Flash stick not working. Any ideas?

[blinkie]

Hey,

My usb flash stick has stopped working. I was wondering if you guys have any ideas how to get it mounted again. It began when I tried to delete an item from it. My comp showed an error and wouldn't move the file to trash. In frustration I pulled out the usb drive. Now it won't mount. When I plug it in it's little led flashes but Finder can't see it. Disk Utility can see it but it's greyed out so I'm unable to mount, run first aid, or erase the drive. Also I can't find the drive using Terminal.

It's not a big deal, there's nothing important in it, but i would like to save the drive if I can.

Thanks in advance,

B.

 

[Fishrrman]

Power down.
Disconnect the USB flashdrive.
Power on, get to the finder.
REconnect the USB flashdrive.
Now... wait... just wait a while.
Give it about 10 minutes. Sometimes the finder will try to repair a drive it can't mount.

If that doesn't work,
and
If you don't care what's on the drive,
then
Time to erase it if you can, and start over.

IF disk utility refuses to erase it, do you have access to another computer?
Perhaps a PC running Windows?
If so, try to erase it on that.

 

[DeltaMac]

I would make 2 more attempts at erasing that flash drive.
If that doesn't work, then you should sort it out with "file 13".

I have had a lot of flash drives, most often for creating bootable installers.
Some flash sticks just get slower and slower each time they are erased.
Some just "stop working", maybe a result of being very cheaply-made.
I learned years ago not to trust a consumer flash drive for storing the only copy of anything important.

 

[blinkie]

Power down.
Disconnect the USB flashdrive.
Power on, get to the finder.
REconnect the USB flashdrive.
Now... wait... just wait a while.
Give it about 10 minutes. Sometimes the finder will try to repair a drive it can't mount.

If that doesn't work,
and
If you don't care what's on the drive,
then
Time to erase it if you can, and start over.

IF disk utility refuses to erase it, do you have access to another computer?
Perhaps a PC running Windows?
If so, try to erase it on that.

Thanks Fishrran,

I've tried the turning on and off thing a few times and left the stick connected for a while. I've also tried to spot any repairs happening in Activity Monitor...... nothing obvious appears. I've connected the drive to another mac and, alas it doesn't mount there.

I don't have access to a pc.

I suppose I was wondering if there's any third party software that might be able to read the thing.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

B

 

[blinkie]

I would make 2 more attempts at erasing that flash drive.
If that doesn't work, then you should sort it out with "file 13".

I have had a lot of flash drives, most often for creating bootable installers.
Some flash sticks just get slower and slower each time they are erased.
Some just "stop working", maybe a result of being very cheaply-made.
I learned years ago not to trust a consumer flash drive for storing the only copy of anything important.

file 13. Yup.... I think I'm at that stage.

I also wouldn't and don't keep important files on flash drives. In fact I stop myself from buying large ones so any failures don't result in large amounts of data loss.

Thanks for replying DeltaMac.

B