Methods for restoring a Kingston flash drive: from simple to complex. Flash drive recovery: controller detection, flash drive firmware Kingston datatraveler 2.0 flash drive data recovery utility

But before you do anything, think about how valuable the information is stored on it? If the data is important, then it would be better to try to recover it before and after the firmware. To do this, you can use the Recuva program, or another similar one. And if extremely important data is stored there, which is very important and valuable, then in this case it is better not to do anything on your own. Take the flash drive to a specialized service center, where specialists can restore it without such a high risk to your data.

Restoring a flash drive using the example of Kingston DT

In our example, we will use a Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB flash drive. It worked fine for a while, but then strange things started to happen. When trying to delete or write data, the whole process is so slow that it can be said to not move at all. After reconnecting, the system displayed a message asking you to format the disk.

Considering the low importance of the data on the device, it was decided to format it. The formatting process took a long time and was not completed. There was only a message that said unsuccessful attempt perform formatting.

We connect our faulty flash drive and run the utility. At the top of the program window there will be a button to receive data, click on it. After this we will see all the information on the device. Pay attention to the values ​​next to VID and PID.

Reflash a faulty Kingston flash drive

For now we disconnect the drive. We launch the utility for flashing (our program is called MPTool.exe). If the application comes with a file called readme.txt, then look into it. Most likely there are instructions there. Please note that there are different utilities and everything may look slightly different for you. But in general, the interface and operating principle should be similar.

After starting the flashing program, you need to connect the flash drive again. After this, the utility will detect the device. Now all that remains is to click on the start button for rewriting the firmware. Let's wait a little until the process is completed.

Upon completion, the program will let you know that everything was successful.

Then a system message will immediately appear that before working with the device it needs to be formatted. But it’s better to immediately disconnect the flash drive and then connect it again. And only after that begin the formatting process. After completing all these procedures, you can check the operation of the flash drive. Everything works as quickly as it should and files are adequately copied and read. Do not forget that some steps may be slightly different from those described in this article. But in general the whole process looks exactly like this.

That's all. Take care of your flash drives and remove the device safely.

This might come in handy.

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 they break Kingston flash drives dt100g2 and datatraveler.

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 the flash drive has important information, then before performing any restoration procedures you need to try to “pull it out”. Use to extract a recovery program like Recuva or so as not to lose the necessary files.

Searching for a program to flash the controller

To restore you will need special utility for Kingston flash drive. In order not to make a mistake and download the right program, you need to know the drive controller model.

Method 1

Look necessary information You can go to flashboot.ru in the iFlash section, using the VID and PID values ​​of the flash drive as a filter.

1. Connect the drive to your computer.
2. Open Device Manager ( right click on the “Computer” icon - Management).
3. Find "USB Mass Storage Device".
4. Right click and open properties.
   
5. 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 desired program without a controller model - just type in the search engine the query “utility recovery kingston" 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 fix the problem, then the reason incorrect operation It is worth looking among hardware faults.

Hi all! It’s not for nothing that I decided to write an article about how to flash a flash drive – I have experience. Yesterday I restored my flash drive Kingston DT Elite 3.0 16GB. Everything worked out, and I thought, why not write similar instructions, and tell me what and how to do, in order to give the flash drive a new life :).

Nowadays, probably every house has a flash drive and very rarely just one. It’s convenient to transfer information onto them, they’re beautiful, and besides, they’re not expensive these days. But very often USB drives fail. If we talk about why this happens, then we ourselves are in first place. Do you always do a safe removal of your flash drive? So I rarely do. There may, of course, be other reasons why flash drives simply “die”.

One point needs to be clarified here. It happens that the flash drive really “dies”. In this case, it is impossible to restore it. At least at home. But if the USB drive shows at least some signs of life when connected to the computer, then you can try to restore its operation using the controller firmware.

What signs of life might there be for a USB drive?

• When you connect the flash drive to the computer, the computer signals that the device is connected - that’s good.
• At Windows connection ask to format the removable drive (but during the formatting process there are problems and errors such as “Windows cannot complete formatting”).
• The flash drive is detected and visible in Explorer, but when you try to open it, the message “Insert disk...” appears.
• Errors occur when copying information.
• Very slow speed of writing/reading information.

If there is valuable information on the flash drive, then you can try to restore it before and after the firmware. This can be done using different programs. I advice Recuva, here is the article but there are many other good programs.

If the information is very valuable, then it is better not to do anything yourself so as not to make it worse. Contact special service centers who are engaged in information recovery.

Let's now look at the entire process of flashing the controller on real example, using my Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB flash drive as an example. My flash drive broke down. It’s interesting. I needed to upload files to it and delete those that had already been recorded. I connected it to the computer and started deleting the folder. But the folder was deleted very slowly. I unplugged and plugged this flash drive back in, a message appeared that the disk needs to be formatted “Before using the disk...”.

Since it was not on the flash drive Important files, I didn’t hesitate to start formatting.

But the process itself lasted a very long time and never ended, I forcibly stopped it. The message “Windows could not complete formatting” may also appear.

But still, I formatted it, the tenth time, and only in FAT 32. After which the USB drive was detected normally and I was even happy. But it was not there. I started copying files onto it, and the recording speed was approximately 100 kb/s. I decided to flash it, which I did.

Determining the VID and PID of the USB controller

First we need determine VID and PID. This is data about the model and manufacturer of the controller, which is located in our drive. Using this data, we will look for a utility for the firmware. There are many different programs, with which you can determine the VID and PID. I recommend the utility Flash Drive Information Extractor You can download it from the link.

Connect the flash drive to your computer and run the Flash Drive Information Extractor program (extract the program folder from the archive and run the GetFlashInfo.exe file).

Click the button at the top of the program “Get data about the flash drive”.

The program will give us the result. We look at the information that is located opposite VID and PID.

You can copy these numbers, or leave the utility window open, we will now need the received data.

We are looking for a utility for flashing a flash drive

Based on the VID and PID data, we need to find the utility with which we will flash the controller. There is a good website flashboot.ru, which contains a database of flash drives and utilities for their recovery.

In the search results we look for a flash drive similar to ours. The list may include devices from other manufacturers. They just have the same controller, it was identified by VID and PID. You may have noticed that I have a 16 GB flash drive, but in the list I highlighted 32 GB. I think there's nothing wrong with that (just where the name of the utility is not indicated on 16 GB). You try to choose a more similar device from the list.

We are interested in the field UTILS(utility), copy its name in full.

Unfortunately, the utility that I need was not found on this site. Perhaps you will have better luck and you will see something in the search results. Download the utility to your computer.

But I didn’t stop there and started Googling. I just asked “SK6221 MPTool 2013-04-25” and found this utility on some other site. If you have the same flash drive, then this utility is . True, the name of the archive is different, but this did not stop me from successfully curing my flash drive.

USB drive recovery process

Disconnect the flash drive. Extract the folder with the utility from the archive and run .exe file. In my case it is the MPTool.exe file. Also look text file readme.txt. Perhaps there are instructions there, or a link to a site with instructions. If the instructions are in English, then translate it using the same translate.google.ru.

I'll tell you how I did it (you just may have a different utility and everything may be different there, but it should not be very different).

The utility is running. We connect the flash drive. I have information about the flash drive in two lines in the program. Press the button Start. In my case, the yellow strip signaled the firmware process. We wait.

When the process ended, I saw a green color, everything seemed to be fine.

Should appear immediately Windows message prompting you to format the disk. But most likely nothing will work out the first time. Unplug the flash drive and plug it back in. The driver should be installed and the removable drive should appear in Explorer. You can format it.

I checked the recording speed, everything is as it should be for USB 3.0, everything is fine!

You need to be prepared for the fact that the actions may differ from those I described. And not everything can work out the first time. The main thing is not to give up and everything will work out!

Almost every person who is in one way or another connected with computers has at least once encountered the problem of a flash card malfunction. It can be expressed in different ways: Windows does not see the flash drive, refuses to format it, failures occur when copying and moving files, or the wrong amount of memory is determined.

You can restore a Kingston drive using special software

Most simple cases can be cured by simply formatting the flash drive using operating room tools Windows systems. To do this, you need to insert it into the computer and after identifying it, go to My Computer, right-click on the drive and select Format. After successful formatting, the system will notify you about this.

If after formatting the problems remain or it ends in failure, for example, operating system gives an error - “Windows cannot complete formatting”, then you need to try another method. For example, Kingston provides special tools for its drives to restore their functionality. The Kingston flash drive recovery program can be easily downloaded from the company’s official website, in the support section. After downloading, you need to unpack it and run it. In the window that opens, select the desired drive and click Format. After formatting in a special way, the flash drive should work.

Another method worth trying is to use a low-level formatting program. Such a program, for example, D-Soft Flash Doctor or similar. It is not targeted at any specific drive or manufacturer, so it can format any flash drives and memory cards.

If all these actions lead to nothing, then there are serious problems with the controller.

Restoring a Kingston flash drive using firmware

You can restore a flash drive by using a special utility for low-level firmware of its controller. But there are situations when the device really cannot be helped by anything other than physical intervention, such as soldering or connecting to special devices.

If the drive has the following viability criteria, then there is still a chance to restore it:

• Windows detects the flash drive when it is plugged into the computer port;
• after inserting the flash drive into the connector, the system automatically asks for formatting;
• the drive identifies itself, is visible in the system, and when accessed, the message “Insert disk...” is displayed;
• systematic errors when copying or moving files to a flash drive;
• Slow speed of the drive as a whole.

Before you restore the Kingston flash drive, you need to find out the controller identifiers. You need two of them, the first - VID, contains the manufacturer's identifier. The second is PID, which stands for product code. You need to determine them with a utility like Flash Drive Information Extractor. Once you receive them, you can write them down somewhere.

Finding a recovery utility

Directly to carry out the firmware, you will need a special utility that can flash the flash drive controller at a low level. Such special programs usually only available from equipment manufacturers. With their help, they carry out initial firmware, repair and testing of devices. Sometimes these utilities end up online by accident, and sometimes manufacturers share them. But the whole problem is that each manufacturer has its own utility, which can be different depending on the controller model and the amount of memory.

For search the desired program It is for the model being reanimated that SID and PID will be needed. There is one service on the network called Flashboot.ru, which stores thousands of utilities for firmware various devices and gadgets.

You must enter the received numbers into the SID and PID fields and click search. The service can display several program options at once. You need to choose the one whose description indicates the corresponding volume of the drive being restored. The list may also contain utilities for other manufacturers. You need to remember that you need to restore the Kingston flash drive, so select the most suitable configuration from the list. The Utils field describes the name of the program. After finding the desired line in the list, you need to copy the name of the utility and go to the files section of the flashboot.ru website. You need to paste the copied name into the search bar and click find.

After finding the utility, you need to download it to your computer and unpack it. Sometimes a situation arises when the program you are looking for is not in the files. Then you can simply search for her by name in any search engine.

Using a program to recover a Kingston flash drive

Using the utility is the simplest part of the operation. You just need to insert the USB flash drive, launch the program and click on the Start button in the program. Of course, the design, localization and operating methods of different utilities for different flash drives may be different, but the essence is the same, and it is intuitive. After successful flashing of the controller, the operating system may immediately offer to format the revived flash drive.

If all else fails

If nothing helped or the utility was never found, this means that, most likely, one of the modules of the drive’s electrical circuit is physically damaged. In such a situation, only a service center can help. Specialists will be able to physically connect to the contacts of the flash drive and analyze or scan for damage. If the flash drive can be repaired, then it will be repaired, but if not, then nothing will help it.