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Offline fohat.digs

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USB flash drive question
« on: Wed, 14 August 2024, 09:45:38 »
I have a couple of USB flash drives (in the 16GB to 32GB size range) that do not seem to work any more, although they look good on the outside.

They report as "Unable to mount USB drive .... " and something like "likely corrupted file system .... "

My guess is that they cannot be trusted for future use, but I would like to find out what is on them if I could. Linux Mint will go no further than telling me that it is unable to mount them.

Is there anything to do with them except drop them in the waste basket? Would leaving them on a strong magnet for a few hours allow me to reformat them?

Thanks!

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"Starting in 2011, the deficits again started to shrink. During Obama’s term  the deficit was reduced by $900 Billion  before finally in 2015 the GOP managed to wrangle a “reconciliation” bill out of Obama where he again cut corporate taxes, as well as made permanent some of George W. Bush’s original tax cuts. This is the year everything reversed. Before this, under Clinton, Bush and Obama the deficit in almost every year was gradually decreasing. The balance we had of taxes and the economy was bringing the deficit down, the money coming in was slowly catching up with the money going out until 2015. Trump’s subsequent tax cut has continued the new trend even after the rest of Bush’s cuts have since expired. Obama had an average GDP of 2.3%, with 11.6 million jobs created and unemployment peaking at 10% in 2009, then falling to 4.3% in 2016. If we had continued on that downward deficit track, we would have again reached balance and another surplus in 2017-2018.
– Frank V Walton 2025-07-01

Offline Osidian

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Re: USB flash drive question
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 14 August 2024, 19:40:55 »
Hello!
I wouldn't recommend using a magnet on the USB flash drives. Flash memory is different from hard drives that have magnetic storage, it might cause further issues. There are some applications you can use that may help to recover data like TestDisk. Hope this helps!   
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Offline Leslieann

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Re: USB flash drive question
« Reply #2 on: Thu, 15 August 2024, 04:16:59 »
Magnets shouldn't effect flash memory at al.

I've had drives go bad like this, sometimes you can format and use them, just don't trust them for anything important, most times though they either won't format but even if they do, the drive usually fails again soon after. My fix at that point is to drill a hole through the chip and toss it. Flash drives aren't built well, the number of writes is usually pretty low and the electronics inside are often cut rate even from decent brand names, this is why they aren't recommended for backup unless you have several copies.
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Offline fohat.digs

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Re: USB flash drive question
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 15 August 2024, 07:56:19 »
Thanks guys. The answer is: the garbage can.
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"Starting in 2011, the deficits again started to shrink. During Obama’s term  the deficit was reduced by $900 Billion  before finally in 2015 the GOP managed to wrangle a “reconciliation” bill out of Obama where he again cut corporate taxes, as well as made permanent some of George W. Bush’s original tax cuts. This is the year everything reversed. Before this, under Clinton, Bush and Obama the deficit in almost every year was gradually decreasing. The balance we had of taxes and the economy was bringing the deficit down, the money coming in was slowly catching up with the money going out until 2015. Trump’s subsequent tax cut has continued the new trend even after the rest of Bush’s cuts have since expired. Obama had an average GDP of 2.3%, with 11.6 million jobs created and unemployment peaking at 10% in 2009, then falling to 4.3% in 2016. If we had continued on that downward deficit track, we would have again reached balance and another surplus in 2017-2018.
– Frank V Walton 2025-07-01
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