Washed-up Flash Drive (Literally)

[sunny16]

Has anyone ever run a USB flash drive thru the washers and dryer? I just found out I did. TWhen I plug it in it has power but the computer says "USB Devise Not Recognized". Any ideas on what to to? Lots of stuff was on there that I would like to keep.

[pgwilli]

No, but I've washed two of those really flat little cel phones so far...
They never did recover...

[starleen2]

Did that once too - washer and dryer - but it did recover. Have you tried the manufacturers website for a possible solution? sometimes a reinstall of drivers might help

[signs]

If you plugged it in right after it happened, it probably is dead.

If this happens to you the first thing to do is soak it in Alcohol, this will displace any remaining water and it evaporates faster.
then let the alcohol dry for at least 48 hours

Doesn’t hurt to blow dry it on low heat or cool setting on hair dryer after the 48 hours.

Unfortunately if you plugged it into the PC with ANY water inside it is probably fried.

As for the cell phones use the same process, I used to manage a large Cell phone repair center for one of the larger cell phone companies.

[ARKPAT]

Yep ! ! !


Good luck !




Pat

[bgordon]

My USB memory stick also landed in the washer the other day. I thought it would be dead, so I just tossed it aside and left it for a week. Then I tried it and, hey, it worked with all the files still accessible!!

I'm with the previous posters. Leave it for a few days, and try it again. If there was water in when you plugged it into the computer, it may be fried.

Also try "PC Inspector file recovery". It's a freeware file recovery program that works quite well to recover files when your partition table is damaged. (I suspect your partition table is damaged because it does not recognise the usb drive)

Good luck!

[MSG Hall]

Newegg.com has potable hard drives, that pug into the USB, no other power needed… 80 gig for $50.

They also have the small flash drives 8 gig for $30… I have my flash drive on a small key chain makes it easier to keep track of for me.

[Alphacarina]

I had several Sony memorysticks which spent the better part of a day under 35 feet of seawater when Katrina washed away the house . . . . and they are still working. I recovered them a week or two later and they dried for another month or two before I tried them in the camera . . . . and they still work

I think the number one 'tip' is what signs posted - If you plug them in before they are 100% dry (and that might take several days) then they are probably toast . . . . but if you let them dry completely before you plug them in then there's a good chance for recovery

Don

[sunny16]

Well, thanks for all the info. I should have posted my question here first. The first thing I did was try it in the computer to see if it was ok after I found it in the dryer. I guess it must have still been a bit wet cause no luck so far. I did find a back up disk I made last summer so all is not lost. I had a lot of AutoCAD drawings on it but am only missing about 40 out of 200 and I should be able to get most of those from who I sent copies to. I had to buy a new flash drive and I learned a hard lesson. It's good to know that I am not alone in this. Next time I will let it sit for a few days. Or better yet, don't throw it in the washer! (Check the pockets!!) Thanks agian for the info. You guys are great.

Sunny16