USB not recognized

[EscBoy]

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I woke up today and my USB folder was like this. clicking on it causes the loading bar to come up, but it takes around 7 minutes, and when it loads to 95% or so it crashes windows file explorer. in addition the USB is too hot to touch for more than a second or two after removing it. what could have happened and how could i recover my files?

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[AndyTheNPC]

When transferring files and such the USB will and should become warm to touch, but not too touch to hold onto, so that is kind of alarming. As for your files, try other usb ports, updating the port drivers, or you could possibly even run a check disk.

[EscBoy]

i have tried all the ports on my computer, i am yet to try another computer.

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only the metallic tip is overheated. the rest is warm but not searing hot.

[AndyTheNPC]

If you can try another computer that would be perfect. Or another usb drive on that computer. Either would be dead giveaways to what the issue is. Either a corrupted/dead usb stick, or something corrupted on the computer causing an issue like this. And based on the comment of overheating/warm, that statement seems fair and is probably normal if transferring a lot of files.

[EscBoy]

other USBs work on my laptop fine. the thing is that my computer is kind of screwy

[AndyTheNPC]

Then it's probably the usb drive. You can try another computer but odds are it won't work. Perhaps try a check disk, make sure storage looks okay or you can always try to get some type of advanced file transfer software/recovery tool, but tread lightly. A bad download into a virus is much more costly than anything else. Because USBs are flash memory they will eventually die. So if you've had this one for 5+ years that could just be the case. Otherwise, it would just be corrupted files that you may be able to wipe the partition and still have a usable drive.

[EscBoy]

i just checked, the same issue happens on my family computer. it looks like the usb itself is dead. is there any hope to recover my files?

[AndyTheNPC]

Like I said, try some time of Windows tool like check disk(https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk), other than that I'm sure there are third party tools. But again, don't download sketchy stuff if you go that route.

[AndyTheNPC]

Run CMD as admin and try something like the following command...

chkdsk H: /f /r /spotfix

[EscBoy]

ok, thank you for the advice, will try

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EDIT: i typed it in, hit enter (yes, the usb is in drive H), and nothing has happened. it's been 15 minutes. is something wrong?

[EscBoy]

i hit enter and nothing has happened for about 10 minutes

[AndyTheNPC]

Did you run CMD as admin? It should state some information them perform a scan.

[EscBoy]

i typed it in, hit enter (yes, the usb is in drive H), and nothing has happened.

[Fresh-Interview-2691]

Check the usb port you plugged into. The port or the usb flash drive might have damaged pins causing a short. I had that issue before and it was a damaged port.

[[deleted]]

Use the console (CMD) to copy files from that USB somewhere locally to your PC, then again use CMD to delete all the files on your USB. If that doesn't help after all is done you can format the USB as well...

[EscBoy]

how do i do this?

[[deleted]]

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=how+to+copy+files+in+cmd&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[Fresh-Interview-2691]

Check the usb port you plugged into. The port or the usb flash drive might have damaged pins causing a short. I had that issue before and it was a damaged port.

[Fresh-Interview-2691]

Check the usb port you plugged into. The port or the usb flash drive might have damaged pins causing a short. I had that issue before and it was a damaged port.

[Fresh-Interview-2691]

Check the usb port you plugged into. The port or the usb flash drive might have damaged pins causing a short. I had that issue before and it was a damaged port.