver for USB drive, but Windows(after searching on
the Web) claims best driver is already installed for the device. I don't
notice an updated driver at
http://www.sony.net/Products/Media/M...usd/index.html

I am running Windows 7 professional 64bit. Tried opening the flash drive
on Windows Vista 32 bit, Windows XP 32 bit, but there also it is not
recognized as an external drive.

The data recovery tools Recuva cannot work since Windows does not
recognize the drive. User has some data which needs to be recovered. He
claims that it was working fine last week on his home computer. He tried
using it in his home computer now which also does not recognize it.

Tried Paragon System Recover CD to see if it can read the drive, but it
could not. Attempted using Ultimate boot CD to check if it would
recognize the drive, but it does not. When the drive is plugged, the
light on flash drive is on as if the device is in use. The flash drive
does not appear to have any physical damage

What else can I try other than sending it to a data recovery firm?

Hello t, I apologize you are experiencing difficulty with your microvault. Please call our Priority Service @ 239-768-7669 or Toll Free Service @ 1-888-476-6972 for assistance. They can help you with troubleshooting the issue and if service is required they can assist with those options as well. Thanks, Scott Fuentes