# Intenso usb flash drive 32GB not working



## MagicP0tion (Jul 2, 2013)

Hello everyone,

When plugging in my usb flash drive two days ago the little led didn't light up and I couldn't access my files. There was no drive shown in My Computer. The plugin sound still plays though. I already reinstalled the drivers multiple times. I have a small acer netbook that can't read the drive either.

At first I though the stick isn't getting any power, maybe some connection is loose. If I stick it in and reboot, the computer will hang quite a while on the motherboard splash screen the usb will light up as if working normally and then after about 2 minutes windows will start up and the light will go out.

Hardware manager would give me a no driver error and now it gives me a code 10 (device cannot be started).

I was downloading some things on my acer netbook somewhere else on the weekend, I had the drive plugged in but I wasn't moving files. I forgot to plug in the power cable so it shut itself off. Turned it back on, downloaded some files directly to the flash drive, downloads were certainly done by the time I yanked the drive. That was the last time it worked. I really could just buy a new drive but I need those files.

USBDeview shows that the flash drive isn't connected but does actually show 0 mA Power that vanishes when I unplug it.

I should also mention that I formatted the drive a while ago from fat to ntfs because of file size restrictions. Maybe the drive was damaged from my ride back home but I usually treat my stuff really well.

Thank you for considering to help me


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

USB Flash Drives are volatile cheaply made and known to fail. You should never use them as you sole backup device. Always have another copy somewhere. 
Always have your power adapter plugged in when using external USB devices to power the device as much as possible. 
The changes the drive got damaged if the laptop shut down due to lack of power. 
You can try the Free TestDisk program to see if you can recover your files.


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## MagicP0tion (Jul 2, 2013)

Well, the drive won't show up in testdisk.

The only way I know it's plugged in is by the sound and the information in the Hardware Manager. Theres a small exclamation mark on a yellow circle next to the usb symbol there. It even detects what kind of usb stick it is.

As I said, there were no files moved to or from the stick when my netbook lost power, I guess that's irrelevant info. I just can't give up on that data.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Go to Start/Run and type *devmgmt.msc* and press enter. In the *Device Manager* are there any devices with yellow flags? Or under *U*niversal *S*erial *B*us Controllers is there an *Unknown Device*? If so, right click it and choose *Uninstall.* Remove the drive from the computer and restart. When the computer comes back up, plug the USB drive into the _Back _USB port of the computer (desktop) and not the front or through a Hub as these ports are weaker. You should get a new hardware found. If not, the drive has failed.


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## MagicP0tion (Jul 2, 2013)

It finds the new Hardware, it detects it correctly as an Intenso Rainbow Line 32gb. I plugged it directly into the motherboard on the back.

I then checked it's hardware properties since I couldn't see the drive on My Computer. At first it said there were no drivers installed, then it goes on to tell me the device is functioning correctly and after a while it gives me a code 10 saying the device cannot be started.

Would it help if I tried to plug it into a computer with a different OS like vista or 7?

Thanks for the help.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

A 2nd PC would be a good idea. It will confirm if you have a flash drive or PC issue.

Chances are you will have the same problem on another computer, which will confirm the flash drive is faulty.


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## MagicP0tion (Jul 2, 2013)

Damn, I guess I'll just have to deal with it. I'll try it on another OS over the weekend. One more question: Could it be because I formatted the drive to ntfs that I have to safely remove the drive each time? It was fat32 before and I never had problems then.

Thanks again, I'll give more feedback on monday.

Maybe I'll try to reroute the power outage to power the drive or something. I'll have to check the pin assignment. If it's really broke I can't do any more damage.


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## mrada911 (Dec 28, 2012)

I came into this problem a couple of weeks ago.I managed to fix it by downloading a partition manager e.g. easus

opening the partition manager up
removing the partitions from the usb
re partitioning the usb

if you would like to keep the files on the usb i reccomend running a recovery tool before


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## LMiller7 (Jun 21, 2010)

> Could it be because I formatted the drive to ntfs that I have to safely remove the drive each time? It was fat32 before and I never had problems then.


YES

NTFS was never designed for removable drives. The problem is that if the drive is removed when there are disk writes that have not completed you may have problems. And with NTFS it is very difficult to know that for sure. That is why you need to always use the Safe removal icon.

FAT 32 is an older and simpler file system and you could often get away with just removing the drive. But it was never recommended and could sometimes cause problems.

Be aware that flash drives are the least reliable of modern storage media and cannot be trusted as primary storage of important files. Add to that the risk of the device being lost, stolen, or physically damaged. They should be used primarily as a transport media where the files are stored on some other media.

All important files, on any media, need at least one backup copy. Files of particular importance need 2 or more backup copies. Having no backups is asking for trouble.


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