#50 Encrypted Flash Drive Stopped Working

[Cman1468]

Just today, my encrypted flash drive that I use quite often stopped working. Veracrypt doesn't show the device, nor does Disk Management and the Linux equivalent. I've tried my desktop (win7), my laptop (Ubuntu14.04), and my moms desktop (also win7). On the windows devices, it says it's downloading some drivers, but it doesn't come up as the ones that used to show up (it's like USB-STICK, or something). After that, I get nothing. What could be the issue with it? Is this something that's fixable? Can I attempt to recover any of the data from it (I only really care about the data, not too much about the hardware)? Or am I screwed?

[Cman1468]

Here's a screen shot of the drive. http://i.imgur.com/QqdyFVD.png Broken one on the right, working one on the left (bought both at the same time in a 2 pack, so identical devices). Why are they different? They used to say the same thing (even after encryption). I tried to update the driver, and that did nothing. Could this be the issue with it? If so, how can I fix it?

[Anonymous]

that I use quite often

There you are.... that's the reason for the fact that your drive

stopped working

Those cheapo USB flash controllers are an industrywide pain in the ass. It's either that controller or the flash memory chips itself having reached the end of their natural life (those things can only take so many read/write cycles).

The way you write it shows that

• your computer and the computer of your mom are working fine because they can see the other flash drive just fine, so it is not a USB host issue
• you have tested the drive in multiple machines and under more than one OS... windows can be edgy but if you cannot get to the device under linux it's done
• encryption does not seem to be causal, the way I read it you encrypted that thing a while ago, kept using it for a while and then the thing just crapped out on you

Time to get the backup.