[RESOLVED] Fix MBR USB Drive

[Nightwalker83]

I have a USB drive that suddenly won't be recognized again.
Whenever I plug it into a pc Windows says the drive isn't formatted.
Linux doesn't even recognize it.

Who is the manufacturer of the USB? This sounds like a problem I am having with my Western Digital USB drive.

Edit:

The problem I have was that the system detected that drive was installed/connected to the computer. However, I could not view the files on the drive whenever I opened "my computer" or Windows Explorer the usb drive would not appear even though it was plugged-in.

Found this Backup and Restore Master Boot Record (MBR) of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) I will give it a try if I find my usb drive.

Failing that you could try creating a usb MBR.

or

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hard...usb-drive.html

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk.

Here are the steps I followed to recover the situation:

1) Download the Test Disk utility

2) Connected the USB Drive to my laptop. (windows kindly offered to reformat the drive as the previous operation had failed... I obviously decilned :-)

3) Ran the TestDisk program and select Analyse disk... takes about 15minutes

4) The analysis results indicated the data was intact but the MBR (aka Master Boot Record) had been deleted.

The TestDisk message went something like "the extrapolated boot record does not match the current boot record"

5) Selected "Rebuild MBR"

6) Selected "Write Boot"

7) Selected "list" (which lists files and folders)

[vbcode1980]

Who is the manufacturer of the USB? This sounds like a problem I am having with my Western Digital USB drive.

It's Maxtor drive.

Edit:

The problem I have was that the system detected that drive was installed/connected to the computer. However, I could not view the files on the drive whenever I opened "my computer" or Windows Explorer the usb drive would not appear even though it was plugged-in.

Found this Backup and Restore Master Boot Record (MBR) of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) I will give it a try if I find my usb drive.

Failing that you could try creating a usb MBR.

or

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hard...usb-drive.html

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

I believe I already tried the TestDisk program. When trying to rebuild the MBR it gave an error about not being able to read a sector or something...

[Nightwalker83]

It's Maxtor drive.

I have an 180GB+ desktop drive that I use for backup, from tomorrow will be three years since I got it, has not malfunctioned in that time.

From experience and other people who have the smaller (pocket) usb drives they are constantly failing. I had mine for about 6 months before I could no longer access it.

[vbcode1980]

I have an 180GB+ desktop drive that I use for backup, from tomorrow will be three years since I got it, has not malfunctioned in that time.

From experience and other people who have the smaller (pocket) usb drives they are constantly failing. I had mine for about 6 months before I could no longer access it.

This is a 500 GB desktop drive. Never had any problems with it, had it for 2 years now.

I'll try out your suggestions when I get home.