Firmware for kingston memory card. Recovering SD cards and USB flash drives in Windows

Step by step instructions By restoration USB flash drives in which I will try accessible language answer the question How to recover a flash drive independently and without much effort.

Sometimes you help a person, and then he will tell everyone that you are so good and there are already crowds of people thirsty for help. This is roughly what happened when I restored several flash drives colleagues.

Now the people bear not only their own flash drives, but also flash drives your friends, acquaintances and relatives. Well, at least someone else would bring a bottle of beer or a cookie.

It’s not difficult for me to help, but when I suggest you learn how to do all this yourself, you refuse. Next time I’ll just sew them off. If you don't want to study, pass by.

I’ll finish with the lyrics here and move directly to the topic of the post..

If your flash drive stopped be determined like a disk, doesn't want to formatted, does not allow you to write down information or something else happened to it, BUT it has no mechanical damage, then you know that all is not lost. Most likely a glitch controller and you will have to tinker with it a little. This procedure takes approximately 5 minutes.

Let me say right away that there is no universal programs For recovery all varieties flash drives. You will need to find exactly the one that can work with your controller. flash drives.

First we need to define VID And PID non-working flash drives.

Determine VID and PID for flash drive recovery

Stick it in flash drive into your computer and run device Manager. Start – Execute - mmc devmgmt.msc.

Then go to the section Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

We find ours in the list flash drive. Usually, everything flash drives have a name USB storage device.

Press the right button on the device and open Properties.

Go to the tab Intelligence.

In the drop-down list, select the item Instance code devices or Equipment IDs.

In this window we see PID And VID.

Finding a flash drive recovery program

We go to the website FlashBoot.ru and enter the received VID And PID.

Click on the button Search.

In the results we look for your manufacturer and model of the flash drive. I have this Kingston DataTraveler 2.0.

The right column will contain the name of the program we need or a link to it.

All. Now search in Google program by name or download from the link provided. Launch and follow the instructions. Usually, in such programs for recovery There’s only one button, so you shouldn’t have any questions.

That's all!

If you have any questions, ask in the comments.

You probably won't find many users personal computer without a flash drive in your pocket, because this device is very convenient, portable, you can quickly write files and today it is inexpensive. But flash drives tend to break, like everyone else electronic devices. Often a flash drive breaks after a month and of course this situation is not very pleasant. Also characteristic flash drive recovery, if you read this article carefully.

The main reasons for flash drive failure are: safe removal it from the usb port, if you haven’t waited for the files to be completely copied from hard drive computer to a flash drive or vice versa, viruses and so on. There may be many reasons, but I think this is not important for you, the most main question This flash drive recovery.

Recovering a flash drive by formatting it

If it is possible to format a flash drive and the system does not refuse this action, then it is better to start with formatting. In the operating room Windows system There is a built-in formatting utility. There are also separate utilities for formatting flash drives, for example, .

If this does not help, then you can use the utility to low level formatting. Just don’t get confused when choosing a flash drive hard drive, otherwise you can format it. So be careful!!!

If formatting a flash drive fails, do not despair. Perhaps the controller has failed and can be reflashed.

Determining, searching and flashing the flash drive controller

In order to flash the controller you need to find out its model and manufacturer, or rather VID, PID And VendorID. You won’t know it just like that, so you’ll need a utility; if this utility didn’t help, you can also use the utilities USBdeview or ChipGenius. But it seems, no matter how long I haven’t used it, the utility CheckUDisk It works flawlessly and provides the necessary information.

Even if the flash drive is not detected as a drive, but operating system sees it as a device, then the utility determines VID And PID. Therefore, we insert the flash drive into the USB port and run the utility CheckUDisk. We only need VID, PID And VendorID, in my case VID=0951 And PID = 1613, A Vendor ID: Kingston.

Next, you need to look for a utility for flashing the flash drive controller using these attributes. To do this, follow the link and enter the model in the required fields of the site and click on the button Find. After which a list of flash drive models with utilities for flashing the controller firmware will be displayed. And here we need to find suitable option. I advise you not to close it, and if you close it, run the CheckUDisk utility, so that when searching you can look at other attributes of the flash drive to make your search easier.

In my case, there are quite a few options on the list, so there is a lot of choice. Here you need to choose a more suitable one. We work in two windows, where there is one site flashboot.ru, and the other utility window CheckUDisk. Some utilities for firmware have the same name as different models flash drives, they are just compatible.

Of course, it may not work out right away, but don’t get upset right away. We return to the list of utilities for flash drive controller firmware and we are looking for a similar one. Often there is more than one utility in the database that is suitable specifically for our flash drive. For example, I didn’t succeed the first time either, I had to experiment. Flash drive recovery as I wrote, it requires perseverance and the ability to experiment.

I hope this information will help you and your flash drive will be filled with files again. And you had a blog about.

Good day!

If your flash drive begins to constantly fail: it is not formatted, when connected to a computer it often freezes, when copying files to it errors occur, but it has not been subjected to mechanical stress - there is a CHANCE for restoring its functionality!

It would be nice if, when connecting a flash drive, it was at least somehow detected, for example: a connection sound is made, the flash drive is displayed in "my computer", the LED on it blinks, etc. If the computer does not see the flash drive at all, then first I recommend reading this article:

In general, give universal instructions, how and with what program what to do to restore a flash drive - impossible! But in this short article I will try to give an algorithm that will help even novice users to understand the problem and solve it.

Restoring a flash drive // step by step

Controller Model Definition

By the will of fate, it turned out that I had one flash drive, which Windows refused to format - an error occurred "Windows can't complete formatting". The flash drive, according to the owner, did not fall, no water got on it, and in general, it was handled quite carefully...

All that was clear after examining it was that it was 16 GB, and its brand was SmartBuy. When connected to a PC, the LED lit up, the flash drive was detected and visible in the explorer, but it did not work properly.

SmartBuy 16 GB - "experimental" non-working flash drive

To restore normal work flash drives, you need to reflash the controller chip. This is done with special utilities, and for each type of controller there is its own utility! If the utility is chosen incorrectly, then with a high degree of probability you will completely ruin the flash drive... I’ll say even more, for one model range flash drives - there may be different controllers!

Each device have their own unique identification numbers - VID and PID , and the flash drive is no exception. To select the correct flashing utility, you need to determine these identification numbers (and the controller model based on them).

One of the most simple ways find out the VID, PID, and model of the flash drive controller - use this special utilities. One of the best of its kind is .

Flash Drive Information Extractor

Small free utility, to get maximum information about the flash drive. No need to install it!

The program will determine the model of the USB flash drive, model and type of memory (all modern flash drives are supported, at least from normal manufacturers )...

The program will work even in cases where it is not defined file system flash drives when the computer freezes when connecting the media.

Information received:

controller model;

possible options for memory chips installed in the flash drive;

type of installed memory;

maximum current consumption declared by the manufacturer;

USB version;

the full physical volume of the disk;

disk space reported by the operating system;

VID and PID;

Query Vendor ID;

Query Product ID;

Query Product Revision;

Controller Revision;

Flash ID (not for all configurations);

Chip F/W (for some controllers), etc.

Important! The program only works with USB flash drives. MP3 players, phones and other devices - it does not recognize. It is advisable, before starting the program, to leave only one flash drive connected to the USB ports, from which you want to get maximum information.

Working with Flash Drive Information Extractor

We disconnect everything that is connected from the USB ports (at least all drives: players, external hard drives etc.).
Insert the flash drive to be repaired into the USB port;
We launch the program;
Press the button "Get information about the flash drive" ;
After some time, we get maximum information about the drive (see screenshot below).
If the program freezes- don’t do anything and don’t close it. Remove the flash drive from the USB port after a couple of minutes, the program should “hang” and you will see all the information that it managed to pull out from the flash drive...

Now we know the information about the flash drive and we can start searching for the utility.

Information about the flash drive:

VID: 13FE; PID: 4200;

Controller model: Phison 2251-68 (second line in the screenshot above);

SmartBuy 16 GB.

Addition

You can reliably determine the controller model if you disassemble the flash drive. True, not every flash drive case is collapsible, and not every one can be put back together later.

Usually, to open the casing of a flash drive, you need a knife and a screwdriver. When opening the case, be careful not to damage the inside of the flash drive. An example of a controller is shown in the screenshot below.

Disassembled flash drive. Controller model: VLI VL751-Q8

Addendum 2

You can find out the VID and PID of a flash drive using the device manager (in this case, you don’t need to install anything). True, in this case we will not recognize the controller model, and there is some risk that VID and PID it will not be possible to accurately identify the controller. And yet, suddenly the above utility freezes and does not provide any information at all...

How to find a utility for flashing a flash drive

Important! After flashing the flash drive, all information on it will be deleted!

1) Knowing the controller model, you can simply use search engines (Google, Yandex for example) and find what you need.

The operating algorithm is as follows:

We go to the site:
Enter yours VID and PID into the search bar and look for it;
You'll likely find dozens of lines in the results list. Among them you need to find a line that matches: controller model, your manufacturer, VID and PID, flash drive size .
Further in the last column you will see the recommended utility. By the way, please note that the version of the utility also matters! All that remains is to download the necessary utility and apply it.

After you find and download the required utility, run it and format the media - in my case, you only had to press one button - Restore .

Formatter SiliconPower v3.13.0.0 // Format and Restore. Utility end user, designed for both low-level and high-level (FAT32) formatting of flash drives on Phison controllers of the PS2251-XX line.

After a couple of minutes of blinking the LED on the flash drive, it began to work normally, messages from Windows about the impossibility of formatting no longer appeared. Result: the flash drive was restored (became 100% working) and given to the owner.

That's all, actually. I would be grateful for any additions on the topic. Good Luck!

Kingston flash drives are very popular due to the fact that they are quite inexpensive and reliable. This is not to say that they are cheaper than others, but their cost can still be called low. But, since absolutely everything breaks in our world, it is not at all surprising that Kingston removable media can also fail.

This happens quite simply - you insert a flash drive into the computer, but it “does not want” to read data from it. The drive can be detected, but everything will look as if there is no data on it. Or simply not all data may be determined. In general, situations can be very different. In any case, we'll look at a few effective ways restoring the functionality of a Kingston drive.

Kingston has its own flash drive recovery tools. There is also universal method recovery of removable media, which is relevant for devices from any company. We will analyze all the most effective methods.

Method 1: MediaRECOVER

This is one of two proprietary programs from Kingston. To use it, you need to do the following:

The second option looks more " humane"for a flash drive. It just involves restoring the flash drive. In any case, if using MediaRECOVER does not help, move on to the next method.

Method 2: Kingston Format Utility

This is another one proprietary program Kingston. It is suitable for all flash drives of this brand, starting with the DTX 30 series and ending with USB devices Datatraveler HyperX. This utility also formats the flash drive without a chance to save any information. To use Kingston Format Utility, do the following:

Method 3: HDD Low Level Format Tool

Judging by user reviews, this program copes well with damaged Kingston flash drives. works at a low level, so she is quite successful in her business. And this applies not only to removable media from Kingston. But, again, the utility formats the flash drive and restores its functionality, but not the data from it. To use this program, you need to do very little, namely:

Method 4: Super Stick Recovery Tool

Another very simple program, designed for restoring Kingmax flash drives, but is also suitable for Kingston (although for many this will seem quite unexpected). So, to use Super Stick Recovery Tool, do the following:

program, insert the USB flash drive and run the executable file.
If everything is fine and the program can work with your flash drive, information about it will appear in the main window. Click on the button Update" to start formatting. After that, just wait until the process finishes and try to work with the flash drive again.

Method 5: Search for other recovery utilities

Not for all models Kingston flash drives The programs listed in methods 1-4 are suitable. In fact, there are a lot of similar programs. In addition, there is a single database with information about programs intended for recovery. It is located on the site's iFlash service. The process for using this repository is as follows:

This method is suitable for all flash drives.

Method 6: Standard Windows Tools

If all the above methods did not help, you can always use standard means Windows formatting.

You can also use standard Windows tool to format a flash drive. Try different combinations of the order of actions - first format, then check and correct errors, and then vice versa. It is quite possible that something will help and the flash drive will become operational again. To format removable media, again right-click on the selected drive in " Computer" In the drop-down menu, click " Format…" Then, in the next window, just click on the button “ Begin».

It is worth saying that all the methods described above, except for checking the disk with a standard Windows tool, assume complete and irretrievable loss of data from the media. Therefore, before performing all these methods, use one of the data recovery utilities from damaged storage media.

IN lately Flash drives have firmly won the championship among storage media. They are compact, comfortable, nimble and roomy. For a long time, no one remembers disks and other bulky media. Nowadays, everyone has a flash drive, and not just one. We trust this little storage unit with our valuable data, documents, photos and videos. But many people do not treat such a device with sufficient care. For example, not many people perform safe removal of flash drives. But this has a very detrimental effect on his work.

One day it may happen that, having inserted a flash drive with important documents into your computer, you will simply not be able to read the data from it. Of course, it may not necessarily be the user’s fault that the flash drive no longer works. There are still a huge number of factors that can disable it. But I have good news - if the flash drive is broken and it is impossible to copy from it important information, then this is not a reason to panic. Everything can be fixed by flashing the device controller and after that it will be a relief to get your lost data back. This is exactly what we will talk about today.

It is worth noting that you can restore a flash drive at home only if it shows at least some signs of life. In some cases, the device may permanently fail, beyond repair. But fortunately this happens so rarely that you may not encounter this.

You can determine the viability of a flash drive by the following criteria:

after connecting the device, the computer signals that it has been detected;
the operating system may offer to format the flash drive (however, when you try to do this, an error appears);
The USB drive has been detected and we can see its directory, but if we try to open it, a message will appear asking us to insert the disk;
if you try to drop something onto a flash drive, or vice versa, load from it, various errors appear;
suspicious slow work devices, low speed writing and reading.

But before you do anything, think about how valuable 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 with a less high risk to your data.

Restoring a flash drive using the example of Kingston DT

In our example we will use Kingston flash drive DataTraveler Elite 3.0 16GB. 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 for a long time and was not completed. Only a message appeared indicating that the formatting attempt was unsuccessful.

After many attempts, I finally managed to do it. After successful completion of copying, the device will begin to be detected normally. But here’s the catch: data can be copied to a flash drive, but the speed is not higher than 100 kb/s. And this is an eternity and it is clear that nothing was recorded on it. After this, it was decided to reflash the drive controller.

Preparing for flashing

First of all, you should find out the VID and PID. These parameters determine the type and manufacturer of the controller. Using them in the future, we will determine the utility for the flashing procedure. You can find out VID and PID using any small program designed for this purpose. We will use Flash Drive Information Extractor.

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.

They will be useful to us, so either do not close this window, or copy them somewhere.

Flash drive flashing utility

Now we need to find a suitable utility that can reflash the controller type for our case. For this there is special resource flashboot.ru, where you can find data for many drives. Let's go to this site and top menu click on the iFlash link. Next there will be a page with fields for VID and PID. Enter our values and click on the “Search” button.

A search may return several at once. different types flash drives. We need to find one that has a similar name. There may be a slight difference in the volume of the device, but I think it’s not a big deal.

After being found suitable device, pay attention to the “UTILS” column. There will be the name of the utility we need for flashing. Copy it, then follow this link http://flashboot.ru/files/. Enter this name there and click on the search button.

Alas, in our case, this utility was not found on this site. But this does not mean that you should not try to find it there. In your case, success is quite possible. After you find the desired program, it must be downloaded to your computer. Well, in our case, we resorted to the help of the all-knowing Google. Thanks to his help, she was found on another site. You can download it.

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 with the app goes file with name 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.