SmartBuy flash drive data recovery. Kingston flash drive recovery program Kingston flash drive controllers

Flash drives are the main companions of modern computer users. Various types of drives are used to transfer large files or store them. Often problems arise in the operation of flash drives, which is why they require firmware. In this article we will tell you how to bring a drive back to life after a malfunction.

If you have important data on your drive, you can try to restore it before and after flashing it. The Recuva utility is perfect for this. On the Internet you can find a lot of other programs that are almost the same in terms of control interface and work process.

If the information is really valuable, then it is better to contact a service center, since interfering with the functionality of the drive can lead to even more damage, after which it will be difficult to recover the data.

3 Firmware process

To consider the process of re-flashing, we chose a fairly common flash drive, Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB. One of the strip options is to slowly delete files. If the speed of this process gradually decreases, it is worth formatting the drive. If the message “Windows could not complete formatting” appears on the screen, you need to flash the flash drive.

Determination of VID and PID of USB controller. To perform this simple operation, the Flash Drive Information Extractor utility, which is publicly available, is suitable. First of all, connect the broken drive to your computer and go to the downloaded program. In the interface, find the “Get flash drive data” button. Next, copy the information and enter it into a search engine along with the request “flash drive firmware.”
Search for utility for firmware. To do this, you can use the flashboot resource. It has a large database with utilities for this process. The received data from the portal must be entered into Flash Drive Information Extractor.

You should not pay special attention to the storage capacity. It is important to choose the right type of flash drive and formatting.

If you could not find the utility in the program, then use search engines. After that, download the program to your computer.

4 Recovering a USB drive

Run the utility as a file with exe permission.
Connect the drive to your computer.
After identifying the flash drive, click on the Start button.
When the process is complete, a green signal should appear in the application window.

When finished, format the removable drive. It may not work the first time, but it's worth trying twice. After that, disconnect the drive and turn it on again.

5 Summary

Restoring a removable drive may take a little time, but it will preserve the data on it. If the information is important to you, use special utilities and do not format it. If additional problems occur, it is better to contact service centers.

Many users neglect to safely remove flash drives, as a result of which the drives stop working correctly: they are not recognized by the system, require formatting, do not read/write data, show the wrong size (for example, 14 Gb instead of 16 Gb). If you are faced with a similar problem, then the question of how to restore a flash drive will probably become relevant to you.

Is it possible to restore the functionality of a flash drive?

Some may think that restoring a flash drive is a pointless exercise. Drives from Transcend, Kingston, A-Data and other manufacturers have flooded the market, making flash memory cheap. Memory cards and flash drives with capacities from 8 Gb to 32 Gb are not so expensive that you can’t easily throw them away and buy new media. However, old flash drives and Micro SD memory cards are usually not thrown away at all: they lie on the table and wait to be restored.

Recovery is possible if the flash drive or memory card has not completely “died” (usually death occurs when the controller burns out).

But if the drive is simply not detected or shows the wrong volume, then the reason for this behavior is most often a controller firmware failure. We will discuss in detail below how to restore a flash drive after such a failure.

Saving information and searching for the necessary software

If important information is stored on a flash drive or SD card, then before flashing and restoring the controller (and with it the functionality of the drive), it is necessary to extract the data. This can be done using the Photorec utility, which can work with media for which the file system is not detected.

After extracting the necessary information from the SD card or flash drive, you can begin searching for a utility for flashing the controller firmware. But to flash a controller, you first need to determine its model. To do this, we use the CheckUDisk utility (distributed free of charge) and the website flashboot.ru:

After completing the check and receiving the necessary information (VID PID of the drive), you need to download a utility to restore the functionality of the flash drive or SD drive. Go to flashboot.ru and open the “iFlash” tab. Here you need to enter the VID PID values and find the desired manufacturer of the memory card or flash drive (HP, Generic Flash Disk, Protex, Oltramax, Smartbuy, etc.).

If your exact model of flash drive or SD memory card is not in the online service database, then it’s okay: the main thing is that the VID PID and the manufacturer match. If the necessary data matches, then you need to obtain information about the exact model of the controller for flashing and restoring it, as well as the name of the appropriate utility.

The table has columns “Controller” and “Utility”. You also need to pay attention to the volume - the controllers of flash drives and SD cards for 16 Gb and 32 Gb may differ. You need to copy the full name of the utility and download it through the “Files” section on the flashboot.ru website or from another source. Often, along with the recovery program, instructions for its use are downloaded, which it is advisable to read carefully.

Controller firmware

Let's say you have a Protec flash drive with a capacity of 16 Gb. You find it by VID PID through the iFlash online service and download the controller firmware utility for free. What to do next? Carry out measures to restore the flash drive (SD memory card).

Universal instructions for restoring all flash drives:

If the firmware is successfully installed, you should see a positive status of the flash drive - “OK” or “Good”. If problems arise during the operation, an error code will appear: its explanation can be found in the help of the utility found by VID PID, or on other online services.

Restoring any flash drives (SD cards) is carried out approximately according to the same scheme, however, the instructions may differ slightly for different utilities: you need to use the VID PID to find the program for flashing the controller and start restoring the USB drive.

To restore a flash drive, you must additionally format it. You can perform it using standard Windows tools or using special programs. It is recommended to run a full format rather than a quick format. This will take a little more time (especially if the storage capacity exceeds 16 Gb), but you will be sure that the flash drive is now completely clean and functional.

Kingston flash drives are distinguished by their reliability and long service life, but they are also not protected from various failures. Sometimes the drive actually “dies” and it is not possible to restore it. More often there are situations when a flash drive can be brought back to life using a special firmware utility.

Most often, Kingston dt100g2 and datatraveler flash drives break.

Is it possible to recover a flash drive?

Signs that the drive can be restored:

When you connect a flash drive, a notification appears that a new device has been detected.
The system prompts you to format the removable disk.
The drive does not open, but is shown in Explorer.
Errors occur when reading and writing data.

These problems can be eliminated by flashing the controller or formatting the media, but if there is important information on the flash drive, then you should try to “pull it out” before performing any recovery procedures. Use to extract a recovery program like Recuva or so as not to lose the necessary files.

Search for a program for flashing the controller

To restore, you will need a special utility for a Kingston flash drive. To avoid mistakes and download the correct program, you need to know the model of the drive controller.

Method 1

You can view the necessary information on the website flashboot.ru in the iFlash section, using the VID and PID values of the flash drive as a filter.

Connect the drive to your computer.
Open the device manager (right-click on the “Computer” icon - Manage).
Find "USB Mass Storage Device".
Right click and open properties.
Go to the Details section and select the Hardware ID property.

Method 2

Another way to obtain the necessary information is to download the Flash Drive Information Extractor program and click the “Get Data” button. The report will contain the lines “VID” and “PID”; use their value to find a utility that can correctly restore the Kingston Datatraveler flash drive.

You can download the program in the “Files” section on the website flashboot.ru. If the utility is not here, try to find it on other web resources.

Recovery utilities

You can find the program you need without a controller model - just type in the search engine the request “kingston recovery utility”. In the results you will see several utilities, among which there will certainly be programs such as Phison Preformat, AlcorMP AU698x RT, etc.

The problem is that Kingston flash drive recovery programs only work if they are compatible with the controller installed in the drive. Therefore, if you download the first repair utility you come across, it may not detect the connected media.

When the desired program is found, you can begin to restore it. Be sure to look at the instructions, which should be packaged in the archive along with the recovery utility - perhaps the program has a special operating procedure. The general recovery procedure looks like this:

You don’t need to do anything else: the program will automatically correct errors and return the flash drive to a working state. This completes the restoration of the Kingston flash drive; If the controller firmware did not help resolve the problem, then the cause of incorrect operation should be sought among hardware faults.

The SmartBuy flash drive is a common removable storage device that many modern users use with great pleasure. The manufacturer has been successfully producing high-quality optical media for many years. Combined with an acceptable price, attention to such a product increases several times.

Restoring the functionality of a SmartBuy flash drive is within the capabilities of a PC user.

In addition to an acceptable cost, such flash drives are accompanied by excellent quality, although this does not at all guarantee that during the operation of the media it is impossible for unforeseen situations to arise. SmartBuy flash drives can also fail, but you shouldn’t immediately say goodbye to them, sending them off to a “well-deserved rest.”

You can try to do some manipulations to restore the functionality of the removable drive. In most cases, users manage to restore “life” to the drive, so it will be able to serve for several more years and technically justify its repeated “resurrection”.

If your digital drive has stopped showing “signs of life,” it means that circumstances have occurred that impede its normal functioning. Sometimes you yourself can act as the culprit of such troubles. This happens when you completely ignore the rules for removing removable media. Also, such software failures can occur when a flash drive is actively used, subjecting it to constant writing, reading and rewriting.

A flash drive may stop working if an unexpected guest in the form of a virus penetrates it and makes adjustments to its settings. Even a simple drop of a flash drive can cause its premature failure, since in this case mechanical damage to the removable drive is quite often observed. It is especially difficult to accept when the MicroSD SmartBuy, on which numerous unique photographs are stored, stops functioning.

However, you should not hang your nose; you can use existing utilities that allow you to restore the SmartBuy flash drive, as well as successfully restore all the content that was previously stored on the drive.

Let's compile all of the above. Problems with the storage device in question may arise due to the following reasons:

a large number of rewrite cycles;
incorrect extraction;
infection by virus software;
overheat;
software errors;
static voltage;
malfunction of the controller;
mechanical damage.

Based on current practice, most problems are characterized by a failure of the controller, which communicates between the flash drive itself and the computer interfaces.

It should be noted right away that, unfortunately, you can only hope to successfully restore the functionality of this media if its inoperability is caused by software problems, and not by mechanical damage. Yes, of course, someone will say that even “mechanics” can be cured, but for this you need to have sufficient skills and specialized devices, which not everyone has.

In addition, solving software errors also requires certain knowledge, skills in searching for information and working with specialized software.

The essence of restoring functionality is to reflash the controller chip. The difficulty is that each type of controller requires a specific utility, errors in the selection of which can completely neutralize all attempts to return the flash drive to functionality and, more importantly, to obtain the information stored on it.

Therefore, the first thing you should do is try to save all possible files, and only then resort to radical measures.

Let’s focus on file recovery for now and then return to “revitalizing” the flash drive.

File recovery programs

If your flash drive shows no signs of life, use any SmartBuy MicroSD flash drive recovery program. There are several such programs, so you can choose the option that is most accessible to understanding.

You can try using the CardRecovery utility. It works great with SmartBuy removable media, and it can also restore mobile phone memory cards very well.

So, find the CardRecovery utility on the Internet, download it and install it. After that, run the program, in the “Drive letter” section, select the flash drive that you are going to restore, as well as restore the content that was recorded on it.

Be sure to indicate what file format you would like to restore. The program will ask you to specify the folder in which the recovered files will be saved. You can create such a folder in advance, and then specify the path to it in the program.

After this preliminary work, you can start clicking on the “Next” button. All you have to do is wait until the program finishes, and then look at the list of all recovered files.

You can use some other similar program. For example, the modern and multifunctional utility PC Inspector Smart Recovery has proven itself well. It will ask the user to indicate the drive where the files that are now important to recover were stored. You can also use programs such as R-Studio, Easy Recovery and Flash Memory Toolkit.

Restoring the flash drive

If you are faced with a slightly different task than simply recovering lost files, then resuscitation actions may be different. In particular, if you have a non-working SmartBuy flash drive, the DiskInternals Uneraser recovery program will help you successfully solve this problem.

ADVICE. By the way, some experienced users claim that SmartBuy flash drives have one unique characteristic. You can simply put a “dead” flash drive in a safe place and “forget” about it for several years.

After this decent period of time, the removable drive can itself begin to function again, as if there was no system failure. Of course, this option is unlikely to suit anyone. No one wants to wait several years, especially since there is no 100% information on when the period of such “waiting” will definitely end. It is for this reason that it is easier to use utilities that immediately help restore the functionality of removable media.

Working with DiskInternals Uneraser is very simple. After launching it, a dialog box opens in which you should find the “Recover” option located in the top row of the menu. Next, the program will independently take care of performing all the necessary actions. You just have to sit and wait quietly. The program will not only return the flash drive to functionality, but will also offer to return important files that were deleted during recovery, since the process involves formatting.

Reflashing the controller

Have you recovered your files? Okay, we can start working with the controller.

Important point! The target/repaired flash drive must be at least somehow determined by the system. If you insert the media, and there is silence in response (the indicator does not light up, the system does not make a characteristic connection sound, Disk Management and file managers do not see the device, the BIOS ignores the connection), then you will not be able to use this method. And such an outcome of events is extremely deplorable, since it will require physical intervention, with an appeal to the appropriate specialist.

Otherwise, if the flash drive is recognized by the system, but simply refuses to work, do the following:

IMPORTANT. Pay special attention to the correspondence of the values, since an incorrectly selected one can lead to complete inoperability of the device.

If in doubt, try additionally using the “Flash Drive Information Extractor” program, which will provide the most complete information about the selected device.

Once compliance has been confirmed, download the proposed software and follow the recommendations of the utility. In most cases, you only need to click on the “Restore” button.

Conclusion

Experienced users recommend not to wait for the flash drive to present such an unpleasant surprise, but to carry out preventive measures in a timely manner. In particular, when actively using removable media, it is recommended to perform defragmentation and periodically make backups.

It is also important to remember that you cannot load removable media completely; you need to always have free space on it. Of course, it is very important to remove the media from the computer correctly, not to drop it, or to avoid other mechanical damage.

So, if you carry out such simple preventive measures, removable media can last quite a long time. If trouble happens and the flash drive stops working, you can use utilities and professionally “breathe” new “vitality” into it.

Do you have an inoperative USB flash drive or other storage device and are you wondering what program to choose for recovery?

We reviewed the most popular utilities. Which of the above programs is suitable for you and will restore a flash drive with a 100% guarantee?

A one-of-a-kind program will help you extract all the data. Hetman Partition Recovery. It is loved by both beginners and professionals for its convenience, speed and advanced information recovery algorithm. Your files will be found and copied even when the media’s FS is no longer accessible or is damaged.

JetFlash Recovery Tool is a proprietary utility that has the simplest possible interface and supports working with Transcend, JetFlash and A-DATA drives. Controlled by just two buttons, you will definitely like it. Do not forget that cleared data cannot be restored, so pre-saving information from a flash drive will not be superfluous.

If you have a need to always have a universal program with you that is convenient to use both on your home computer and outside it, we recommend D-Soft Flash Doctor; its platform does not require pre-installation; it launches instantly on any PC. The software is suitable for repairing, unlocking,
restoring the volume of the flash drive and its performance.

If you need to recover SD cards, we recommend downloading F-Recovery SD, which has an effective set of simple options for working with damaged flash drives from digital cameras and other portable devices. From the point of view of a professional approach to Flash drives, it will be interesting to use the Flash Memory Toolkit; the application contains a whole range of additional functionality that can test flash drives; in addition, the program works with any version of the Microsoft OS.

The formatting and recovery utility USB Disk Storage Format Tool, which has a very clear and user-friendly interface, can recognize the maximum number of different types of Flash Drives among the above utilities, as well as quickly restore the drives’ functionality. The USB Disk Storage flash drive repair program will be able to quickly recover data from damaged hard drive partitions, even if problems with the flash drive firmware are detected.

If no flash drive recovery program has helped, we recommend checking the status of the memory controller using the ChipGenius utility. The program works with USB, micro SD, SD, SDHC and USB-MP players from Kingston, Silicon Power, Transcend, Adata, PQI. Further actions to correct errors and recover lost data are only advisable if
The flash drive is detected in Chip Genius.