Rally2 USB Key not recognised

nina jefferson

Hi,
I would really welcome some help with this.
I have been using a OCZ Rally2 8GB usb stick for the past number of years. I was working on documents saved on it all day Wed. Later that night, my laptop didn't recognise it when I plugged it into the port. I tried it on other computers, and still nothing. I left it in to a repair shop yesterday and they took it apart to see if there was something broken inside. Nothing amiss there. Has anyone on here experienced anything like this before? Could it be contaminated? I got a Beware Malware announcement in work on Wed, could this be the problem?? Is there anyway to retrieve the data contained on the USB. I don't care about saving the USB, but my PHD is on the stick and I'm sick at the thought that I might not be able to retrieve the data...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

mordeith

Does Windows recognize that a device is plugged in? Is there an indicator led to show if the USB is receiving power?

nina jefferson

Thanks for the reply, Mordeith,
No, Windows doesn't recognise the device. it doesn't show up at all. There is a flashing indicator led though, so it is receiving power. Think before this happened the LED was constant rather than flashing.

Capt'n Midnight

try gentle pressure on it in case loose connection - and backup files off it while you can

did you email the file ?

ED E

nina jefferson wrote: »

but my PHD is on the stick and I'm sick at the thought that I might not be able to retrieve the data...

What might work is a reflow. Unless you've smashed it the chances are one of the SMDs or the solder that connects them has failed. Heating it correctly for a short period can bring it back into operation for another while (though it will eventually fail again).

The problem is, reflowing NAND storage can also cause all the data to be lost.

Thus the solution I would propose is to have a specialist to a transplant of the storage chip onto another identical board. Expect this to be somewhere from 400 to 1000 euros.

mordeith

It's always worth trying in a machine with a different OS. Highly unlikely to be the issue but might as well give it a shot.

nina jefferson

Thanks for all your comments folks,
I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. A guy in the repair shop has suggested transplanting the chip onto an identical board - problem is, that OCZ Rally 8gb stick is no longer available. So that could only work if I was able to source one 2nd hand, that still worked. The chances of that are slim to none... I think. Have spent the morning going through old sticks and am able to gather various earlier drafts of chapters.... So I think that rather than spending more time stressing about it - I think I'll consign it to a steep learning curve to back-up everything and let if go to God!
Thank-you all for your help with this.

Capt'n Midnight

check the settings in your word processor

microsoft word defaults to no backups and fast save , so no backup

others save backups on your c: drive

and you didn't email it ?

every milestone save with a slightly different version number

use mendeley / dropbox

bonzodog2

Has the file only ever been stored on the failed USB stick? If it has been on the hard disk, you may be able to find it with Volume Shadow Copy. Maybe not the latest version....
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-recover-files-and-folders-using-shadow-volume-copies/

johndoe99

Plug it in, leave for a minute and then open Disk Management and see if the key appears, if it does try:

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