Flash cards and memory cards are becoming more common. They are universal, convenient, compact, reliable, they can store a decent amount of information. But, like any other equipment, various failures can occur on these drives, resulting in problems: the flash drive does not open, all folders and documents disappear from it, the files are not copied and opened. But there is no need to immediately run for a new copy in the store. Decide to start with whether you need information that is written on it. If so, you can try to recover the information from the USB flash drive. You can, of course, use the services of specialists, but this is not an expensive pleasure (you can buy from 2 to 9 new devices for this money). For the sake of economy, you can try to do it yourself using various kinds of programs. But be careful when choosing: some of them in the process of recovery delete the data, and if the results of the program will be unsatisfactory, repeated attempts to restore information from the USB flash drive with the help of other utilities are useless - there is nothing to restore. So if the information is unique and very important - go to a certified specialist.
If you decide that the information is important, do not write anything on this device: there may be a situation where new files "fall" over the disappeared, and then the chances of recovering the lost are almost equal to zero. Before To begin the process of resuscitation, it is advisable to check the device for the presence of a virus. If all the files and folders suddenly disappeared from the flash card, it is possible that this is the result of the virus. In this case, after the "treatment" all information should appear. If parasitic programs are not found, you can start resuscitation. First, try to copy the information from the flash drive using special sector-specific copy programs from companies Paragon, Acronis, etc. If you can do this, you can safely work with the copies created and try to restore the information from the USB flash drive without worrying about its safety.
If the USB flash drive is recognized as an unknown device, a disk with zero capacity or a device in RAW format, when access to it is not possible (the message "insert disk", "no disk access" or "write protected disk", etc. pops up) Grief in most cases can help. Most likely, for some reason, the controller chip, which is responsible for the process of data exchange between the medium and the computer, is blocked. In this case, first check the performance of the USB flash drive on other PCs - maybe it crashes only on your PC. Then see if the warranty period is still valid. If the device is still under warranty, take it to a service center. Perhaps, there you will recover everything. If all these actions lead to nothing, you will need to format the flash drive, and then, using various utilities, try to restore deleted data. The method is extreme, but nothing else has been invented yet.
Sometimes the use of standard Windows programs can help. Go to the "Control Panel" menu, select "Administration" then go to "Computer Management" and then to "Disk Management". Then find the scan "Scandisk" and run it. If you are unlucky and the results are zero, then the utility EasyRecovery, R-Studio, GetDataBack, RecoverMyFiles can help restore the information from the flash drive. Before using one of them, go to the forums. It's important not only the program and the name of the flash drive, but also the type of controller and some more technical data. To describe each case is a long one, there are too many options. It is necessary, having learned the exact information about the type of device, specifically to understand how to recover data from the disk in your case. And here can only help reviews and a description of real cases. If the information you value - do not rush and carefully read everything. Good luck!