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Topic: USB flash drive not detected in laptop

Hi!
I am new to Linux thus, I'm using VirualBox and running Ubuntu on a virtual machine, just started a week ago. My laptop has Windows 10 OS. To get familiar with Fedora, I used Fedora media writer to set up a Live Fedora workstation on a USB flash drive. It is a Transcend (Jet flash) 32GB USB flash drive. I did not transfer the files and folders in USB and just went ahead to use it, as the files and folders were not more than one GB. Later after installing Fedora Media writer, I started to write the image (*.iso) file. But before completing the setup, there was a warning that if I proceed, whatever data previously existed in the USB would be wiped. So, I stopped the process but then, I observed my flash drive is not visible in the laptop. I checked in 'Disk management' where it shows the USB drive but without a letter assigned. Even if I click 'Change driver letter and path', I'm getting an error stating the system cannot access the file. I used data recovery software Disk Drill and it was retrieving data deleted long back. Then, I tried installing VirtualBox extension and then tried to access USB via Ubuntu VM, even then, I am not able to access the USB. The problem is that some files in the USB are important for me and thus I have not yet decided to format the USB. Can this be solved with GParted? Exactly speaking if I can change the letter of the drive and able to access, I think I may have a chance.

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Re: USB flash drive not detected in laptop

First do not write anything to the USB drive as that will lessen your chances for data recovery.

If you are trying to recover files from a USB drive then a good option to investigate is PhotoRec which scans the disk surface looking for files it recognizes which include more than just images.  PhotoRec is included in the GParted Live image.