USB memory stick no longer recognised

I've been a bit ignorant and thought i could get away with removing USB memory sticks without going through the "safe to remove" procedure, and now when i put the USB in, it will appear as a removable device in My Computer.


but when i double click on it and try to open it, it will say "application not found"


any ideas for solution to fix this problem?


i've learnt my lesson now, and always click on the safe to remove device thing first before i take out the USB.


thanks in advance

I would say you have corrupted the drive I would get a new one and learn from your past experiences

Try reformatting it first.

when i try to reformat it, it says:

"There is no disk in drive F:

Insert a disk, and then try again."


is there definitely no way of saving this USB memory stick?

That would be my guess. These things are pretty unreliable, as you probably know.

mate, this happened to me but all i do is "Right Click the drive > Explore" and there we have it. i have access to my corrupted USB!
Try it

chrisalv14 said:

mate, this happened to me but all i do is "Right Click the drive > Explore" and there we have it. i have access to my corrupted USB!
Try it

Click to expand...

This problem doesnt sound like what is wrong here what brand of drive is it

I've always just removed them. I don't use the "Safely Remove" feature.

By default, Windows allows you to do this:

Before tossing the drive:

Since it mounts open up the Disk Management application and try deleting the existing partition (as it is most likely corrupt) and recreating/reformatting the device. I have resurrected and repartitioned several units this way in the past.

Also make sure that you check the Writing Cache properties as mentioned by Bodaggit23. With that set properly, you do not have to worry about data corruption when simply removing the device...unless you remove it in the midst of a file save/copy or what have you.

Give that a shot and let us know what happens.