USB drive >directory name invalid> device not ready

euphoria1zz

Hi all.

Can someone help me fix my usb drive>

Its a philips 32GB (usb3.0)

When i insert it, a message pops up "D:\ The directory name is invalid"

Ive tried formatting but its unable to format. Ive changed the drive to E with same issue as above.

when i go to disk management, rifght click on it, choose new simple volume and run through the wizzard it then says device not ready. 

What else can i do? 

Thanks

km1500

Sounds as though it is faulty so probably time for a new one.

debitcardmayhem

Have you tried a different usb port

euphoria1zz

yes same issue with all ports.

fwor

As already said, it's probably failed in a way that makes it unreadable, but it's not completely certain that it's not a problem with your Windows installation.

If you want a completely independent view (i.e. independent of Windows), one thing you can do is download a "Live" version of one of the Linux distributions (e.g. Linux Mint), copy it onto another of your USB pendrives and boot your PC from that. This will run Linux on your PC without making any changes to its hard disk, and you can then use one of the Linux-based utilities (either the Disk Utility or GPARTED) to examine the drive and see if it is recoverable.

It may seem like a lot of work, but occasionally I have had problems with USB devices that can't be fixed in Windows but can from within Linux (and vice versa) so if the USB drive holds data that you really want back, it may be worth a try.

[An alternative is one of the rescue-specific utilities such as https://www.system-rescue.org/ though in reality most of these are just cut-down versions of a "Live" Linux package anyway, and will involve the same sequence of steps to set up.]

km1500

you could also try running

chkdsk d: /f

from a windows command prompt.


you could also try this utility

https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

or google "disk recovery software'


However 32gb sticks are so cheap it"s probably not worth much of an effort

Exo

Hi,

I once had a similar problem with a USB memory stick.
I formatted with SD Formatter and it has worked fine ever since.
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/sd-memory-card-formatter-for-windows-download/

Though designed for SD cards, it will format a USB memory sticks.
Maybe worth trying before binning the memory stick though it will not resolve a faulty stick issue.

Exo

Jumblebumble

Exo said:

Hi,

I once had a similar problem with a USB memory stick.
I formatted with SD Formatter and it has worked fine ever since.
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/sd-memory-card-formatter-for-windows-download/

Though designed for SD cards, it will format a USB memory sticks.
Maybe worth trying before binning the memory stick though it will not resolve a faulty stick issue.

Exo

A 32 Gb memory stick costs £5.99 in Currys ( or 6.99 for USB3)

I would suggest that it would be the height of stupidity to even consider risking a second episode  of Data loss by not throwing the faulty stick into the nearest dustbin and replacing it ( having exhausted all data recovery options)  but what do I know?
@Exo I had a faulty stick come my way last week
A program called DMDE got all the data back !